OIP WUHAN ~: Day 20

Day 20 - I never got to see a yellow crane

Hello guys!!
So today is a Saturday!
Meaning another trip to somewhere!
Today we went to 4 places!
The first place was Hubei Provincial Musuem.
I was never a big fan of musuems and exhibitions but this one isn't that bad actually.
All of us met up at 7:45am and the journey was about an hour.
Once we reached the place. we have to get our bags scanned.
The tour guide told us that we can't bring any types of liquid so we had to leave all sorts of liquid on the bus.
The place was huge!
There were 4 floors full of exhibitions!!

The first exhibition we went to was actually things that were found in a tomb.
I didn't know that back in the days, people used to place treasures in their death place.
A whole lot of treasures

What is most interesting to me is that the coffin actually has layers.
Furthermore, the coffins are madde out of pure ceramic is huge.
I wonder how the people back then were able to lift the whole thing and fit the coffins nicely into each other.

first layer

second layer

third layer

fourth layer

the statue of the man!

Judging from the layers of coffin, the tour guide says that it is to preserve and protect his body from grave robbers.
The things that were found together with his body is just amazing.
There were even INSTRUMENTS.
I was most amazed at the kinds of instruments that were found in the tomb!
One particular instrument caught me attention though.
Its a huge rows of bells.
The bells are human sized, dangling from a pole.

Picture picture!!!!

There is a chart that shows how the bell works.
I don't understand how it works at all no matter how many times i read it.
But i do know that it is capable of reaching to quite a big range of notes.

As you can see from the chart above, the range of notes in which you can play is actually very big.

i saw a piano on a mini stage!!!
Cheated my feelings because i really missed playing my piano!

After that, we continued walking around the music instruments section!
It's interesting how people still value music back in the olden days.

a very old guzhen!!Looks like it was nearly decomposed

Another type of percussion instruments!
This is exactly like the xylophone.
I wonder how they carve those stones at a precise measurement to get the sound.

this is actually a drum.
Yes a drum.
I'm not sure how this works though!!

After that, we went to the carvings section.
All sorts of things were carved from different materials.
Rocks, woods, jade.
and some were carved based on consellations too!

coffee table!

Can u see 2 birds accompanied by fire?
this is a treasure box which has markings of one of the dynasty.

LOOK AT THESE!!!!
So cute!
Apparently, these were found in his mouth when they excavated the site!
disgusting i guess..but read the description below!

i couldn't figure out what was the animals at first.
jades were used to preserve the body

Another thing that is very dominant are arrowheads.
When we continued walking, there was a glass casing filled with arrowheads.
but the arrowheads were tied and dangled in such a way that it really is very pretty!
Like a curtain!

the arrowheads are carved out of stones.

You're in my way nick!!!!

The next part of the exhibition was an exhibition of the ancient people.
Basically the stone age period.
I didn't know that the stone age people also have a civilisation here in Hubei.

Reminds me of the Flinestones looking at these tools

a skull belonging to the primitive people.
They have a flatter face and a bigger occipital area.
I don't know how the scientists were able to tell the gender because our skulls
are so different then the primitive skulls.

Bones of animals!!!

fossils found at the site of excavation

the different types of skulls.
It looks like those that belong to monkeys!

an impression of how our ancestors used to do last time.

site of excavation

Pots stuck to a wall.
Would love to have this primitive wall in my room.HAHA

Soon after that, we gathered again to leave for our next destination.
Our next destination was Dong Hu.
Nothing historical here.
It is a just a park with a lake!
We were given free time to walk around the park.
Free time = picture taking!!
Good thing is that the weather was on a good mood today!
NO RAIN!!!

We found where they filmed twilight

Boats!!!!

me and Danesha beside the lake!!

one of the 1994 babies in this OIP trip!

me and my 'mother' ~!!!!!!

The lake was kept clean by the cleaners.
the cleaning is always done manually.
The cleaners will go round the perimeter of the lake scooping up things around the lake!
This man caught a dead fish!!

I also bought quite a big bubble maker for 10 yuan(SGD$2.00)
Was blowing bubbles all the way until we met up with the rest at the entrance.
We went back to our childhood days as we chased the bubbles like some mentally challenged patient.

After playing with bubbles and waiting for the rest to come, we went to get FOOD.
Lunch today wasn't the typical "Oh-lets-go-to-Sulaiman's-for-lunch".
We went to Food street to get street food!
(See what I did there? )

Me, Irfanah and Qurainah were quite dissappointed at first because usually,
Street food = No halal food.
And yes its true..
we kept on walking and walking and the only food that we could eat is a plain pancake and soya milk.
Wasn't delicious at all.
But Irfanah said that we are eating these just to survive.
Its ironic because we are at a street FULL with food and we can't even eat any of them.

The food street!!!

The plain pancake .
Yes it tasted just like pure flour.

The hot soya milk!!Enough to my stomach full.

