opening fireworks of Central China Expo

we got laser fireworks shows for 45 minutes at Xiang Jiang, Changsha.

klo kata orang Cina: piaoliang ji le!! tai piaoliang le...
klo kata anak Thai: suaiiii magmaa...suaiii jingjing....
klo kata anak Indo: mangstap!!

mayan lah, buat melepas penat :p

Guangzhou, shopping

There are no many places to visit in Guangzhou. I recommend you to stay in Riverside YHA , a comfy hostel by the riverside of Pearl River.On the opposite side of the river (you can take the local ferry 1,5元) there is a  former foreign quarters called Shamian Island （沙面岛）. 


For shopping, you can choose Shangxiajiu Lu 上下九路

 or Beijing Lu 北京路

and One Link Plaza....

I'm not a shopaholic person. So I'm not that good at describing those places. 

When you shop in Guangzhou, you should have a partner who doesn't shop but willing to help you carry your belanjaan. Just don't forget to give them wang lao ji, they are usually happy enough with that.

Transportation
The easiest way to get around Guangzhou is by Metro, its lines has been widely expanded after 2010 Asian Games. It even connects all the train station and the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. Other public transportation is bus, also very fast if you can understand the Chinese characters. What I not really recommend to go around the city is the taxi. It's more expensive, not easy to get, and the driver usually speaks Cantonese or nonstandard Mandarin which is not very easy to understand unless you are a local.
Besides K, T, Z train, Guangzhou is now connected with big cities by bullet trains (D and G train).
D train (dongche 动车) is bullet train which runs around 250km/h, while G train (gaotie 高铁) is bullet train which runs faster, around 350 km/h. 
With D or G train you can travel from Guangzhou to Changsha (the capital city of Hunan Province) and Wuhan (the capital city of Hubei Province) on WuGuang 武广 lines. Besides that, you can also travel to Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, as well as Hong Kong (Hung Hom station).

Summer Holiday (draft)

This summer holiday I travel around China. Yes, around China, from the Southern to Northern part, as well as from the Western part to the Eastern part, if Chengdu, Sichuan is categorized as West China.
It was so much fun! And yet, travel with different people gives different feeling!


I visited 10 different cities, including 2 China Special Administrative Region (Hong Kong and Macao) within a month. Well, it wasn't non-stop, it's actually divided into three rounds, all with different people. 


So below is my summer schedule trip (I'll post more after I finish with DNA extraction, holiday is over):


1st round:
August 27 - 29, 2011 - Guangzhou
August 29 - 31, 2011 - Yangshuo
August 1, 2011 - Shenzhen
August 2 - 7, 2011 - Hong Kong
August 7, 2011 - Macao
August 8 - 10, 2011 - Guangzhou


Go back to Changsha, washed the clothes.... August 11


2nd round:
August 12-14, 2011 - Chengdu
August 14 - 17, 2011 - Chongqing


Back to Changsha, cleaned the house, August 18 - 24


3rd round:
August 25 - 27, 2011 - Guangzhou (again..)
August 28, 2011 - Wuhan
August 29 - September 1, 2011 - Beijing
September 2, 2011 - Suzhou
September 3, 2011 - Tongli
September 3 - 5, 2011 - Hangzhou


September 6, 2011, I am glad to be back to Changsha, excited to finish the experiment! 
Jia you, Lisa!

