Trip to Tianjin

Hey all,


I am Gordon from 3H1. For now I am in High Flyer class. I am supposed to blog about our trip to Tianjin on Monday but was too ill to do so. We have more or less adapted to the weather here but I still caught a cold ):


Anyway, we set off at around 8am on Monday morning. Our first stop was to visit the Sino-Singapore collaboration to establish a Tianjin eco-city. This project is a big-scale project as this eco-city will become a platform for the innovation and application of technologies in ecological and environmental protection.





To establish such a city, several components have been taken into consideration, such as the industrial plan, land conditions, master plan, spatial layout, ecological layout, alternative energy, water utilization, transportation, community construction and refuse treatment. The main idea highlights features such as ecological priority, people-orientation, modern industries and green transportation. This project is targeted for completion in 10 to 15 years and the population is estimated to be 350,000.


Then we went to have a very sumptuous lunch, thanks to Mr Tag (:


Next was our visit to Nankai School. This school has produced many political leaders such as the former Premier Zhou Enlai and current President Hu Jintao. We went on a tour round the school and found out more about its history, particularly on Zhou Enlai.












liki Zhou Enlai’s seat


Then we went to Wenhuajie for some shopping ^^





Dinner was on Mr Tag again, thanks Mr Tag!

hi.

I am jordy. Back in hwa chong bukit timah campus, I am in cluster 3S3. Here in Beijing satellite school, I am in the high flyers class. lol. The classes sound very cool in BSC.


Today was rather fun. We woke up early to visit 香山, xiang shan. The journey there was by bus and we gathered at the school gate at 8am before boarding the bus.

At first we passed through the 买卖街 to reach the entrance of the 香山. The place was selling sweets, bags, our favourite 羊肉串, and also trekking sticks. the tour guide gave us instructions and after that it was free and easy for us to climb to reach the top of the hill. We were supposed to trek and return to the 东门,east gate by 12 noon, after which we will be issued our MacDonalds lunch.

The entrance of 香山, xiang shan.

The trek was long and arduous. initially the roads were not very steep. after a while, we found the road getting steeper and steeper. The air there was very fresh and there was a lot of scenary all around us for us to feast our eyes on. There were many chcekpoints on the way up to the top of the hill. Each of the checkpoints were filled with people snapping photos and selling drinks and ice pops.

The sense of satisfaction upon reaching the peak was amazing. From the peak, we could almost see the whole of the lands below. The view was slightly dampened as there were some fog above the lands beneath. Other than that, the view was simply amazing. many of us enjoyed the scenary with the ice pops.

After that was our MacDonald's lunch. It was ma la chicken sandwich and hot chocolate with french fries. the meal although was simple but it was rather nice. we all knew that for the interesting trip to the botanical gardens, we had to sacrifice some of our lunch.


Next was the trip to the botanical gardens. We visited the memorial museum for 曹雪芹。He wrote 红楼梦。The guide was informative. We read about how the book was actually about the other people in his life when he was young. He died shortly after his young son died in an illness. The muesuem was well visited by many people in the world.

Hwachong BSC 24 October 2008

Hello all.

As the first time I'm writing on this blog, I should give a short introduction about myself.
I am Cai Yang Bill, from Cluster 3H1. Different people have different opinions of me, but generally I think that people will think me as a fun person.

24th of October was a really eventful day, considering that the day's outing was to the famous sites which hosted the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In the morning of the 24th, the High Flyer class had history and then chinese literature lessons. History lesson was on Chinese history, about generally the Qing, Han, Tang and Ming Dynasties.
Here's the lesson outline:

Qing Dynasty
Lasted from 221 BC - 207 BC

Significance of Dynasty
Set up the imperial system, creating the position of "Emperor" (replacing "king" in the past) and the caste system.

Built the Terracotta Army, and Qing Shi Huang's Tomb (which is rumoured to be extremely extensive and huge).

First dynasty to construct the Great Wall

Han Dynasty

Lasted from BC 202-AD 220

Much warfare, unrest during this dynasty, creating a period of West Han Dynasty and East Han Dynasty.

Significance of Dynasty

First dynasty to "open up" the Silk Road (Land & Sea); the Silk Road served as a platform in which cultures, economies and religion interacted and was exchanged.

Tang Dynasty

Lasted from AD 618 - AD 907

Period of great prosperity and wealth

Significance of Dynasty

First female emperor - Wu Ze Tian

Ming Dynasty

AD 1368 - AD 1644

Significance of Dynasty

Built the Ming part of the Great Wall, which is what most tourists see today in Badaling and other tourist sites.

Zheng He went to the West during the Ming Dynasty; people speculate that he even reached present day Kenya (east African coast).

The Chinese literature lesson was very enriching; not only did we learn new words by reading poems, we also learnt more about the purposes of the author, context of when the work was done,... and generally more or less understood the feelings, the atmosphere and the ideological systems in place in China then.

After these lessons, we went to the school canteen, ate our lunch and gathered on the ground floor of the hostel.

We set off, and Ben Tang, Derrick were all feeling very excited about the trip.

Apparently, Liki wasn't. (Or he was using too much of MSN last night).

Haha. Anyway, for me at least, I had some expectations of what the Bird Nest Stadium and the Water Cube was to be. After having seen the Olympic Games on television, my expectations of the Olympic sites were quite high.

And it seemed that my expectations were all met when I saw the National Stadium from afar.

