Squareface @ 31°North

After kena rejected when we invited Warwick to set up a campus in Singapore, with the reason being the lack of academic (and social) freedom, we played it high-key when UNSW agreed to set up UNSW Asia campus in Singapore. Now we might be a laughing stock.

After establishing herself to be very hubful, Singapore’s attempt at becoming a world-class education hub has been annulled as UNSW discontinues, leaving students and teachers still in shock.

The university had wanted to cut the size of its operations in Singapore, but the idea was rejected by the EDB, Prof Hilmer said.

Is this the result of forced ambition?

The remaining hubs must not lose face: Financial hub, R&D hub, Sports hub, Biotech hub, Biomed hub…cannot have a “setback” like UNSW’s withdrawal…

But hey, chill lah, there’s still Starhub, Toa Payoh HDB hub, and Ang Mo Kio hub with the big NTUC…

Or decriminalize homosexuality loh (debate going on) (and the criminalization was one of the major concerns of Warwick university too), then can become GLBT hub. Bring on the pink dollar!

Whatever it is, we talk and grumble, but ultimately still struggle to stay afloat with (or get out from) the state’s heavy-handed brand of government-knows-best (or EDB-follows-best) implementations.

So now you know not everything in Singapore can be depended on! For those who spent S$26,000-$29,000 for tuition fees (which is *gasps* around twice the amount of my present school fees + accommodation + living expenses in Shanghai!) at UNSW Asia, I sure hope things work out for you. Try to look at it as a new door opening for you, instead of feeling cheated (try really hard to avoid this thought), ok?

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Don’t be afraid to take a step back, or even another

It’s okay, the view will be better

Come lie with me once more

Let’s nudge open the sore

We’ll look at it, bear the pain

Then probably, perhaps, maybe — reclaim

Making money writing reviews is becoming dated, and unless you can afford the time to log on to PPP religiously to find a suitable opportunity to post, the initial high of grabbing opportunities will soon wear off. The amount offered for the posts may start to seem miserly and opportunity topics sometimes just cannot be weaved into the genre of your blog.

Setting up your blog with PayPerPost Direct (PayPerPost’s new feature) facilitates advertisers to contact you directly to write a review for them, and the price is your call. Say someone comes across your blog and likes your writing style or the genre of your blog suits their interests, all they have to do is click on the PPP Direct widget on your site and negotiation starts there. I know I will feel flattered should an advertiser actually approach me to write for them, rather than my fishing around in the opportunities marketplace, almost always choosing a good opportunity one second later than others. More time shall be granted to churn out the review too. Right now, it feels like writing PPP posts is training for my exams since reviews are timed and I am pushed to come up with the review within an hour or else the opportunity will slip away. One hour may sound long to spin a review less than 300 words, but be aware of reading time necessary to understand the advertised and planning time needed before presenting it. Unless you wanna cheat your way by crapping. If so, 10 minutes will do the trick.

Competition is stiff in the escrow-like service industry, but PPP stands out from other sites like ReviewMe, SponsoredReviews, Blogitive, Blogvertise, CREAMaid considering its markup rate is the lowest. ReviewMe charges 50-100% markup and keep up to half of your deserved money. Moreover, ReviewMe has comparatively stricter critera to qualify as their bloggers. PPP, by way of contrast, is a window of opportunities. With PPP Direct now, an even larger window.

This concept of advertisers approaching you directly for a niche review is not a new one for SponsoredReviews, but they take away a considerable amount of your fair share — leaving you only 65% of what the advertiser actually pays, as compared to PPP’s 90%, whereby 5% goes to transaction fees. One winning point for SponsoredReviews is that you will receive your payment 14 days after submitting your review, in contrast to PPP’s 30 days. However, the steps needed before successfully getting paid is not as straightforward as PPP. At SponsoredReviews, you have to bid for an opportunity first, wait for the advertiser to approve your bid (which can take as long as they want), before working on the review.

Nothing beats getting duly paid for your laborious work on blog ads.

I saw a card left on my bicycle basket and what striked me was this symbol:

So for a moment I was really confused and wondered how come Shanghai has this logo for its food too, and in that moment thought that Healthy Choice has become an international standard qualification, you know like ISO? Then I flipped the card and was really surprised to see this:

Imported healthy snack from Singapore! With Singapore’s cityscape on the card!

Otah!

A Singapore plaque and the signboard of the takeaway shop.

Teh Tarik! I tried it for 4RMB, it’s alright…

The Otah leaves were grey, so I didn’t venture to try them, nor do I think I will call them to deliver takeaway…but it’s nice knowing that such a shop is near school, albeit a small takeaway shop.

N.B. For those in Shanghai/Fudan, the shop is near the WuJiaoChang roundabout, opposite Wanda Shopping Mall. You know the stretch where rbt is? On Handan Road, after TianMiMi, you’ll find it at the stretch of new shops towards WuJiaoChang roundabout…

Although my impending trip to Canada is yet to be confirmed, I’m resisting all temptations of any other trips in order to save money to travel whilst I’m there.

After my school term there, I hope to ramble around Canada and the States, and if possible, the South, because I know I will leave with a tainted picture of America if I don’t take a look at the South.

Something I wanna do before I die (gotta add this to my list) is to roam around in a caravan, sleep in hammocks, and lay back in rented cottages and cabins.

vacation home rentals hooks you up with the various property owners so that you can rent that dream holiday, with a variety of lodging types such as cottages,cabins, villas, inns, penthouses, all of which I have never typed before due to zilch experience. These are must-trys in my lifetime!

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It’s getting hard to keep track of where my friends and family are/will be going in different periods of time.

