first impressions
day one in Beijing and observed some interesting things. first, jing has such a luxurious apartment all by herself! nice condo with security guards in lobby and with van gogh and other imitation paintings hung up in apartment. then i step out and like few streets down some ppl live in dwellings so tiny and cramped i cannot help but really feel the stark contrast.... and i thought it was interesting how you had to go up to counter and buy paper tics to take the subway. and u hav 'subway conductor' sitting at entrance to tear your ticket.... which made me wonder, what if it's rush hour.. how they manage? i guess i'll see in the days to come. cos when i went out today it wasn't even rush hour and there were already quite a lot of ppl.... what other random things did i do? ate a o.60 RMB (about 12 sg cents) dou4 sha1 bing4 and felt very happy. ate very cheap jiao3 zi at dumpling fast food restaurant. visited one of the biggest bookstores in Beijing and was really impressed. cos there really were a lot of adults seriously pouring over non-fiction books.... ppl sitting on the floors really studying books... dunno if it's cos everyone is so thirsty for knowledge, or driven by pressure to upgrade themselves in competitive environment, but their shang4 jin4 xin1 is quite impressive. and baffled by how they have so many translated foreign texts... saw like translated Stiglitz econ textbooks among others.... yet they have no foreign mag. perhaps only National Geographic. no TIME, no NEWSWEEK/ Economist whatsoever... why. i mean if they allow foreign texts, which technically are considered foreign publications, why not magazines... hmm unless maybe this bookstore doesn't stock? dunno yet. haven seen enough =) anyway quite difficult to find internet cafe here... so prob wun be able to blog till some days later. =)

ruthless competition or outdated technology?
when i tried to put Itune files into my Creative MP3 player, they could not even be found, which led me to rashly conclude and wonder if fierce competition between Apple and Creative MP3 players has led to Creative players not supporting song formats created by Apple products? but then upon looking up aac files, (Itune songs are saved as aac files; all the technicalities confuse me; only know it's supposedly better and newer than mp3 file formats or something =P) realized that it's a relatively new thing and my old mp3 player model prob didn't support such a file format... i'm guessing lah. if anyone else is better informed, can enlighten me =)

and so i leave for Beijing tonight... wonder if i will be able to access blogger? since according to guidebook there is a "Great Firewall of China".... would try email blogging, good if it works; if not, i guess i'll disappear for 12 days. let's hope i dun meet shady cab driver tmr and really disappear... i'm hoping so hard i'll be fine (which i think i will be) else i'll never be allowed to travel alone/with a fren even say a teeny part of my trip, ever...

i must say i'm pretty impressed by how efficiently can be done here... just applied to convert my foreign driving licence last tuesday and i received it via registered mail today! it took ONE week... even though they told me it would prob take two. anyway, reason why i was so ON about converting was cos fren told me that they are going to change to new system soon whereby if u convert ur foreign licence to spore licence, u will only get class 3A instead of class 3, and cos dad drives manual car, means i'll never be able to drive here if i get a class 3A licence (auto cars only)... and i'll prob take ages to pass if i attempt to take manual driving test here... so i cheated and converted while old system is still in place =P but actually dunno how true rumour was... but better to be kiasu and get everything over and done with than hav to go through all that trouble right... =P

i finally watched two shows i've been wanting to watch for a long time- Wong Kar Wai's In The Mood For Love, and Zhang Yimou's Not One Less . Despite many ppl telling me otherwise, (eg. mum said show only worth watching for the many cheongsams Cheung looked ravishing in) i quite liked the former... true, Wong Kar Wai's films aren't exactly the most exciting films to watch, but i kinda liked how he explored the simple theme of what happens when your spouse strays? so then is it justified for you to be unfaithful also? (on other hand, think 2046 has more themes packed into it and i dun quite understand quite a few bits) i actually quite liked how the characters Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung played remained for the most part mere companions though they liked each other and despite it being so tempting for them to gao3 extramarital affair... sad ending though. and i didn't get why Tony Leung had to go to Cambodia to whisper his secret... what was significance of Cambodia?
Not One Less reminded me how rare an opportunity it can be for some kids to even attend school... and the different ways poverty was portrayed in the show reminded me how i always take things for granted, complain about trivial things, mull over silly probs... to some, even having chalk can be a luxury. or having a sip from a can of coke, which you share with 15 other classmates...

songs are supposed to lift your spirits but i think so many of these Chinese songs have such sad and depressing lyrics that they can make you more depressed... and songs jun sent me are so sad too... why's everyone pining for loved ones all the time...are there really a lot of broken hearts out there. maybe cos when we're happy we revel in the moment with others and tend less to pause and reflect. only in our darkest moments do we really think about lost friends/relationships/things that didn't work out that are still haunting us? and i'm totally overplaying JJ's Jiang Nan (which i only very recently discovered); i bet i'll grow so totally sick of it =P

ps: why are pop song lyrics mostly about relationships or relationship problems. imagine if a pop song has a nice melody but lyrics dominated by political content/ preachy stuff/filial piety/poverty in Africa.... would it be able to gain as much popularity/ become a megahit?

i'm actually quite disgusted that many sec sch kids hav the latest handphone models in town.... and are more than willing to flaunt their expensive high tech gadgets.... not because i myself have an 'outdated' phone but cos i think it's such a waste of money...? i wun be surprised if many squander their parents' money to compete with classmates to see who has the coolest/latest phone model... how often do we need all these 3G services and all the additional functions that come with phones these days... well at least i only use my phone to call ppl and sms... i dun really understand how many ppl here are so "phone-conscious"... like when new models come out then like must go and change new phone kind... though phones are getting more and more advanced, i still personally feel that energy spent on making cooler gadgets that sometimes have somewhat limited practicality can be better invested in other industries/ used for coming up with more meaningful inventions?