Shanghai - Still holds a special place in my heart

Has it really been 5 years? Off to the CEIBS reunion. Until now, i still think that it was the best decision that i have ever made.

My Favorite things






My Dearest Friends


And a dynamic, ever changing environment

On July 17, 2008 - I was on Huang Shan

I remember the bus trip to the foot of the mountain with local Chinese families carrying bags filled with food and water, wanting to make the ascent on foot. Mind you, this wasn't some tiny hill but a ascent of at least 6-8 hours straight of stairs and total uphill. We rolled our eyes in amazement.

I remember taking the cable car to the back of the mountain. Carrying our heavy overnight packs up the slopes and the stairs to our hotel.

I remember how during the night, there was a mountain wide black out, where there was no emergency power and how the entire mountain was pitch black. I remember how it was a full moon that hot summer night.

I remember the wonders of carrying our heavy packs doing the descent down the mountain from the front.

I remember the mobs of people squeezing on that tiny mountain steps just inches away from the cliff with nothing in between.

I remember the beauty of the place and yet wishing that it was a much easier trip because after that we were so wiped out..

Huang Shan

Bowled Over

Decided to go for a game of bowling spontaneously after dinner with my friends. We were bored, we were stuffed and we wanted to do SOMETHING, ANYTHING.

So off we went to play bowling, after playing 4 games, I couldn't feel my arm or thighs anymore. One of my friends played a truly mindblowing game during the last round. Mind you, he doesn't bowl regularly, he didn't use his own ball or gear. HE JUST DID IT.

Presenting to you..

Charles, 6 strikes in a row, 1 spare, in the same game.



Beer, Ciggies, good friends just hanging out. It was a good farewell to Charles in his last night in Shanghai before leaving tomorrow.

Where is the Real China ?

"Shanghai ? People would tell me 'No..no..no.. Shanghai is not the real China.' Beijing ? 'No..no..no.. Beijing is not the real China.' Neither is Hangzhou, Suzhou, Guangzhou, Xian. After being in China for 10 years, I still don't know where the real China is" - Professor in Marketing Class

Coming to Shanghai for my MBA program, of course, I was one of those people here in search of the elusive "real China". After traveling to Beijing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Xian, Hohhot, Nanjing, I was just being a tourist and did not manage to see the "real China".

I remembered when I first arrived, one of my classmates told me that only a true Chinese could understand Feng Xiaogang's works fully. Almost immediately, I started to hunt high and low for his movies. I appreciate the dry humor in his movies and in fact, he is one of my favorite directors now. Yet, there is always a nagging thought at the back of my mind when I watch one of his movies, "Was I supposed to have laughed at that last line? Am I not Chinese enough to understand him?"

Other attempts to understand the real China included watching the CCTV - 1990 version of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It was long, painful, and I had to use English subtitles. Haiz.. Jinyong? Is Jinyong Chinese enough? Going to visit my ancestral village in Guangzhou in end Feb, contemplating learning Chinese art history. Considering that here I was a native Chinese speaker with grandparents from Guangzhou and Fujian, I would think that I was as Chinese as they go. But here lies the irony, I was only Chinese in Singapore and only Singaporean in China.

If I could just make a humble suggestion, there is no Real China. There is a Real China like there is a unicorn, Santa Claus or a real Singaporean. For many people, their version of real china are girls in cheongsams working in the fields, rugged farmers smiling up at them and toilets that are only pits with no doors. A real Singaporean would be Mr Kiasu? Phua Chu Kang ?

In fact, I am sharing to you the most valuable lesson that I have received here. There is no Real China. This is a country so big and varying, filled with people and various extremes. This is something to be experienced on a day to day basis, to see for yourself how diverse all these people are. China, a country that is still evolving and defining itself, and I am glad to have spent the last year being here.

Temple Fair in Beijing

Going to Beijing at an opportune time for the 庙会 or temple fairs, when I think of temple fairs, I somehow associated them with yukatas and Japan, curious to see my first Chinese one in action, we made our way to the Ditan Park.



Mobs of people, queues to buy tickets to enter the fair, kawaii cow figurines. We made our way into the fair apprehensively, but we were greeted with tons of stalls selling cute little items, food stalls from all over China, game stalls, puppet shows, lion dances, performances in various corners of the park. It was plenty of fun just walking around the park.




Bought a cute little red carp for the New Year...

CNY At Yuyuan

Went on the first day of the Chinese New Year at the Yuyuan Gardens in Shanghai. Since it was the first day of Chinese New Year, both me and J did not want to invoke any bad karma from swearing at people. To illustrate how much I really wanted good karma for the year as opposed to what happened last year, I had on lucky red undies just to be safe.

