Day 16 in Chengdu - Visit to the Textile College

Woke up early in the morning to head out to the Textile College for our second OIE module, which was embroidery! On the way to the meeting point at the teaching block, we bought some breakfast from the canteen. I had my favorite preserved vegetable pau, as well as a fried egg, and boy were they good! Met up with the rest, as well as Mr Ryan, our lecturer from now on. He seemed to be a nice and friendly person, which was a very good thing as there was not much pressure.

Headed out in the bus, and after approximately 30 minutes ride we arrived at the Textile college. The students there gave us a very warm welcome, which made us feel right at home! We headed up to the classroom, where the vice-director gave us a run-down on the history and basics of Shu embroidery, before we began attempting some simple embroidery ourselves. I managed to sew my initials onto the embroidery cloth, before we headed out to the college canteen for lunch. Lunch was a large spread of buffet dishes and they were all superb! I also began chatting with some of the local students. We exchanged information about our respective countries, and that some of them were very interested in our lifestyle back in Singapore. Nice talking to those students.

After lunch, a group of us were brought to a White House look-alike within the campus for some tea demonstration. We even had a chance to try it out! What an experience. Took more photos of the places around the White House, before we headed to the entrance of the College to board a bus for a campus tour. Two local students introduced to us the different parts of the campus, and to my astonishment they even had their own mini Statue of Liberty and the Egyptian pyramids in their campus!! HOW COOL IS THAT! After the campus tour, we headed back to the entrance, where we boarded ANOTHER bus. Arrived at a embroidery museum, and admired many many beautiful pieces of art. Stayed for a little over 30 minutes, then headed back to UESTC.

Dinner came right after, at the Halal stall with Hanis, Felicia, Kidman, Zakiah and Thet. After that it was just pure boringness, and just slacking around in the dorm. Pictures!!!!

The Textile College

Materials for class!

Intro/History of Shu Embroidery

Happy Girl with souvenir and food

So nice of the college to give us this gift

My friends concentrating on the threading of the needle

JJ doing embroidery

Jia

My ugly initials

LUNCH!

Random famous icons from around the world (The girl in white is not included :D)

Group photo with the locals

Tea demonstration

More icons

Parts of their campus

Masterpieces at the embroidery museum

Dinner

Everyone enjoying their dinner!!

Day 14&15 in Chengdu - Just a normal day X2......

Day 14: Nothing interesting occurs the whole of day 14. Woke up, brushed teeth blah blah blah..... Headed out to shopping district for lunch with the guys. We are really hooked onto the meat dumplings, as we eat that at least ONCE a week. Ordered noodles, as well as veg/meat dumplings. Was really an awesome lunch. THEN headed over to class for our lesson. All of us had to do a presentation about one medicinal herb (In pairs). Kidman and I did a presentation on Chamomile, and other herbs presented included red yeast rice, ephedra and also gingko biloba. Interesting times......

Finished up with the presentations, and then headed to get take-away from the canteen, before heading back to the dorm. Basically just did research for the final paper until it was time to sleep. Nothing interesting going on here........


Day 15: Day for me to research and research for my final paper for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine. Basically, lunched and began the many many hours of sieving through tens and tens of pages of information, while writing out my report.

Finally completed the report at around 7pm, before heading out for dinner with wei jie and kidman. Had a burger from the fast food outlet in the shopping district. Also received news that most of the class were heading over to the times lounge to hold a farewell party for our lecturer Ms Cahn, as well as a welcome party for the new lecturer coming in, Mr Ryan. Had a blast of a time with the 2 lecturers, playing games and also getting to know each other better. Ms Cahn was a good lecturer, with her simple to understand classes as well as her flexible timing for classes. She also enabled us to practice our research skills a lot more than back in Singapore, enabling us to learn more in the process. Hope that the following days with Mr Ryan would be equally fun and enriching! :D

SADLY, I forgot to take photos of the farewell session :(. Might get some from my friends later on

Day 13 in Chengdu - E mei Shan, HERE WE COME!!!!

Woke up  bright and early at 6.00AM!!!! ON A SUNDAY MORNING!! OMG OMG OMG I NEED MY BEAUTY SLEEP!! Anyway, headed down for breakfast, which was slightly horrible, but nevertheless filled our stomachs. Headed out to the bus terminal, where we had to take another local bus to the Lei Shan Pavilion, to begin our hike up Mt Emei. The bus journey was pretty short, at around 30-45 minutes, but the ride on the local bus was bumpy and long, timing in at 1hr 30 minutes. Basically slept through both journeys, and then arrived at the Lei Shan Pavilion, where we rented some shoe spikes to don, preventing us from slipping and falling due to all the snow along the path.

The hike up to the cable car station was long, long and long. And also tiring. Along the way, there were stalls set up selling some hot food and drinks, as well as some guys offering a sedan service to the station, which costed a bomb! (120 Yuan) Finally arrived at the station at around 11.30am, and had to wait around 1hr 30minutes in queue before boarding the cable car. So here comes another incidence of China kiasuness(No offense). The people literally PUSHED AND PUSHED all the way to the door of the cable car, and they keep trying to board the cable car, even though it was super super full. This led to the people in the cable car being squashed like a pancake!! No good, no good. Anyway, the view from the cable car was superb, made me feel like I'm flying among the clouds. Got to the summit, and we purchased some food to satisfy our hunger from climbing the mountain. Headed to the summit to view the ten-faced buddha, and boy was it A-MAZING!!! However, as my classmate was feeling unwell and I stayed back to take care of her, so I asked JJ to take some photos for me on my cam.

After sightseeing ended, we headed back to the cable car, where more pushing and shoving ensued. Finally made it back to the base, headed back down on the local bus and had lunch in a restaurant along the way. The ride down was MUCH MUCH bumpier, making many people sick. I did not eat much for lunch as I lost my appetite due to the constant bumping. Finished lunch, headed back to the main bus, and continued our journey back to the campus, which took about 2hrs 30 minutes, making the whole bus journey approximately 4 hours. Although the trip was tiring, we did manage to see some of Chengdu's famous tourist attractions, which was really an eye-opener for me.

Picture time!!

The bus terminal towards E-Mei Shan

Look at the SNOWWWWW!!!

Majestic View

In the cable car

Hiker Wee-Min :P

Beyond the clouds

Group photos at the peak

The four-direction ten faced buddha

Pictures that JJ took in my place

PUSH ARH!!!!

Bye people!