H O O N P A G E

My family and I were really grateful to the Lord for our trip to the most populous nation on the earth. It was original a toss between Taiwan or China. Why Taiwan? Well I went there for my army training years ago. My daughter was there during her secondary three year of her school. We thought it might be good to return to the land that we have had some fond memories. In the end we did not go to Taiwan because in comparison with China Taiwan  seems so plain and uninteresting. The other reason was that the queue for the China tour on the day of the Chan Brothers Holiday exhibition was rather short. Now that we have been to China, we thought was a good decision that we were there.

 The trip was undertaken on 8th -18th December 2007. We went immediately after the wedding of one of our members. The timing was perfect. The wedding ended at 8 pm and we left for the airport at 10.30 pm.

When we arrived in Beijing on the morning of 9th Dec, we were hit by the coldest weather we had ever experienced. the temperature at minus 5 degrees Centigrade. Talking about cold. This is probably the coldest temperature we have had. We were immediately put on the coach and bus of to the tourist sites. We went to the fobidden city, the Tien An Men square and the 13 Ming Emperor Tomb for the day. What a treat to be able to visit all these historical sites and visualize how the Chinese Emperor could have lived in those days. It is not comfortable by our standard but imagine the sheer size of th4e palace and all the resources that were spent just to upkeep one emperor. The building of the Ming tomb was just as remarkable. We literally have to climb 9 storeys down the tomb to see the resting place of the emperor and his empresses.

The visit to the Great Wall of China was just as incredible. But the thought of the thousands and tens of thousands of laborers that were killed just to complete the gigantic project is unthinkable.Yet they did it without modern technology. That morning of our visit to the great wall was a wonderful experience in more ways than one. We saw the snow coming down from the sky for the first time in our lives.

The rest of our trip to Beijing and Shanghai seems blend comparing to the visit to the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. Nonethe less, we have had the joy of visiting our Singaporean friends in Shanghai.  It was our joy(especially the ladies in my family) that we have several opportunities to shop at the  shopping malls that sell genuine as well as fate stuffs.

On the whole, it has been an enjoyable experience visiting China,the country so close to our hearts. We  can’t help but felt the awesomeness of  a country can come so far in their development so quickly. It is just amazing. I suspect being a country selected to host the next Olympic game must have contibuted to this.  I would recommend all to pay a visit to this great nation.