Day 84 12-5

And so this commences the last week of our stay here in Beijing! We thought that since it's our last week here and we don't have much time left to explore Beijing's wonders, we figure that we should fully utilise our time. So it starts today.

We started our day by going to the gym, which is our standard practice every Monday since the beginning of our trip to Beijing. Then off we went to Lama Yonghegong Temple. We heard of this place plenty of times from our friends who toured Beijing and indeed, it was a temple with plenty of history. It started construction in 1694 during the Qing dynasty. It was then converted into the residence of Yinzhen (Prince Yong), the fourth son of the Kangxi Emperor. After Prince Yong ascended the throne as the Yongzheng Emperor in 1722, half of the building was converted into a lamasery, a monastery for monks of Tibetan Buddhism. The other half remained an imperial palace.
Upon entering the temple, we were greeted with a  very nice entrance.

Once we entered, there were plenty of praying altars, be it in buildings, or small rooms. After every main building with an altar, there'll be another one after you go pass it. There are about 6 of them. Each and every altar has their different Gods.

It was quite interesting because the temple is so huge and full of culture. As China is mainly a Buddhist country, we think that it's a fulfilling experience visiting this temple.

Our next destination was HouHai. We heard about this place plenty of times too so we decided to check it out. HouHai is a place with a lot of food stalls and its buzzing atmosphere.

For dinner, we ate French food with our French friends. We ate raclette, a uunique way of eating cheese where the cheese is melted onto the bread and potatoes. However it was really expensive. But it's something that we wouldn't mind spending our money on especially after a tiring day out!

Day 75 11-26

Me and Ian were invited to go skiing with the foreign students of our dorm. It was an area which had fake snow. It took only 1 and a half hour bus ride to reach there.

That is Henrik and Harry

The left guy is Fynn while the one on the right is Mark

We all went up the slope to slide down. Sadly they only had a beginner slope so it was not really steep for the guys but for me it was good enough.

That is Aryan it was his first time skiing too.

Since i brought my camera with me what better thing to do than taking photos of people falling down.

Sadly, i guessed i had too much bad karma for taking photos of people falling down that when i was taking pictures of Fynn i collided in to a guy. 

Here are some "sick" shots that i tried to take. It was not really that nice because of how flat the slope is. It was a new experience and i enjoyed some parts of it. P.S the reason why i said some parts is because the journey there was terrible and the service was terrible vegetable horrigible. 

Day 73 11-24

Today we went to Temple of Heaven which was used by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for their annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for a good harvest.

Arrived at Temple of Heaven

We got our tickets at student price at 14 yuan.

Entering the sacred place

Photo of the entire complex with Kai Zhong blocking half of it :)

After entering, we went to a fitness area where many people were exercising in. These elders despite their age are so much fitter than any of us are. We were astoundingly impressed by their physique.

One of a few elderly man doing gymnastics on the pull up bar

Elders enjoying a game of chapteh

After a long time of mesmerizing at these old folks we left to go to the QiNianDian.

Walking to QiNianDian which is seen at the background

Front view of QiNianDian. Sorry for bad quality :(

The lavishly decorated insides of QiNianDian

The grandeur of this building is breathtaking

We continued to walk around the area and went to visit the other parts of the complex. Our first stop was at HuiYinBi, The Echo Wall.

Next we went to a dome shaped arena and located there was the Heavenly Centre Stone.

Walking up to the Heavenly Centre Stone

Tourists taking selfies on top of the stone

"It is said that if one speaks standing on the Heavenly Centre Stone, their voice will be particularly resonant and sonorous."

After touring the Temple of Heaven we went to Pearl Market which was nearby.

Similar to silk market largely notable for selling pearls

Shopping time

A whole floor dedicated to selling pearls of all kinds

A few of us purchased some souvenirs back

We bargained for the products that we bought over here. It was pretty exciting and intense, since both the customers and the sellers want to earn the most. But ultimately the seller will usually still earn at least twice of the product's cost price. 

After that we headed back home from the pearl market after walking for hours!

Day 71 11-22

Today we had our last official lesson for Chinese culture before our final presentation. The last lesson was on Confucianism and she taught us the values of Confucianism which was Benevolence(仁), Righteousness(义), Propriety(礼), Wisdom(智), Faith(信). Benevolence(仁) is to love people - sympathize, care, respect, help and think for others. Righteousness(义) is the ability to recognize what is right and the moral deposition to do good. Propriety(礼) is the detailed code to conduct oneself as a person. Wisdom(智) is rationality and intelligence and also the ability and concept to distinguish right from wrong. Faith(信) is the key principle to traditional Chinese morality, one have to be honest, act accordingly with words and to keep to their promises.

