chapter eight, page fifty two:

This is his last day in China.


(Diary) Dear China (and diary), I have had a lot of fun here! I still miss Dalian the most though, the free-moving lifestyle and the weather. The really simply life you gave to your people.

I shall not forget the daily lunch song that you played for us, “I’m sitting right here but you can’t see me”, and the games you often set for me to play like hopscotch.

The trip has really exposed me to your culture, both in the way you live life as well as create art; it has been a really enriching moment in my life. On top of that, I am pretty sure my Chinese has improved quite a fair bit, at least I could imitate your precious accent.

Dear China, 今天我就要走了，再见

He is back in Singapore.

chapter eight, page fifty one:

The morning was wet, unfortunately. He headed out towards the Olympic Stadium, yet another pride of China. And once again, he was disappointed with her pride, but after a while, he realizes that he should not expect too much from them.

The stadium, as it always has portrayed itself, stood tall and bulky. Bulkier than he had imagined, it really did look a little too heavy. The inside was alright, he though, toilet’s were cool in red and black, but workmanship was a mess, perhaps it was meant to look that way?

The parapet walls of the Olympic Stadium were already broken, barely even a year old. From his own eyes, the stadium appeared to be much smaller than it looks, as if photographs of the stadium had all been faked, but after all, it is highly possible is not it?

The overall size was disappointing, an on top of it, he could no longer find the special torch that was attached to the roof of the stadium.



After the visit, he headed over to the Water Cube, this one was much better, he thought. Overall size was believable and the material of ETFE used was cool, although it looked slightly blackish already. Apparently the material used is self cleaning.


After which, the rest of the day was spent shopping. On his way to the shopping center, he passed by the famous CCTV building by Rem Koolhaas.

Shopping was exciting, for the first time, because the store owners were multilingual. Mandarin, English, Spanish and many more. It was really an interesting “sight to see”.

chapter eight, page fifty:

The morning started off with a visit to the Great Wall of China, the place he had always wanted to see and walk on. The moment he reached there, he excited abandoned his friends and climbed as far as time could take him, he only had an hour in total, half and hour up and the other half down, he planned. He raced all the way up, not giving up even though it was tiring. He believed he made it through at least seven sections of it, and reached nearly the highest point, at least it was where the point cable cars could only be taken to access the rest.


After the very quick time at the Wall, he headed off for the Summer Palace, where the Empress Dowager once ruled. It was an eerie place, especially the long famous corridor as almost no one could take a perfect clear shot of it. Strange indeed.

Having looked at all the art appreciation from the past, he felt that it was terribly weird, especially color coordination. Blue with green and some yellow, red with a dash of white and a whole lot of other gaudy colors.





After which, he was brought to the 13 graves of the emperors which does not allow much to be spoken off. And that is how it shall be kept.

That was how the day ended.