But thanks to Dr Tan, we managed to eat a piece of heaven - SEAFOOD.
Thank goodness she saw some seafood stall.
We passed by it a few times but didn't know what it really is so we we were scared to try it!
In the end, we ate fish takoyaki and super spicy cuttlefish!
The cuttlefish was so spicy that my lips were red till we reached the next destination.
And i really was tearing while i was eating it!

It was at that time i really understood the true meaning of hunger.
and it was also the first time i really felt homesick.
While we were walking through the street and looking at the people eating the food,
i suddenly got reminded of Singapore and my Mom's cooking.
I was really craving for Singapore's food.
Made me think twice about living in other countries as halal food will be one of the top probems i will face if I were to live in another country.
To top if off, i'll have to adapt to their culture too.
I remember when i first came to Wuhan, i wanted to just stay in the dorm because i was so scared of the people.
Whenever i walk down the streets, i had to hold Danesha's hand because i was too scared to look at the surroundings.
Plus their daily lives and social culture here is very different.
They're very loud and everytime they were having a simple conversation, it was like an argument for me so i was terrified to order food or have any kind of interaction with them.
After 3 weeks in Wuhan, i feel much more adapted to here!
What i'm afraid now is that i'll have to readapt to Singapore's busy and stressful life once i get back home.

After our short lunch, we proceeded to the Yellow Crane Tower!
At first i was expecting the tower to give a great view of mother nature.
Then i realised that the yellow crane tower was situated in the centre of Wuhan city!
I guess it's like the Tokyo tower in Japan!!!
The current Yellow crane tower is rebuilt because the original one was burnt down.
But it is still as amazing.

The ticket~~!!!!

It was quite a long walk to get to the tower itself.
The tour guide didn't say much about the tower at all.
We were all given free time.
So i googled about the tower!!!
here's what i found...

There are legends about the tower!!
There are at least two legends related to Yellow Crane Tower. In the first, an Immortal (仙人) name Wang Zi'an (王子安) rode off on a yellow crane from Snake Mountain. A tower was later built in commemoration. In the second, after becoming an Immortal, Fei Wenyi (费文祎) would ride a yellow crane and often stop on Snake Hill to take a rest.

The tower is 5 storeys high!!
We had to climb up the stairs.
There is a lift withing the tower but it wasn't working that day.
Well, it got us on our feet anyway :)

Joel thinks he's a prince

i've a fetish with flowers ever since the Wudang Mountain trip

a carving i saw in one of the trees

Huiqi and her mango ice cream!

Nicholas boy boy!!!!

I saw this cool wooden bridge!
Hasn't been completed yet but it looks dangerous to cross!!

Aaaaaannd we reached!!!!
When we reached, me and Rachel were very amazed because we saw a huge bell!
it cost about 30yuan if you want to ring the bell.
It is suppose to bring you good luck i guess.

the yellow crane tower!

the view from the bottom floor!

My forever-WOAHing buddy~ RACHEL!

With Nicholas boyboy~!

QIQI!

TRAVIN!!!!

Me,rachel,Tricia, Huiqi,Qurainah and Travin decided to climb up to the peak of the tower since we had about 45mins of free time!
The climbing process was VERY tiring.
The stairs were very steep and its so crowded!!
Maybe because its the weekend..

A painting we saw when we entered the tower.

Foggy sky!

once we reached the peak, the view was just awesome.
We had the bird's eye view of the Wuhan City!

i personally love this shot.

Panaroma!

Too bad that it was foggy that day !

We are the firsts year 1 NPCB (Ngee Ann Poly Concert Band) member to scale the yellow crane tower!
YAY FOR NPCB!!!!

Missing Child found at the peak of Yellow crane tower.

We had to walk through a park to get to our bus!
The park seemed like the central park in the US.

Peach blossoms!!!

And what stands in between us and our ride back home is the traffic.
We had to cross a sea of cars and all of us were screaming as we do so.
Not to forget the annoying sounds of horns from impatient drivers!
The tour guide did a very huge mistake and that is crossing the road first by herself and not waiting for the others.
In the end, Dr Tan was the one who was rounding up people and helping them cross the road.
Some of us had to cross the road ourselves so we braced ourselves and just 'chiong' across the road.
One of us got a slight hit by a motorcycle..
(SLIGHT HIT ..NO INJURIES OCCURED)
I screamed when i was dashing across the road and avoiding all those metal Giants on wheels...

Our last destination is the Chang Jiang Lake.
Which is one of the longest lake in Asia.
This place is also a popular place for newly weds to have their photoshoot.
i can see why,
Even though it is situated in Wuhan city, the place is very spacious and this cooling weather makes it even better.
When we arrived there were a few people having the photoshoot.
The girls were wearing pretty dresses and posing.
All that i had in mind was - "Aren't they cold?"
I was literally shivering and there they were posing like they're in the Sahara desert.

We had free time as well!!!
And Irfanah had this awesome idea..
There was a zebra crossing that looked exactly like the one on Abbey road, London.
So she suggested that we have the same photoshoot like what The Beatles had!!!
GENIUS ISN'T SHE?!?!
And the photo turned out EXTREMELY DELICATE!!!