"With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my crooked arm for a pillow - is not joy to be found therein. Riches and honors acquired by unrighteousness are to me as a floating cloud." -Confucius

After the slides, we went on to have a video session on Filial piety which is another value that was advocated. The video lasted for half an hour and we had to write an essay on our own thoughts of filial piety within an hour. It was on of our graded tests. Then, the teacher showed her last slides which was a farewell and thank you slide and also a round up of all that she taught in class. She was so polite and filled with respect for all of us as she bid her favorite and biggest class of international students goodbye. It was enjoyable that she was able to teach us. Thank you 老师!

On a side note, it snowed yesterday! The whole area was covered in the white snow it was so pretty.

Trees outside the gym

After that the boys went to the gym before heading back for the second class.

For reformation we learnt more on financial markets. We learnt about the money market-where short term financial instruments are traded, capital market-where long term financial instruments like stocks are traded.

In the money market we learnt about the inter-bank loan market, where banks loan each other money in order to meet the reserve requirements. Several features of this loan market is the very high transaction volume, which amounts to billions of dollars. The loan is usually for a short period of time(24hours) so that the banks will not be caught by the financial regulators. And also the loan requires a payment of interest rate even for 1 night which can be 1% or 2% of the few billion loaned.
Another one that we learnt is the Money Market Mutual Fund(MMMF). It is rather safe but requires users to open an account. The interest rates is 2-3.5% higher than the banks rates of 1.5%. This is mainly used as the first platform where internet companies step into the finance sector. For example Ali's yuerbao makes use of this MMMF and promises a 6% return in interest for those people who keep their money in the yuerbao. The interest rate is higher than the 2-3.5% because this is all done through the internet, over-the-counter, and have lesser logistics, administrative costs and the costs for having a physical building.

For the capital markets, the financial instruments traded are treasury bond, stocks and corporate bonds. In China, the government keeps 20% of the county's GDP. The government controls about 101-102 companies which are state owned, which means that they have at least a 65% market share in the company. The teacher believe that China is the richest government in the entire world as a result. Individual investors hardly invest in t-bonds, it is more commonly invested by pension funds and investment companies. Last but not least, the teacher shared on the stock market and the establishment of China's stock markets. In 1990, Shanghai Stock Exchange(SSE) was established. 1991 saw the establishment of ShenZhen Stock Exchange(SZSE) and the most recent one is in 2013, the New Third Market was established. And for this course, we have to write a 3000 word thesis as our test which is pretty interesting.

It was a long and tiring day today so we headed for dinner individually.

Day 62 11-13

Today its a Sunday where we head out to 北京松堂关怀医院 (Beijing's SongTang Caring Hospital) to do some community service and the student volunteers from BTBU went with us together.  Beijing's SongTang Caring Hospital, established in 1987, and also the first caring hospital for elderly people in China. It is also a place where the elderly people spend till their last day.

Meet Rose Zhang, she is the one who will lead us for today. She is conducting a briefing for us to take note of our behavior and what to say in front of the elderly as some of them are very sensitive to certain topics, she also tell us to not take pictures of the elderly people without their permission as there are many complications. Their non-profit organisation （爱心志愿者联盟）was founded in June 2007 by 6 person who wants to give back to the society and since then they had host more than 200 times of volunteer event and thousands of people had participated, she was intrigued as this is the first time she meet Singaporean in this volunteer services as the past volunteers are mainly locals.

In English it meant "we want to live till the age of 120“

This are bags of food we will be distributing to the elderly

Opening all the packaging first for easier distribution process

She gave out this badges for us to wear but have to return afterwards

Meet the Director of the hospital, we didn't managed to catch his name as he was introducing to other guest of his, he was explaining that they have operated for almost 30 years and he know all of the patient which he felt that it's a one big family for him, they usually spend their time talking about embracing death and not fear of death as everything shall return to nature eventually.

This granny put on some makeup after we asked for permission to take photo with her. She has a strong will to live, this was said because she had an accident since she was 18 years old and had been bedridden since than, she told us in 9 more months she will break the world record of the longest person to be bedridden. Although she said it in a happy tone, it breaks our heart to know how long she has been bedridden as she lost the ability to walk while some people took the ability to walk as granted.

After Yu Xuan spoke to her, she ask us to write in her book anything that we wish to so that she can look back as a good memory, after Yu Xuan wrote down his wishes, all of us signed our name as we were told to let her rest.

Rose told us this is the first television that their organisation donated

And we move on to other elderly 

This are the flowers planted and care by one of the granny

Images of people who helped the hospital before

A group photo before we left the place

At the end of the day, we leave 北京松堂关怀医院 (Beijing's SongTang Caring Hospital) with a heavy heart knowing all this elderly people are just staying here to live till their last day but as one of the patient uncle Zhang told me ”全都是天意“ which translate to "Everything is by heaven's will". He was once a tailor who had a failed operation on his back damaging his nerve permanently.
Today has been a emotional roller coaster for all of us. Till next time 。。。