Our first weekend in Wuhan! Woke up early to meet up with everyone for shopping today. Guess the girls are always hyped up for shopping, because we had to wait another half an hour for the guys. They only starting running to the showers five minutes before the assigned meeting time.
The locals here use almost every available space for advertisement. This was similar on the flight to Wuhan too. Where the monitor screens usually were, there were advertisements for...a tuition centre of some sort. Can't quite remember.
They have televisions on the buses too, but unlike us using it for entertainment during travel time, they use to broadcast...what else? more advertisements!
Very visible, but not surprising amount of pollution over Wuhan (and probably most of China).
Had to take a bus across the 长江(Chang Jiang River) to get to our shopping destination.
Kids roughly the age of 6 busking in the streets aren't uncommon here, and the locals just pass them by like nothing else. I feel a lot for these kids, who have the right to be out there having fun, attending school, making life-long friends, but are instead busking on the streets.
平安大厦, one of their many equivalents to our Far East Shopping Centre.
The few of us decided split up to have our own lunches around their food zone in the basement, and the eight of us girls ended up having a Korean lunch buffet at Kim Sat Gat, which translates to Kim Greet Hat. Not sure what the name means exactly, but what matters is that we had lots of good food for RMB48 per person (~ SGD9.60)! Nom nom nom. Service was pretty pleasant too.
When in China, everything is about improvising! They only provided wooden chopsticks so we had to use coffee spoons to eat the fried rice with and a scallop shell as a knife.
Headed off to the shops after lunch! Shopped around for hours and managed to get something for every one.
Us girls and our shopping bags.
Despite the rather blatant knock-off, this shop is actually quite established. I believe I saw at least two branches of Clio Coddle around.
One of the most curious things about the architecture in Wuhan are the bank buildings. In comparison to the rest of the rather normal-looking shopping centres around, bank buildings are exceptionally elaborate and Westernised. It wasn't only one bank, but all the banks around the area (we passed by at least three).
Port of Wuhan. Walked past this to get to 长江 for the scenery and some more photos.
View across the 长江. There were lots of couples sitting along the shore, which is pretty similar to what you see along the Singapore River nowadays. Lots of half-naked men walking around too, having just swam in the river (despite notices telling them not to).
Group A along 长江! Hanhui, myself, Brenda and Liangxun.
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The Roomies and I!
At the ferry terminal waiting to board the ferry back home.
Not very fond of this waiting area since it smelt like a giant toilet. I thought it was just me being paranoid but everyone agreed. Starting to wish the locals will realise that soon too and wash that place up a little. One can only hope, though.
After the approximately 20-mins long ferry ride, walk to the nearby 户部巷 (Hu Bu Xiang) to get some dinner. Was recommended by the local students to try their 汤包(soup dumplings) here, which is a local delicacy.
Chow time! Only have one shot of these dumplings before they were polished off by the hungry folks, namely Liangxun, Brenda, Shiling and I. Nom nom nom!
Ahh, the things I blew my money on for the day. A bag, a scarf, a pouch to keep my two handphones in while in China, a pair of aviators, some face packs, a new bottle of shampoo and a buffing stick.
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Personal reflections
All that walking today was really tiring! After days of walking almost everywhere, I've more or less gotten used to it. I suppose one thing I still can't get used to is the really bad traffic here.
Uncontrolled traffic junctions are almost everywhere here, and I guess you can say that even with the traffic lights, they're not of much use. Zebra crossings are basically white elephants on the roads and there really is a high possibility of getting run down anytime. We all had a close shave with a bus today when it can extremely close; too close for comfort, in fact. We all got frightened, since it was one of the first times we've tried to cross such a wide road.
We used to get fined for jaywalking in Singapore, but now some skills in jaywalking may actually help save your life. A little ironic, eh?
I've also came to appreciate how great it is to be a small city with big dreams. We may have to live in high-rise buildings and miss out on hosting world-wide events such as the Olympics (save on the YOG), and the World Cup, but I'm glad we are. I used to lament about how there was never any place to go in Singapore, but at least we could get from east to west without wasting a whole day in transit.
Laws get enforced a lot better too, with the ability to look out for lawbreakers in every area of Singapore. In China, since every province is so large, no laws can actually be properly enforced. Take swimming in the 长江, children busking in the streets and the blatant bending of copyright laws with the Clio Coddle shop. With more land, lawbreakers can hide easily and I think sometimes even the long arm of justice can't stretch that long.
