Finally a weekend break for us to have a little tour around and to take a breather off the hectic workload.
Gathered at the admin block at 7.15am and set off after that. Our new tour guide is called Lei Jing.
After approx 1 hour bus ride, we arrived at the Hubei Provincial Museum but only to get the news that it only opens at 9am daily and so we were way to early.
Our tour guide decided to change the itinery a little by bringing us to a nearby park called East Lake (东湖). Walked around the park for around 2 hours or so. Didn’t think that it was much of a tourist attraction as it felt like our Bedok Reservoir to me, with the only difference that there is PLENTY of humongous lotus leafs floating on the lake.
Entrance.
Nice Lake.
Oh anyway we saw this elderly man playing one player tennis! At first when we didn’t notice that the tennis ball was attached to a string, we all thought he had some super power to bring the ball back to himself. He was counted as very strong and fit for an elderly of his age.
Keep up the good work uncle! =D
After leaving the park, we headed for the Museum. Huge. Due to some really priceless 国宝 in the museum, the security was very tight. We even had to go through a security check and scan before we can get into the place.
Museum.
Big Bells.
Finally after waiting for so long…. LUNCH TIME!!! I was starving ok! We went to 首义园小吃街 for lunch. It is known as a snack street thus there was PLENTY of food there =) But the troublesome thing is that we need to use a lunch card for our purchases. Had beef meat wrap, pancake, 汤包 and Mango Ice blended. DELICIOUS! Finally felt that I really tasted the food here, rather than those oily ones outside our hostel.
首义园
Yellow Crane Tower.
In the Tower!
After lunch we went to the Yellow Crane Tower (黄鹤楼). Actually I didn’t even think that in my whole life time I would be able to step into this place which I had only read about it in Secondary School Chinese textbook. Was quite excited about walking up this tower! Climbed this tower which has 9 floors with An Yu! =) On every level, there was a small section that gives us a little more understanding of what the tower was about.
After the tower, we went to grab some nice souvenirs for our family and friends! The gifts which I bought were reasonably priced and very nice too! =D
Reflections:
After the trip to the museum, I was actually quite disappointed as there was no attractive factor in it compared to Singapore’s Museum. The artifacts were quite attractive at first but as we went round the museum, we realized that the pictures which we were taking were almost similar and there was no further description of the item besides the name of it. We were thinking that they were just trying to fill up the empty space and trying to make their museum look huge. But they should take into consideration that after the first stretch of looking, viewers get bored out and lose interest in what they are looking.
In a positive manner I would say that they were trying to show us all the artifacts which they have discovered. They want the world to know how great these artifacts are, but they didn’t know that we learn through our eyes when visiting a museum. Thus, showing us everything which has similar appearance and description would only let us leave the museum with tons of questions. I would say it did not bring out the culture of the olden days and I still do not understand the history.
Singapore museum would try their very best to make us understand whatever they want to bring out to us. And of course more consideration and effort will be placed in selection of the artifacts for display etc.
Bernard Grasset:
“To love is to stop comparing.”
(Indeed I should stop comparing China with Singapore. I should try to accept China with a positive mindset and to accept what they offer. Continuous comparing brings me nowhere. But isn’t this what humans always do? To compare and contrast.)
