DAY 13 - THE RELECTIONS ON THE 3 DAYS SAN XIA TRIP

Day 13 in Wuhan

TOday sunday is the third day in san xia and we are on the way back to our WUST school campus. THese aer some of the cruise having accomodations and provide the same service like our monnlight cruise

long hours ride again and i am able to see those beautiful you cai hua along the road

HOweve,r the driver stop uis a while at a nearby local product selling shop, and we actually bought a lot of yao shu 尧酥 the san xia famous local biscult back. Those orange plastic bags are from vivian but i hold it on my laps along the way back and it get me hurt and numb on leg hahh.

beautiful decoration for some business ceremony, along the street of Yi Chang, where the san xia located at.

共建宜昌 let's build yi chang together. I can see a lot of banners/words painted like this along the road adn streets of yi chang, even in Wuhan city too. China people are patriotik and they love their country well. We should learn from them to love well and build up our country stronger

Finally today is the day we are going back home to our WUST hostel. I miss WUST there so much!! In short, i'll like to conclude on my trip to visit san xia. Firstly, san xia the three gorges dams are spectacular and worth well to visit. IN the middle of the night, while i was sleeping due to overwalking hahha, my freinds witness how was the locks bought us to a higher sea level. That is a very good experience on watching it, the cruise queue and went into a platform with water, then the gfate will close and pump in with water, to increase the water height, and the cruise actually gone to a higher sea level. Travel more on some distances, and then cruise went into the second level of lock, close gate and pump on water to the same sea level as the next lock and continuees doing untill the fifth lock and reach san xia, which is hundreds meter higher than the standard sea level. How regret and kesian i was, that i was unable to witness this extraordinary process.

Second, is that the trip visit to shen nong xi. The waterway is so narrow that boat cannot pass through many of the obstacles and bottlenecks along the river, thus they need manpower to tied the boast with rough strings, pull and pass through bottle necks. This is how they call it la qian 拉纤. Poeple pulling on our boat at the bottlenecks and make us move forward against the streame; they sweat a lot even that's only 18'c of day, and their skins are dark and their hands are rough due to overworking and rough friction they have while pulling the string that tied down the boat. In the past time, those 船夫 people perform their hard task and pulling the passenger, naked, with a thin slippers, and working day and night and in winter or summer.

HOwever, today, the people 船夫 do not rely on la qian this boat pulling transportation to earn their livings anymore. They perform and demostrate this to tourist and the tourist industry they have, is the poeple major source of income. I am glad that they are advancing and dont have to do such tough and hard job anymore. But, i have found that, some locals here are over-promoting on local product and somehow hard-selling to foreign tourist. This made me to have some oppose relection compare to others OIP peers have done.

China is very different from what we have tought of in 30 years ago, poeple here are educated and they are smart using on their resources. Like today what we have seen, although la qian is a hard task to do but the numbers of poeple doing this job are reducing, and the distances they travel are lesser. They are performing this activities for tourisms promoting and to demostrate only how was their ancesstor used to have their livings like that.

I remember when we are on the boat, the local tour guide sell us CD on shen nong xi song singing, in 28 yuan per CD. I was initially think it was too expensive for a single CD but i bought it for my dad. She gave us everyone on a CD, on the shaking boat, to have a look and purchase the disk. However, one of our OIP peers droppped the CD in the boat floor. That CD is very slightly wet and the tour guide kindly ask him to purchase it. It is his fault to drop that CD, but he is not WILLING to buy that CD at all. After a while, xiang yu who actually bought a CD too he exchanged his nice good condition CD with the wet one.

In Singapore we know what is customer right and we know customer has the rights on getting a right product in a right condition and right price. I'm here not to tell who is in fault or who should be responsible/taking the losses on a CD, however, we must all learn to respect the others customer right and know your own right. Wiht my personal observation and thinking, the tour guide never has the idea on customer right while she sees the CD drop, but to have business mind to hard selling the disk to us. The students can to not pay the whole price fro CD, if he is not WILLING to purchase it, but to REPAY 50% losses and on the casings, of the CD. After all, it was just the paper casings drop to boat floor not the disk.

WE must know our customer right and learn to protect your right under a low binding country. Learn to reject the fault offer, and learn to negociate with people so that you are not the one to be taken advantage

The third, the bai di cheng 白帝城 that located with an old, respected, and famous four-sided Buddha temple. It dissapointed me at all after seeing monks/priest in the temple hard-forcing people to take over the wooden splinter on their hands, pray, and then take a 'red packet things' that they mention it will bless you, and finally put in some money into the wooden box. We have gone through those processes without any idea or explanation, pushing and directing here and there by the monks, and finally to the donate box to ask us donate money.

I can still remember that scence, where the monks was shouting at me while the male tour guide protect and pull me away from those monks, " NO!!!! PUT IN THE DONATE MONEY! PUT IN SOME DONATE MONEY!!!!!" The 'monk' was shouting quite aggresively, initially i never expect this to be happened and i was out of condition. After talking to the kind tour guide then i realised that it was the monk losses on his 'business' on letting me have the pray + wooden splinter + a red packet with rice and beans inside FREE. That is why he was so emotion and eager to let me 'donate' money and 'pay'

This is how i learn a valuable lessons in China. After this experience i started to be very carefull on how to give off money to temple and how to choose a good temple that are not fullfilling with ruleless 'monks'.

Do they have any idea that i can sue them under law?

They force people to perform business with them under unwillingness and with witness from the tour guide who pull me out from crowd, i really wish to make report and chase them out of that respectable old temple. Temple should not be a business place. there is no law in china stated the temple is a business place. But there is no law stating temple is not a business platfrom either. But ask your conscience, do you think you will like to have people like that your place where you pray and bless your God?

AND WHAT WILL YOU DO WHEN YOU SEE THAT HAPPEN TO YOUR PLACE OF PRAYING TO GOD?

Maybe this would be a somehow culture of temple in CHina, but that is not the manner, altitude that you have to temple.

Finally, i would like to express on negative experience on black temple in china, hard-selling in thier tourisms and also positive experience on witness great dams in the world, nice sceneries and having 2 comfortable nights in the cruise. Although i had some negative experience in China, China it is still a wonderfull and great country for me, and after all that teach me on a value lesson not to be such naive, careless when aboard to country and we must arlert and learn to protect ourself.