May 29-June 1, 2011 我的收获很多

After waited for 3 months and a despairing week I finally used the High Hydrostatic Pressure  equipment at China Agricultural University. U need to be used to unpredictable things to live in China. Things changes rapidly, schedule can be so uncertain.   I'm a person who stick with my agenda and get annoyed with uncertain / changed / sudden things.  So it WAS hard for me to accept and get used to this culture at firsts.  Now? I'm good!  1. I know that no matter what, God is in charge so everything will be all right;  2. I just need to find other things/ways to do it, there's always a way;  3. U cannot be brave & strong if u've only had wonderful things happen to u. Went to Beijing for 4 days and 3 nights (2 nights on train :-( ), I learned a lot! 我的收获很多！ 1. This was my first time to got on T train. Hehe...  2. This was my first time to go to Beijing with no seat (14 h). My goodness.... We were on the same train with "subway engineering school" students, the train was so full,  the problem was these kiddos cannot stop moving. 同学们，不要太兴奋吧。 It was so crowded, hot, and noisy. 完全了。It's a tragedy 3. This was also my first time to eat at the dining carriage. and as a result... 4. We spent the night on the dining carriage. 舒服多了！ You just need to stay there after dinner and around 9 PM they will ask you 35 RMB.  They will give you a bottle of water and porridge and then you can sit there until 6 AM in the morning.  现在我知道了。 站票？没问题，去餐车吧。 5. And the reason of all this craziness is this, High Hydrostatic Pressure machine... 6. We went to 4 top universities in China within 2 days. I love those campuses! 都很安静也很漂亮！ 中国农业大学China Agricultural University 清华大学 Tsing Hua University 北京语言大学 Beijing Language and Culture University 北京大学 Bejing University 7. My first time to saw 门球, gate ball? 8. Went to Yuan Ming Yuan. It's great to travel with someone who knows a lot.  Lili knows a lot about history and explained a lot to me. 9. At Yuan Ming Yuan we bumped into Beijing kiddos.  And I'm amazed that they can recite poems perfectly. 10. Though I might not realized, but I'm sure that I improved my Chinese during travel.  At least I heard some new dialects. 东北话，儿话等。 所以说，碰到困难时要记得有乐观的想法。那样才能有很多收获。加油!

1 D trip to Chibi 赤壁

Last year, during the Labor Holiday (1-3 May 2010) we went to Hubei province. We visited 2 cities, Chibi, which is famous for the battle area prior to the Three Kingdoms period and Wuhan, which is the capital of Hubei province.


Little introduction about Chibi and the Battle of Chibi:

Chibi City (赤壁市, Chìbì Shì ) was originally named Puqi (蒲圻). On 11 June 1998, the State Council renamed it to "Chibi" to tie the city to the famous historical Battle of Chibi.
The Battle of Red Cliffs, otherwise Battle of Chibi,known as the  was a decisive battle at the end of the Han Dynasty, immediately prior to the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. It was fought in the winter of 208/9 AD between the southern warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan and the numerically superior forces of the northern warlord Cao Cao. Liu Bei and Sun Quan successfully frustrated Cao Cao's effort to conquer the land south of the Yangtze River and reunite the territory of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The allied victory at Red Cliffs ensured the survival of Liu Bei and Sun Quan, gave them control of the Yangtze (de Crespigny 2004:273), and provided a line of defence that was the basis for the later creation of the two southern states of Shu Han and Eastern Wu.(Source: en.wikipedia.org)

Morning - Leaving to Chibi
We took D train (Guangzhou-Wuhan line) from Changsha to Chibi. We are used to take a hard seat train in China but since this was our first time on D train, so taking photo is a must! It only took less than 2 hours from Changsha to Chibi.

 Chibi train station. Chibi is a small town. It was only us who get off from the train that day.

After you get off from the train, you will meet small buses which can take you to the city. And the historical sites. It takes almost an hour to reach the battle area. (U need to know Chinese to go there!)

 At the gate of Chibi Battle Area. It was.....HOT!! that day.

 

They have a lot of Three Kingdom's heroes there. Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Guan Yu, and Zhu Ge Liang!! 

OK, I forgot the rest.. But it was fun to see the statues since we had Chinese history class at school.

 Finally, the famous spot. Actually there is a engravings on the cliff-side which has been engraved for at least a thousand years.

Na!! any idea where these people come from?! :p

We finished the visit in the afternoon. We went to the Buxingjie, but it was closed -_-"
It wasn't even 6 P.M.
But, as a compensation.... we found a cheap, luxury restaurant!!

Less than 30 kuai for pizza and steak!

Next: from Chibi to Wuhan

Turning 25_the story of Kumin -- part 1

May 14, 2011

There is a girl, we can call her 'Kumin'.

Kumin is not a typical social person who enjoys a big party. 

And she never thinks about hold her own party. 

But this day, she decided to try practicing hospitality in a way that she's not used to.

The party went well, actually! 

People enjoyed the food...

 

the togetherness...

 

and the cake, for sure...

 

Kumin herself, enjoyed more the game after the party :p

Haha, she really do better in smaller groups, doesn't she?

May 15, 2011

Kumin woke up early with a terrible back pain... 

(Errr.....我是不是真的老了呀？？)

Kumin usually goes to fellowship meeting every Sunday afternoon. 

But that Sunday, she needed to skip the fellowship because her friend, Sunisa, needed her help.

