China – A Land of Many Faces

China – A Land of Many Faces
By Shree Ravi

The temperatures dipped but our spirits did not. Unlike many of my Singaporean friends who frequent China, the land was brand new to me. And judging by the stares I got from passers-by, I can safely assume I was also equally brand new, to the point of being alien-ish.

Overjoyed at seeing the familiar faces of our Chinese counterparts, we sought eagerly to reinforce the connection forged in March. Although we had landed in the middle of their examinations, what warmed us up in the cold of Kunming was the fact that our friends still played extremely gracious hosts. If there was a place we wanted to see, a dish we wanted to taste, an item we wanted to bargain for, people we needed to speak Mandarin to, or even a freak incident like a lost painting we needed to track down (all this should actually be stated in the first person singular but our group is BIG on solidarity J), they guided us with an alacrity that was extremely endearing.

What struck me as interesting about Yunnan was its fairly simple economic structure that depended on the natural beauty of the place. Rightly called the Spring City, it is not surprising to hear that it is Asia’s largest flower market when you pass along the gorgeous flower-decked pavements lining the city’s roads. Three days were simply not enough to soak in all the beauty and history of the place.

From the serene calm of Yunnan, we moved onto a faster pace of life in Guangzhou. Being a bigger and a “citier” city, we had the comfort of unleashing our concrete-jungle born selves in a spree of shopping, supper-ing and KTV-ing with our pals from Sun Yat Sen University. Apparently, the food in Guangzhou is to die for and since that is indeed the way to a Singaporean’s heart, the city became an instant favorite. Even my own vegetarian existence had its moments of bliss due to the Custard Baos that I devoured in every grand dim-sum supper outing. Apart from the food theme, we visited sights laden with historical memories, the most important being the Sun Yat Sen Presidential Palace. The auditorium is a prestigious place for artists all over the world to perform in and a tremendous crowd-puller.

Quite inconsequentially, it was here that we first spotted a very interesting trend among the tourists we saw: couples, mostly Americans, who had with them Chinese babies that they were in the process of adopting. Due to China’s single-child policy and preference for the male child, a lot of Chinese baby girls are discarded or given up for adoption, and there is a market for these kids among childless Western couples. The sight of these babies with unmistakably Asian features being cared for by utter foreigners, and to be raised so far away from their homeland and biological families, left me with bittersweet thoughts…

Guangzhou passed us by and Xiamen treated us to an experience that was totally different from the former two cities. Yet the one constant factor was the warm reception extended to us by our Chinese friends in every city. The Xiamen University students took organization to a whole new level by distributing mini booklets on our schedule (down to the tiniest detail) and while it was an exhaustive itinerary, we had a memorable time to say the least.

The university itself was a grand sight. The main campus lay sprawling with the mountains behind and the ocean in front with Taiwan just around the corner! As if this was not impressive enough, the other campus lies on an island just a ferry-ride away from the main one complete with a golf course to boot! Nevertheless, despite all this novelty, Xiamen itself gave us a feeling of comforting familiarity, much having to do with the fact that the city was modeled after Singapore ten years ago. Time passed swiftly in Xiamen, on the islands and on the mainland, and always in the company of our friends who pampered us to bits. The pastries they prepared for each one of us for our flight to Hangzhou bears testament to the generous hospitality with which they showered us.

The grand finale: Hangzhou. We visited our friends from Zhejiang University, also known as “Cambridge of the East”. It was indeed an honour for us to interact with students of such brilliant calibre. They too exhibited the heightened sense of hospitality and warmth that we had experienced unfailingly throughout the trip. Our last stop was very similar to the first in that both Hangzhou and Yunnan possess immense natural beauty quite unlike any other. The Green Lake in Kunming and the West Lake in Hangzhou are captivating landscapes that no digital camera, however pixel-ed it may be, can do justice to.

The fortnight drew thus to an end. The knowledge that we may never see some of our Chinese friends again dwelled heavily on us and had made for teary farewells at every airport. Among the tears, hugs and exchange of gifts and cards, we realized that in a span of four weeks, we had reached across to another nation and forged some precious friendships. It is this strong bond with like-minded young people that we had formed on this invaluable trip that I cherish the most. I hope that as we grow to become the leaders of tomorrow, we can always lean back on this solid platform of friendship and cooperation built in youth, to initiate a united strive for peace and excellence in our respective fields.