Day 10 - Zhu Hai Science and Technological Coast

We were in Zhu Hai for our last two nights in China.

The reason why Zhu Hai (The Sea of Pearl - loosely translated) was named as such is because it is famous for its Pearl harvesting.

The black line you see in the photo are actually Osyter/Clam farms which are used to make pearls! You can't really see them clearly in the photo, but the entire farm stretches across over a very wide area.

The trade coast was established in August 2001 by the central government. This is one of only eleven other trade development areas in China, the other trade development areas include Beijing, Shanghai and Shen Zhen.

The trade development area is aimed at companies who are looking for a R&D testing site. It offers a range of privileges and tax-benefits just like the other trade development areas. On top of that, there are special benefits that cater to specific businesses that are not found anywhere else in China.

The most notable observation of the trade development area is that the management sees the need to retain and find talents. With many schools and universities in the area, it even has a student area, known as the Pioneer Undertaking Park for Chinese Students studying abroad.

Aimed at young students and undergraduates looking to set up a business studying overseas returning home to set up a business in China, there are special benefits that only students can enjoy when they set up their businesses in the area.

However, the place is very much empty as well, but the difference between this site and the Torch place is that it is very much developed and ready to take in more investors.

Here's one of my favourite new friend, Eliz again! =p

Day 9 - (Yet another) Sun Yet Sen Memorial Park

When we arrived at the memorial park, all of us were waiting eagerly to enter the place as well and were desperately waiting for Xiao Deng to purchase the tickets. Because all of us wanted to use the washroom urgently.

A few of the guys were so desperate, myself included, that we actually went straight to the map and located where the washrooms were within the compound.

When we eventually entered the park, more than half of us literally ran for our lives to the washroom. So much so that...

Edward fell down, and that's Wen Song trying to help him up.

The washrooms became the first place we visited within the park compounds.

Most of us concluded that the toilets here were by far the best public toliets we've seen throughout our stay in China so far.

When we came out, we were then given a tour in the very house Sun Yet Sen stayed in, it was restored into a meusem that keeps many of Sun Yet Sen's belongings. We were not allowed to take any photos inside the buiding as the things inside the building were considered to be national tresures.

After the tour, we still had time to walk around the park.

From left: Vanessa, Yong Wei, myself, Ying Hui and Evelyn

Took a photo with Mr. Kam before we entered the other building,

The first thing we saw inside the building was a statue of Mr. Sun.

While Edward and Wen Song had other ideas;

And the ghastly looking figure in the background is Wen Song;

Ended up walking around the building with Ying Hui, Nicholas and Mr. Kam. We talked about our reservice issues and I found out that Mr. Kam still have 2 more cycles left in his reservice. Good for him! ROD loh!

Benson helped me take this picture of me with the young Sun Yet Sun.

We took another group photo at the 天下为公 wordings before leaving this place.

Day 9 - Strawberry Farm!!

This was what many of us had been waiting for. The strawberry farm! The strawberries are very fresh, and most important of all, they are fresh!

Many of us eagerly got off the bus in anticipation because we've been waiting for it ever since Xiao Deng told us about the farms and how fresh the strawberries were.



Here's a closer look!



Many of us placked the strawberries to our hearts content.



My two favourite new friends again!

Blur queen, Rong Xing


And Eliz (I swear her laughter is contagious beyond words)



While many of us were busy plucking, there was Lao Yao...

fooling around with his camera.

After spending a hour or so, we proceeded to check the weight of the berries and paid.

Look at all the contended faces. =)

While waiting for the rest to be done, I saw this sign that states that this area is a military area,

Which explains why we were pulled over when we were about to leave the village/state.

This military man came onboard and demanded us to show our Identification Cards, but after Xiao Deng explained to him who we were and what our purpose here was, he let us past without any major problems.

Day 9 - 长命村 / Hakka Village

We visited the Hakka village after lunch, which is a short distance from the Tea Village we visited earlier.

This village is also known as the 长命村 (Chang Ming Chun) simply because the average lifespan of the village people was 85 years old. The World's oldest human being came from this village at the age of 124, but she passed away a few months back, just one month after she received the title.

The reason why they people are so long-lived is because of the water they drink from the well.

Xiao Deng told us to bring our empty water bottles down from the bus when we arrived at the village so that we can bring with us a bottle of the well water that is said to bring long liveity.

Before we went onto the platform, Xiao Deng told us to wash our hands off this dragon structure as it'll bring us good luck and wealth.

What we did was to simply dip our hands into the water and gently wet ourselves from head to toe, before placing our hands into our pockets, a practice that signifies that we'll be bringing the wealth and good luck with us home. And we were told to be careful not to shake dry our hands as that would mean that we are throwing away our wealth.

After which , we went onto the platform to get our bottles filled with the 长命水. Xiao Den was afraid that we'll dirty the water if we filled the bottles ourselves, he filled the bottles for us instead, he ended up filling the bottles of all 38 of us, and that's certainly more than 38 bottles because there were some people with 2-4 bottles!

And I really love this random picture of Jasmine, it's really natural and beautiful. Sometimes, random pictures are the best ones!

After that, we proceeded to play a few activities that the hakka villagers do in their day to day life (not without paying of course).

Some of us went horse riding.

The horse ride was okay, I didn't had the time to get my camera after I went onto the horse. That damn villager hurried my horse off. @#%**!^!*`

We went one round in the mountain area behind the village and touched the 愿望石 (the wish stone) and made a wish. Rong Xing was one of the first to go off, but she must have the slowest pony of the lot because all of us over took her. I was the last one to go off and even my pony over took hers!

The villager asked me where do we come from and guessed we were from Taiwan, he was rather surprised when the answer came out as 新加坡, because he didn't expect our Chinese to be so good.

I told him that we're only good in the spoken aspect of the language, it's an entirely different story when we read and write.

While we were horse-riding, others were trying out their archery skills (I tried it out later when I came back from my horse riding)

Everyone seemed to be getting their hands on one try at least.

The bow was almost as tall as Yiling:

We kinda made her take this photo, thus her (act) sad face, I should've taken a full bodied one to better show the contrast in height.

And there was also a video of her 2 minute attepmt at trying to fire an arrow. We actually thought she'll be there the entire day. And nope, the video is not posted on YouTube. Yet. But it is posted on Blogger though. Hahaha!

While we were playing archery or horse-riding, there were those who didn't do both...

Wahahahaha!

The man himself, Mr. Xiao Deng!

Day 9 - Cha Jia Ming

Our first visit for the day was to the Tea Village, we were also told that there are not many company visits left on the list, there were only 2 more. And we are going to one later today.

The sensei was showing us how the tea leaves were warmed up and made ready for brewing.

Rong Xing and a few of us decided to try it out.

The lady was trying to explain to us how the LingZhi is brewed into soup/tea, and we were all given a sample of the drink. But while she's explaining, the rest of us were... taking photos of Edward giving the finger... and,



Steven Chow (Actually its Ying Hui lah, but he really looks like Steven Chow with this pair or sunglasses)


As you can see, the two stickers on his jacket were used to be his eyes, the stickers were given to us for the staff to identify us, instead, we were using the stickers for...

Evelyn and Vanessa

Poor Dickson,

we counted that there must be at least 15 such stickers on him.

I later fell victim to it as well. =p