The Year of the Pig

While we still had the chance, Kim, his wife, Kyle, and I went to see Mao's dead body and got up really early this morning to visit Mao's Mausoleum. When we got there, there was a long queue of other morbid onlookers waiting to get a glimpse of this womanizer. Fortunately, the queue moved quickly and I was able to see his right side basking under a heat lamp, enclosed in a class coffin like a show piece at a museum, in ten seconds. I went back in line that stretched out for a great distance around the mausoleum to get a ten second glimpse of his left side.

We took the subway back to Wudaokou, then transferred onto a bus to take us to Yuanmingyuan (Old Summer Palace). This time, we went to have a look at the most popular area of the ruins and took the North East entrance but then we realised that we had to pay for admission. To get around this problem, Kyle and I took the back route and hopped over a low fence to breach entry. While we were able to, Kim's wife couldn't conceive doing such a thing, so sadly, Kim stayed behind with his wife while the two of us continued forth.

When I went to see Ludo give a speech at the Bookworm, I was introduced to another CSer by the name of Daniel, and he had invited me out to his reunion dinner party on the eve of Chinese New Year. I brought Kyle along to the gathering in Sihuidong, which couldn't have been further away from Wudaokou. I was surprised to meet so many Singaporeans there, all schoolmates of one another.

The party went off to a good start as we found ourselves quickly integrating with the friendly and social Singaporeans with introductions. The home-cooked food that was served moments later was a treat! Before long, we were out in the courtyard of the apartment complex, lighting off Chinese firecrackers along with the rest of the country. With everyone out lighting these explosives into the midnight sky, it was like WW3 had begun. And this went on for hours on end. Watch the video!

It was like nothing I've ever seen.





Chinese New Year 2007 Marathon


Chinese New Year 2007 Bombardment