Day 5 (7-3-2009) - Hubei Museum Visit

In addition to what we have learned yesterday, today we visited the Hubei Province Museum and saw the actually artefacts of ancient Chinese history.

We saw lots of things such as objects from the bronze culture, the lacquer culture, the phoenix on top of a lion patterns and more. There were also lots of belts, crowns and accessories decorated with jade and other precious stones. But to me, the most fascinating object of all, were the huge bells that the ancient Chinese used. The moment I saw it, my imagination started running wild as to how in the world the Chinese used those huge bells.

I did not have to wait long to find out the answer, as soon after, we were treated with a live performance of Chinese orchestra, using ancient musical instruments, including the huge bells. Believe it or not, I am a silent fan of symphony music and one thing I love about Chinese orchestra is that it can be very soothing and very powerful.

Needless to say, I was mesmerized by the whole performance and never wanted it to end. But sadly, all good things must come to an end so after that we headed back to our coach and had a short tour around the East Lake which would turn out to be another great treat.

The lake was amazingly beautiful with its clear blue water. As the bus took us round the whole lake, at times we had the tall trees as the lake’s background, and at time we had the city skyline; all great scenery if you ask me. It was kind of disappointing to not be able to step out of the bus and experience how being at the lakeside really is.

We had free time after that and I decided to walk around town once again with Wilfred and Hao Bin. This time, we visited the electronics shopping malls. Very similar to Singapore’s Sim Lim Square if you ask me. But I think the real highlight of our little walk around time was seeing how random the Chinese people can be, on the streets.

A few days ago, we saw how they could set up basketball rings in front of shopping malls and play basketball over there. Today, we saw how they could play Chinese chess and attract large crowds of spectators around them, and also play poker cards. The things these people sell on the streets can also be random, ranging from pencil cases, to watches.

After we got back, I thought I could finally take a break from all the walking. It wasn’t meant to be though, as soon after, the guys decided to check out the place where we could use our internet. When we got there, we decided that we wouldn’t use the place for internet at all. Reasons being, it is a self study area so you must be very quiet there. Secondly, there are no power points where we can plug in and charge our laptops. Lastly, the signal is also quite weak so perhaps it’s not worth the 5 minute walk.

Since we were already outside, Dr Zhu suggested that we get our dinner. For this dinner, we went out the Southeast Gate, a first for all of us. Here I realise that the streets of Wuhan are filled with lots of food stalls shops. It is so lively at night; it feels like a “pasar malam” night every night! We found yet another Halal stall where I ate my now favourite Tan Chao Fan (Egg Fried Rice).

On impulse, after that, we bought ourselves cold milk tea. We really should have bought hot ones because just minutes after we started drinking the milk tea, we were already freezing cold. As much as I remember, it was a great uphill struggle to get back to our rooms, fighting through the cold and tired feet.

I feel that today was actually quite a tiring day given all the walking I made. But yet again, I learn more new things about Wuhan and its people.

Johnathan likes this statue alot

I thought that these majestic bells
had a very haunting presence.