Sunisa -- Kumin's friend, she loves eating, speaking and sleeping. 

A totally a fun friend to hang-out with!

                                                                                                  

S: Kumin, can you help me on Sunday afternoon? I want to extract the enzyme.
K: Sunday? Afternoon?
S: Yes, I really want to finish it you know. But P'Kathi is busy with HPLC and 

　　　　Geraldine also cannot. Prof. Xia wants her to finish her paper.

P' Kathi -- Kumin's friend, a clever PhD student. But she can also going crazy, 

especially if you bring her to KTV! She can dance whole night! :p

Geraldine -- also Kumin's friend. She is good in study, doing experiment, cooking, 

singing, helping friends and bet she is also good in teaching..

Prof. Xia -- Geraldine's professor.

K: Mm...How about Monday?
S: Cannot....
K: OK, Sunday morning. I usually go to the fellowship on Sunday afternoon.
S: Cannot...
K: Why?
S: Sleeping... he he he.. Cannot wake up in the morning. Afternoon is OK, Kumin..
K: -__-" Sa..... (Errr.... 这个人，怎么这么能这样啊？)

K: /Speechless... OK, Sunday afternoon, what time? 2 PM?
S: I will call you, OK?

Kumin waited Sa to call her whole morning~~~

　　　　　　Kumin was actually thinking about a lot of things that day.

　　　　　　　　心情不好。 身体很累。人都不在。

　　　　　　　　　　Was not in a very good mood. Tired. Nobody was available.

　　　　　　　　　　　　Even Yahoo Messenger didn't help~

　　　　　　　　

Aa...Though she was worried about Sa's experiment (that they will not be able to finish it today, it was too late to start) 

but.... 那就睡觉吧.... she preferred to sleep. 

After woke up,  she felt better.

Still no response from Sa....... 
(Maybe it’s better if I just go straight to the laboratory...) 

By the time she arrived at the laboratory, Kumin found out that Sa was out for dinner. 

　　　　P' Kathi: Sa said she is so proud that u don't go to church to help her

　　　　K: BUT, P' KATHI WHERE IS SHE NOW?? I SKIPPED THE FELLOWSHIP FOR HER.... 

　　　　　AND NOW SHE IS OUT FOR DINNER?? 

　　　　   And it's been 1.5 hours, where actually did she take her dinner?" 

Sa finally went back at 7.00 PM, then they started SIEVING RICE FLOUR!!! (instead of enzyme extraction as she were told before)

(I'm totally confused with Sa...）

But.... it's always been a great time to share with Sa.. They laughed a lot! 

And well they did a lot of progress  finding out the best method to sieve the flour! Yee Haaa!! 

So from 7.30 PM until near 11 PM, Sa milled 2 kg of rice while Kumin sieved the flour, tiring...累极了~~

BUT......when she was ready to sleep........

1. She remembered her appointment with E-scratura. 

E-scratura sent her a sweet video wishing her a happy birthday!

E-scratura – Kumin’s friend, they became friend exactly 2 years ago. 

She is a unique sister that would be hard to forget.

‘妹妹，谢谢你！我很感动哦！’

2. Wasn't expecting other thing,吕圆suddenly, out of nowhere, asked her how was her day?（Errr.... 我想睡。而且，你是不是比我很早就想睡了呀？）

吕圆 – Kumin’s partner in G2. 

A friend at all times and sister during adversities.

3. 11.30 PM, Like it’s not the end yet, Sa buzzed her on YM telling that she was hungry and she wanted to cook something together.

K: Sa, u can have the birthday cake, we still have a leftover, and we also have mashed potato.
I will open the door for you; you can come and get it now

S: Wait for a moment; I’ll take a bath now. I’ll call you after that, OK?

Energy was all depleted~~~ She went to pray. Thanking God for friends, for the chance she has in China. And in sudden, she remembered all the problems she was facing. Father, just please help me arrange my research. There is nothing more I can do. Please… 

She cried but in sudden she also felt warmth, she heard Father saying, “放心吧，I’ll give a birthday present for u.” 

Not long after that, she fell asleep. 

Calling...

Sunisa Sa

K: Sa? Finish?

S: Yeah!! Aa, you sleep already?

K: En…

S: Crazy!! I have cooked, come on bring the cake here, let’s eat!

K: OK, you can open your door. I will just drop the cake, OK? I don’t want any other meal

S: OK, OK, you come now, OK?

…. to be continued…