FRESH! 2 AUGUST 2006 - Mohan, Chinese border
We entered China finally after 16 days in Laos. Laos, as I recalled is fairly rural, yet with nice folks who won't impose on you at all. Its people are hardworking, even the children are not spared from contributing to the farming work. The kids are either herding the family cows or farming the fields. They are a largely friendly country - the children chasing you down with their hellos (and irritating the hell out of someone who's already heaving her way thru the mountains).
Now, first impression of China. As a Singaporean Chinese, its like I'm walking on a cultural tightline. I'm not Chinese enough to be recognised as a Chinese, much as I have every bit of Chinese blood flowing thru my veins. Everyone is just plain surprised that I can even speak “Pu Tong Hua” (ordinary Chinese) and even speak it with such clarity. I've had to explain that I'm actually a “Hua Qiao” (overseas Chinese). Maybe I should teach English here in China. That way, I can get away from my half-baked Western and Chinese background.
Anyways, time to go find some food. Dinner time!!! Xiao long bao!!!
I've had my first lot of dumplings in China. Oh my God... You can't believe how much food I've wasted so far. :( Somehow the Chinese portions are HUGE! Don't believe those people who tell you that Western portions are large. The Chinese ones are WAY more scary. REALLY. After lunch and dinner in China, I've appropriately concluded so.
The television programmes are all in Chinese. Good for me... Bad for Jason who can't understand a thing that they are saying, since the Chinese subtitles aren't exactly the easiest to read and string together. I took at least 13 years of schooling to learn everything that I know today. And its not including that 4 torturous years of Higher Chinese... Lucky for me, I dropped out of Higher Chinese class before they started on Chinese classics – poetry and literature. Could have died reading “Hong Lou Mong” (can't remember its English name). Learning Tang Dynasty poetry as a child was already bad enough. (My mom made me attend Chinese speech and drama classes where they made kids learn how to recite poetry) And there were all that Chinese storytelling contests that Mom made me do, and I always embarrassed myself with that poor memory of mine.
There's a Sino-Singapore concert going on the telly right now. Its very interesting to see “home” from so faraway. There's Fullerton and Peninsula Plaza in the background, since its the Padang. All done at City Hall region, my favourite hangout in town. Oodles of Chinese nationals watching the concert live apparently. There's this singer who looks like a butch, but she has one heck of a very good voice!
I've made contact with Xinrui. In the best case scenario, I'd drop by in Shanghai in about a week's time. We've got 700km to Kunming. Worst case, another 2 to 3 weeks before we can arrive.
The Internet in China is pretty cheep with good uploading speeds and poor downloading. Whilst I can still upload onto Blogger, I can't actually see what I've published since the Communist Party government had pretty much blocked out Blogger and offensive Google stuff. People smoke in their Internet Cafes or otherwise known as "Wang-bar". The stench of smoke is unbearable much as I'd like to spend more time on trying to do more internet work... I'm going to try get out of this place ASAP. Almost becoming breathless from all that smoke.
Now, first impression of China. As a Singaporean Chinese, its like I'm walking on a cultural tightline. I'm not Chinese enough to be recognised as a Chinese, much as I have every bit of Chinese blood flowing thru my veins. Everyone is just plain surprised that I can even speak “Pu Tong Hua” (ordinary Chinese) and even speak it with such clarity. I've had to explain that I'm actually a “Hua Qiao” (overseas Chinese). Maybe I should teach English here in China. That way, I can get away from my half-baked Western and Chinese background.
Anyways, time to go find some food. Dinner time!!! Xiao long bao!!!
I've had my first lot of dumplings in China. Oh my God... You can't believe how much food I've wasted so far. :( Somehow the Chinese portions are HUGE! Don't believe those people who tell you that Western portions are large. The Chinese ones are WAY more scary. REALLY. After lunch and dinner in China, I've appropriately concluded so.
The television programmes are all in Chinese. Good for me... Bad for Jason who can't understand a thing that they are saying, since the Chinese subtitles aren't exactly the easiest to read and string together. I took at least 13 years of schooling to learn everything that I know today. And its not including that 4 torturous years of Higher Chinese... Lucky for me, I dropped out of Higher Chinese class before they started on Chinese classics – poetry and literature. Could have died reading “Hong Lou Mong” (can't remember its English name). Learning Tang Dynasty poetry as a child was already bad enough. (My mom made me attend Chinese speech and drama classes where they made kids learn how to recite poetry) And there were all that Chinese storytelling contests that Mom made me do, and I always embarrassed myself with that poor memory of mine.
There's a Sino-Singapore concert going on the telly right now. Its very interesting to see “home” from so faraway. There's Fullerton and Peninsula Plaza in the background, since its the Padang. All done at City Hall region, my favourite hangout in town. Oodles of Chinese nationals watching the concert live apparently. There's this singer who looks like a butch, but she has one heck of a very good voice!
I've made contact with Xinrui. In the best case scenario, I'd drop by in Shanghai in about a week's time. We've got 700km to Kunming. Worst case, another 2 to 3 weeks before we can arrive.
The Internet in China is pretty cheep with good uploading speeds and poor downloading. Whilst I can still upload onto Blogger, I can't actually see what I've published since the Communist Party government had pretty much blocked out Blogger and offensive Google stuff. People smoke in their Internet Cafes or otherwise known as "Wang-bar". The stench of smoke is unbearable much as I'd like to spend more time on trying to do more internet work... I'm going to try get out of this place ASAP. Almost becoming breathless from all that smoke.
posted by me.lis.sa at 6:34 AM
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