Maybe we were the only ones who felt about good karma, because even though it was the first day of the Chinese New Year, it did not stop anyone from cutting our queue or shoving us around. By the end of the day when we escaped the masses, we were chanting "karma" like a Buddhist sutra.


Anyway, we made it through the bridge of nine turns in Yuyuan for some good luck after massive amounts of effort.

CNYE Celebrations Along the Bund

Went for a fantastic seafood buffet dinner at the Westin. The Westin in Shanghai has a solid reputation for offering the best brunch in town, after dinner today, I might have to concur. Followed by a fireworks viewing at the Captain's Bar.

Met a Spanish film crew who was just filming the fireworks next to me (I know we are on Spanish TV tomorrow because the camera swung by our face at least 10 times during the night). Walked along the Bund with vendors selling tidbits, trinkets, and best of all, the giant lantern (孔龙灯). Setting off fireworks, and with some of the help from friendly passerbys, we went off our first lanterns after making our new year's wish.

Happy Chinese New Year !


Shaky Video of the Fireworks on the Bund coastline at Captain's Bar


Setting off our first Lantern into the night sky

Happy Chinese New Year !

So looking forward to CNY this year with J flying in, we are heading to Beijing for 3 days and spending the rest in Shanghai. This would be my 3rd trip to Beijing, with Dec 07, Feb 08 and now Jan 09. Even though, this might be my 3rd trip, but there is something about Beijing that I am never tired of...


鬼街 - The Beijing Supper Street


Tian An Men (We wanted to visit Mao's body in the first time we were there, but the amount of people queuing for it was ridiculous)


Leading to the Forbidden Palace .. (The last time I was there, some of the rooms were under serious renovation for the Olympics. In this trip, I will finally see the restored splendor)


Temple of Heaven - Where all the emperors prayed annually to the Gods



Shui Li Fang & Bird Nest


Great Wall


Summer Palace - Went there twice, once in Winter, once in Spring. There is something about the audio guide and the captions in the palace that always made me feel this anger towards the 八国联军. If I can describe the feeling, it would be:"OMG, there was some fabulous XXX thing but the army that came to invade burnt everything down, except for the stone bridge which is inflammable"


Panjiayuan 潘家园 Antique Market - Nothing but junk honestly. Fun though, to bargain for a few trinkets here and there.


Beihai Garden


WangFuJing Food Street


The most delicious yogurt I have ever tasted along Zhong Lo Gu Xiang

Other memorable aspects of my beijing trip, such as the day trip to Tianjin(there's really nothing there..dear god except for really good chestnuts), Lama Temple which was one of the best temples I had seen in China so far, going for a hot-springs bath in the outskirts of beijing, HouHai - the clubbing area by the lake, Beijing's best Peking duck at Dadong ! I can't wait for my Beijing trip, not to mention the Hairy Crab buffet at Westin, Shanghai during CNYE. J J J Come Sooonn

Suzhou Micro & Obituary Title

There was an exercise in my leadership class that wanted me to come up with my own personal mission statement. I couldn't manage to come up with something that I felt comfortable with, so I came up with my obituary.

"She made a shitload of money while being a good daughter, mother, manager and friend"

No photos today, I woke up at 530am to prepare for a company visit in Suzhou. This company was a engineering/manufacturing company comprised of six joint ventures doing equipment like pressure gauges, valves to other parts.

They treated us graciously, we talked to the CEO who reminded me of my own father very much. Walking around these machines reminded me of my Dad's own factory when I was younger, and made me feel rather nostalgic. Here was a man who had no airs, walked around the factory in the same blazing yellow windbreaker as the same as his staff, who talked in simple and power metaphors. Here was a good one that he used to illustrate about cultural differences:-

"A Chinese Soldier and A Japanese Soldier are fighting on the battlefields with their bayonets. They come into close contact with each other and started on a sword fight.

The Japanese soldier will remove the bullets from his gun.
The Chinese soldier, if he loses the sword fight, will just pull the trigger to shoot the Japanese soldier"
In both scenarios, they just did what was normal in their cultures.

The CEO later gave me an autographed copy of his book on his style of leadership and life. My classmate who went with me cannot get over how the factory worker's pay(1500 rmb) in a month was less than his post MBA pay in a day.

Job Dating

I went for a job fair and a headhunter event today. Trying to find the perfect job is not easy, very much like waiting for Prince Charming to come and well, not everyone is Cinderella material. Some of us have to be the ugly step-sisters.

With little booths and tables set up for each company and candidates running from booth to booth, a job fair feels very much like a mass speed dating session with a "come, and get some of this". A match made in Heaven takes alot of legwork involved.

Whereas on the other hand, a headhunter event feels more along the lines of, "pimp me pimp me" or "i'm pimp-able material ! " as I run from booth to booth, explaining my strengths like a broken recorder and throwing around CVs like crazy.

Need.A.Job.Soon