National Stadium

After accounting for everyone, we set off by ourselves. Me, Wei Chuan and Sherman, along with a few others, went to eat first. The food wasn't great, cup noodles and instant food. But we ate it still, knowing that we'll need the energy. Then we set off to the National Stadium to explore its inside.We discovered that whatever one sees on the television screen or even outside of the stadium, it can't beat the atmosphere and feeling of just being inside the stadium. The sheer size of the stadium completely amazed me. And many things really brought back memories of events during the Beijing Olympics.

The track on which Usain Bolt broke the 100m World Record.

Water Cube

When visiting the Water Cube, we watched a water fountain show.

The diving platforms of the diving events in the 2008 Olympics.

Now, I feel that it is appropriate for me to do some reflection on the visit to the two Olympic sites. Firstly, I must say that the visit indeed had a great impact on me. I don't know why, but when I watched the Games on TV, there seem to be a veil, a covering over which makes the Games somewhat unreal. But the visit to the sites really helped to remove the veil, and it really allowed me to understand what I watched in the Olympics in June. The visit also made me in awe of the ability of China today to create such structures that undoubtedly worked to perfection during the Beijing Olympics.

The lessons also really gave me a new perception on Chinese history and literature. The teacher's comprehensive teachings, though can be difficult to understand at times, were mostly understandable and really have depth. It also, to a certain degree, inspired in me an interest to learn more and discover more in these two areas.

Okay, I will sign off now. But remember:

Beijing Welcomes You.

And London 2012 as well!

Today, we went to the zoo to see the animals there. It was very fun and exciting and all of us were extremely happy to have the opportunity to visit the zoo. When we entered the zoo, all of us went to see the pandas, which we were most interested in. The pandas were mostly white and black, but its butt was brown due to some unknown reason. This are some pandas we saw.

Panda crawling on wood

Panda busy eating leaves

After viewing the pandas for a good half an hour, many of us were so mesmerised by their beauty that we purchased panda hats for souvenirs and to also keep our ears warm in the cold winds.

After the interesting pandas, we viewed the bears which were even more interesting. They were brown and hairy. They were looking up at us with their big black eyes and there was a sort of man to bear connection, enabling us to admire their magnificent beauty. There was a sign that said "No feeding the bears" but many people were still throwing food at the bears. However, the bears were quite slow and sleepy and the food sort of just bounced off their heads. That was quite interesting, but we were still more interested in examining the bears.

Following that, we visited several other places such as the aquarium which was spectacular and fabulous. There was a wide range of fishes on show, ranging from small to big(Sturgeons), thin to fat (Sturgeons). We also watched a great show about the sea lions and the dolphins. Some of the animals in the zoo were also only available in china and we were more interested in those as it was special.

Besides the zoo, we also went to the planetarium

In conclusion, the trip was a fruitful one. We learn to be patient in a crowded bus.

Today Beijing is cold. We tried to keep warm in the cold outside. But that did not affect our spirit of adventure.

Han Wei

Welcome to Hwachong BSC October 2008

The new semester has started for BSC Beijing. Mr Samuel Lim came to send the HP boys off. There were other teachers too. Mrs Rosalind Lee came and gave each of the teachers special Ba Gua care packages. She gave me two packets of coconut milk to bring there. Then there was Mr Chang, Mr Sng and Ms Vivien Sim.


This group of boys are specially grouped by CCA. The Victors comprises mainly of sportsmen and the High Flyers are boys who are mainly in the fine arts of music, art, debate and the uniform groups. Both groups are different but they seem to mingle well.

We all clapped when we touched down at Beijing on Monday, 20th October 2008 at 1530hrs. This is the first time we flew with Air China. The service was not the best and we had no 100 over movies to choose from or an ice cream at the end of the meal but the beautiful thing is that none of the boys complained. Instead they found a lot of fun playing their own games or chatting with friends or just catching a nap.

Our first dinner was delicious. The chicken drumstick tasted even better than before. And all of them only took one. But the boys forgot to let the ladies go first and so the teacher from Nanyang got to start another queue. The problem was the girls came in and sat down at their tables while the boys queued right at the table where the food was. Ting Yit said that he was pressurized to start first and he did.

After dinner, the boys also did their own washing up. I am sure we are all so proud of them. They were really doing the own trays up.

Then we are off to bed and the next morning we had a video

conference with Mr Hon and Mr Lim, a board director on Wednesday. By then most of the boys already have their uniform and they look splendid. Can you spot any of your friends or students here?

The weather was foggy when we arrived and remained like that for two days until last night. Winds blowing at top speed and heavy rain cleared the air for our visit to the zoo. Although our visit to Tiananmen square was not very successful because of the fog and a blockade, we enjoyed ourselves in the Beijing planning museum. The guide was informational and entertaining. This morning we had an exciting time trying to squeeze up 104 to go to the zoo. We got ready to set off by 8am but the overcrowded buses kind of delayed everything. We just could not get up because not many got down. Eventually we decided to try and squeeze. The boys had a good time learning about the peak hour crowd and they told me that they learned that everything is possible, even getting out of an overly crowded bus.

This morning we went to the zoo and managed to catch some pandars playing in the cage. I took some pandars that were rescued from the Wenchaun earthquake. They are really cute and playful. I will let the boys share more.

The special panda museum was opened and inside this museum is a wall of red coloured clay tiles. Etched on them were the well wishes of the local chinese for the successful opening of the Olympics and the prayer for strength to rebuild Sichuan province. I was moved by what I read. These were all done by children from all parts of China.

I shall end the blog with the pictures of the panda bears. The boys are really learning to look after each other. They will tell me who is not well and they show concern about how to feed their not so well friends. Beijing is cold and getting colder because there is a cold snap coming. Here's Esther signing off.