HARLO!!! I know I know… it’s been ages since my last entry hahaa!!! Sorry guys… im just being plain lazy :D school had been boring… no band practices for YO Phil winds and SP, yup life is such a bore without playing in any ensemble… its like wat a pity!! YO is playing la forza~ but I cant play cuz… im in CHINA!!!
Yup im now in china haha Beijing in fact. And im COLD! Its like -4 to 7 degrees? Freezing cold… nice place, just that the air and water aren’t so good. Talk abt quality of the Chinese nationals there, I think they are not as decent as those in S’pore. They spit as and when they like, even in arcade entrances -.- horrible haha…
Alright lets talk abt first day. I think the first day is the most terrible part of the trip.. the flight. We took a pathetic Xiamen Airlines, which is rather okay. Just that, it’s a freaking boring flight. All of us were separated and we don’t get to sit with our friends. There is no entertainment system except for a small monitor above our head that is shared for by 4 ppl? And they are showing the same show for like donno how many times. Our flight was at 9 am from T1, and they started showing Ip Man. The flight is a transfer flight so we have to fly to Xiamen where we then transfer to Tianjin and coach up to Beijing. After the horrible first 3 hrs of the flight, we start to transfer and then board the plane again 1 hr later. Similarly they show Ip Man, and that’s the FORTH time I watched it.
Its my first time sitting so close to the engine though. Quite interesting where u hear the engine roar when its on the runway before takeoff. When its switched to full thrust u can actually see huge streams of air flowing into the engine… COOL~~ haha the flight was HOT too! And the food is~~~ erm… I donno wat to say… not bad, but not good either.
After another terrible 2 hr torturous flight, we finally reach Tianjin at abt 4pm and that’s our first experience of the COLD weather. And its no joke, crazily COLD!! When u talk u can see the smoke smoke thing one! So cool… just like TV. I wore like 3 layers of shirts, 1 thermal wear 1 t shirt and 1 huge windbreaker in order to keep warm. No choice its really very cold. After reaching Tianjin airport we coach to a local restaurant for our first ever dinner/ meal in china. The food was not bad, not like wat my mum says all vege, but instead lots of meat! And really Aero guys are carnivourous. We had like 3 bowls of rice each and the meat dishes swiped to the brim HAHA.
After the meal we went out to continue our bus ride to our hotel. Before boarding we saw a very INTERSTING vending machine. Can u guess wat they sell inside? Its CONDOMS! AND SEX TOYS omg la~~ and its pretty cheap know? 1 pack like 5 Yuan which is like abt a sing dollar? Even in s’pore durex are like 5 bucks? Aiyo~~ aiya but maybe the quality not so good. Bus ride was cool, we get to sight see lots of cool buildings and of cuz the BIRD NEST! Beautiful stadium I must say, especially with all the lightings against the dark night sky. Maybe s’pore should build one abalone for our youth Olympics :D upon reaching we got our key and chino to the hotel for a rest…
Day 2 starts with a morning call at 7 30am which is like freaking early!? Alright la, at least the breakfast was nice. We had our quick breakfast and eventually reach the uni at abt 9 30am. The uni is Beihang University where they specializes in Aeronautical and Astronautical sciences. We walked to the International School for a simple opening ceremony where we get to meet the Dean and then, wishes us a pleasant stay. HAHA after that we walked to the ‘food court’ where all the students have their lunch. The journey was horribly cold, but fun! We were like camwhore everywhere. Lunch was sumptuous except for those liang cai ( cold dishes). Those dishes were made specially to be served cold, and of cuz not to our tastings. In fact none of us really touched them haha. As usual after the carnivorous lunch we had a short tour around the campus to familiarize with the buildings and location, camwhoring along the way.
Finally we left to visit the China Astronomical academy and its basically a small museum. The person explained to us from start of the man made satellite the Chinese sends out to the latest rocket the shot last year 2008. we even get to take pictures with the returned cabin of the first rocket the Chinese sent to space! The ACTUAL cabin that came back chao da~.
And its SHOPPING! We went to Wang Fu Jing, which is actually beijing’s orchard road. It’s a very wide street but not very long anyway. There are a few poor mothers carrying their toddler child begging for money. Damn poor thing, but we didn’t give them any money. Its not being mean or wat, cuz if give them more will come and find us. So better be safe then sorry :D we saw 2 ‘Paragons’ and its really freaking EX! Some leather shops sold their leather jackets for like 16K Yuan!!! (3k sing) CRAZY RITE!!
After having some sightseeing we decided to hunt for food! And we went to a restaurant called viva curry to have our dinner. Not bad, and we watched tom and jerry while eating. Haha! The lamer the show the funnier it is HAHA. After the dinner we went to a small street where the sell small quick bites, its called Xiao chi jie. Several stalls sell ‘satays’ and its really very nice la. But if u see carefully, they sell other interesting satays too! Starfish, SCORPIONS, SEAHORSES, COCKCROACHES, LIZARDS!!!!!! ARGH!!!!! DISGUSTING~~~ and my friend actually tried the scorpions, he said it taste like ikan bilis.omg la scorpions!!! Siao.. after the short tour around that orchard road we went back to the 2 star hotel and have our beauty sleep. I must say the 2 star hotel is really good. Good food and good quality hotel. Better than expected.
Day 3 morning is much similar to day 2’s morning. Had breakfast and then go to beihang. We had lots of labs visits there and we mechanical students are sooooo sian. Cuz all the equipments they showed us a basically electrical stuffs, in which some of us are mechanical students. They showed some oscilloscope, some modulation and demodulation of waveforms, digital signal processing where we can input voice or pictures to process. Also got one more presentation on the air traffic managements where they show us generally how the Chinese do their air traffic controls and surveillance. Beihang is really pro in all these, they actually produce several such products and sold them in the market. Several airline companies actually employ such equipments in their control tower. And again its lunch and we proceed to our very first lecture at 2pm
The lecture is one aircraft components and structural design, we did one of the topic on landing gears. It’s a great lecture I must say. Though everything is in Chinese we at least learn a lot more then those we had in ACC. Example the different type of landing gear configuration, the stability of the different type of landing gears and many different types of landing gears. It’s a 2.5 hr lecture with a 10 mins break in between and it’s a all chino lecture! We take down notes like mad and drew like mad. Such sights are very rare in SP, cuz SP damn slack la! A 2 hr lecture can start late 15 mins and end early half an hr. so in the end become 1 hr 15 mins lecture -.- unlike beihang the lecture is all chino and ur ears must be up all the way. Nice lecture, accept for several Chinese terminology we don’t understand and writing Chinese words. Too bad aeronautical engineering isn’t conducted in English if not I might consider coming here to further my studies. HAHA.
After the lecture we bused back to the hotel and hunt for dinner and finally have a rest. Phew… 2 days of activity day till night is seriously killing me man. After all its still fun, not so bad, yet HAHA.
That’s it for the first 3 days, hopefully subsequent days are good and relaxing :D toodles~ Pics after the trip k :D
Ah Rong,
6:15 AM
profile
Koh Jia Rong
18 years old
Plays the clarinet
Philharmonic Winds
SYO
SPband
Dip in Aeronautical Engineering
