The teachers do not tell us what the Project Week is about. They only tell us it's compulsory and we have to do it. That being said, I think it's good that they don't tell us what we are supposed to get out of Project Week. The amount of experience you get out of project week is, to say the least, abundant.
Our group of four people decided to go to Xiamen, a small city in the southern parts of China. It is in fact across the sea from Taiwan. A small, typically Chinese city, full of small(by city standards) concrete buildings with tight metal bars for security on each window. some so ridiculously extended out like a giant birdcage. The whole city covers a small hill which is also dotted with numerous brick and concrete buildings of various age and there would be a couple new condominiums(the dream buildings, or their 'new thing') equivalent to our HDBs.
I have to confess, the impression I had of China before I actually went to Xiamen was, well, the least to say, unpleasant. I expected the air to be tainted with heavy smoke from abundant number of still-burning cigarettes and butts, car exhaust fumes from poorly engineered cars and god-knows-what from the factories nearby. However, contrary to this unpleasant image, the Xiamen I saw was quite the contrary. It was foggy, and it scared me for a moment, me thinking that "Oh shit, that's smog, and that's not gonna be good. We'll be coughing our way through the project week.". I don't know how bad the pollution is near the industrial areas or the airport in Xiamen. One thing I do know is that although the cars may lack the catalytic converters(which magically turns exhaust fumes into less toxic gas, such as carbon dioxide, and water) and there are millions of cigarettes out in the street, the air is surprisingly clean. It feels so clean in the hillside, that I thought the air was cleaner than Singapore.
Then we took a cab to our hostel, which was situated in a obscure corner of a road which disconnects itself and continues on the other side of the hill, and various other random places( there are about 3-4 strips of 'nan hua lu', and our hostel is at 42 nan hua lu). Although the cab ride was about 30 minutes long, they charged less than 50 yuan, which is less than 10 Singapore dollars.
A franchise of "International Youth Hostel", our Hostel is a comfortable, if frugal, place complete with a decent lounge, a TV, gorgeous garden and tables for reading and a pretty comprehensive bar. Completely contrary to our expectations, the beds were clean, and the windows had a nice view. When we heard our scout(Lovely's aunt) report that the place looks kinda 'dark' I was expecting a pretty shady place with a bit of dark deals going on in the sides and an unfriendly looking thug at the counter. Instead, we had a very cozy place, and we had a couple of nice ladies at the counter, and plenty of space for relaxation.
My brain fails me here. Will post more tonight, or sometime later.
