我太喜欢周楠了！

我太喜欢周楠了！
By Yeo Zhi Wei

Embarking on the return leg of the Sino-Singapore Exchange was something I was truly looking forward to. Having hosted them while they were in Singapore in March, I had made many good friends and was thus very excited to once again meet up with them and resume the relationships that had temporarily taken a backseat over the April to May period of school.

Perhaps the two long months had dulled my memory of the amount of teasing I had suffered at the hands of the said titular character/creature over my less than ideal standard of Chinese, she wasted no time in resuming what she left of the day we said goodbye in Changi Airport. Having just escaped to Hangzhou from a scorching Xiamen sun (and unfortunately having no noticeable improvement in my mandarin), my complaint of “我要熔化掉了 (I am going to melt)” with guffaws of laughter from her. I needed to be reminded why I missed her. Zhou Nan redeemed herself somewhat the following day by taking us out for an excursion around Hangzhou and for a romantic walk around the West Lake.

Nonetheless, I was overjoyed to meet all these friends again in each of the different cities and they wasted no time in showing their hospitality to their Singaporean friends. i.e. us. An example would be a flashback to the first day of the trip, upon reaching Kunming, we met up with several of the Chinese students and on the first night we were whisked off to a karaoke joint with Ye Feng where we were treated to first class Chinese hospitality. Despite meeting us for the first time, Ye Feng’s friends insisted on hosting us for the night and settling the bill. They insisted that as long as we were Ye Feng’s friends, we were their friends. This taste of Chinese hospitality was merely foreshadowing of greater things to come.

What really blew me away at this trip were the various university campuses that we visited. If we thought that NUS were big, nothing could prepare us for the mega campus that the Chinese universities were situated. While NUS can boast of having the Kent Ridge and Bukit Timah campuses, each of the Chinese universities had at least four sprawling campuses to call home. The compounds boasted of beaches, lakes, golf driving ranges and there was even a University island in Guangzhou, where all the provincial universities had campuses situated!

This 4th Sino-Singapore Exchange has been a very enriching programme for me. Not only have I been exposed to different cultures and cities, I have also fostered many long-lasting friendships among the Chinese and fellow Singaporeans alike. This is something that I will always treasure and keep close to my heart.