I am from Singapore, but I’m studying in Shanghai for my Bachelor’s, a 4-year-course, but I’m going for an exchange in Vancouver next semester. My brother, also from Singapore, is in Queensland for his degree programme, but he did an attachment in the UK. A close cousin of mine is leaving for Sydney for 2 years. 3 cousins from Malaysia are in Singapore having their tertiary education. Sam is from Malaysia, but she has been in Singapore for the past 10 years.

Then there are friends coming to Shanghai for internships, immersion programmes, or short-term holidays. There’s one doctor-to-be good friend studying in Melbourne (Australia). There are 2 friends who did an exchange, and a work-and-travel programme in the United States. The one who did a work-and-travel programme is heading to Norway soon for an exchange programme, while another friend has returned from her Norway exchange programme. Then there is one who is in India for her internship being treated like an Indian princess at this very moment, complete with manservants.

I’m beginning to believe I need some sort of device to keep track of everyone’s movements in this flat world, in order to stay up-to-date. For now, let’s just plot this on a map:

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Be a constantly entertained individual today!

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As the capital of China, Beijing may be the exemplar of how a Chinese city is like, one can establish what the idiosyncrasies of the Chinese are, and get a taste of how much variety the Chinese cuisine consists of.

The almost-12 hours train ride from Shanghai to Beijing resulted in a sleep-deprived and thus groggy me. It could have been my hazy state, or it’s true that Beijing is a city filled with better-mannered Chinese.

Subway trains are old and unkempt in Beijing, but the people in it are civilized and don’t talk as loudly as Shanghainese. Commuters give way to those alighting first before boarding the trains, and they obediently keep to the right of the escalator while getting out of the stations. One ticket inspector tears your paper ticket while she listens to commuters with transportation cards beep their way through. There are no barricades to stop you from entering if you decide to play the save-on-ticket-fare-game, nor are there any barricades when you exit at your destination station. It’s the first such trusting system I’ve seen.

The air in Beijing is really dry, though. For the entire first day I felt like I was in the cabin of an aeroplane, and there were traces of blood in my mucus.

We met up with CG’s Singaporean friends at Peking University, who were very hospitable. I found them to be a very nice bunch of people, modest and unassuming, and let’s just say that I found that very refreshing. A walk around the school explains why this top university in China is a place of interest on its own. Apart from the buildings that were rich with Chinese flavour, the campus had a pagoda(!), a lake(!), and gardens(!) all in the vicinity of classrooms. The foreign students dormitories are, well, not a spoilt child’s dream, but perhaps very conducive for studying. Just 5 minutes drive away is the other renowned university in China, Tsinghua University. We wanted to rent a bicycle to tour the campus (it is available for rent for tourists!), but took the shuttle bus for 2RMB instead. The buildings had a European feel to it, but I know I was in China when the lake and willow trees painted the typical Chinese canvas. The visit to Peking and Tsinghua Universities made me realize how beautiful a campus can be. 原来校园可以那么美的！

European architecture in Tsinghua University

The 2000-year-old Great Wall of China is also known as the world’s largest cemetery (1 million people died when the population was 5 million), as well as the world’s 1st email system (columns of smoke was used for communication purposes, with 1 column of smoke meaning there were 1000 enemy soldiers approaching). Bricks were cemented in the past by using glutinous rice and egg whites, but what we see today when we pay a visit has all been refurbished to ensure stability. In fact, what was once a majestic wonder of the world has been somewhat reduced to a tourist playground, where you can take the cable car up and down, or choose to take a toboggan ride down. We went to the MuTianYu Great Wall section, spent 1.5hours climbing up and taking pictures, and then I took only 10 minutes to slide down the chute on a toboggan.

Ski-cable style cable car

东华门美食坊夜市 gives you an idea of what people mean when they say the Chinese eat almost anything — from scorpions, to bugs, to centipedes, to intestines, to testicles — test your limits!

The street with over 20 stalls

Testicles

Centipede

Assorted hair-standing bugs and scorpions

Seahorse, liver and starfish

Crab and intestines (belonging to sheep, I think)

Hong Kong’s Urine Beef Balls (?) and Fried Milk

王府井街 (Wangfujing street) is the equivalent of Shanghai’s Nanjing Pedestrian Street, but with every few steps you take, there’s construction going on, so there was nothing to really take in except dust and sand.

Having been to the 2 best duck restaurants in Beijing (or so I was told) to savour Peking Roast Duck, whatever frustrations encountered on this trip was compensated. We tried the roast duck at 大董’s on the first night, then 全聚德’s on the second, and I have to say I think it’s a good fight between the two. 全聚德’s reputation as the best is more established though, and the price of a whole duck is 198RMB, as compared with 158RMB at 大董’s.

Da Dong’s Roast Duck
Quan Ju De’s Duck

Hutong (胡同) bars at houhai (后海) is a really suitable place to just chill out. Not only are there pubs, but also many cafes and restaurants to just hang out with close friends or new acquaintances. These little cosy newly-refurbished hutong-style concessions line the lake on both sides, offering you a view of small boats gliding along. One of us said it’s reminiscent of Singapore’s Clarke Quay, but I think it’s more genuine and has it’s own flavour, with live singers in many cafes.

Yoghurt in a porcelain container

Tiananmen Square (天安门). I think I read somewhere that it’s the largest square in the world. So many things have happened here. Just as how the Oriental Pearl Tower is the hallmark of Shanghai, Beijing’s Tiananmen Square represents Beijing in its entirety, and maybe even more so because it stirs up raw emotions.

Through some miscalculation by the ticketing booth, we entered the Forbidden City (故宫) free of charge. As I stepped in expecting to be wowed by the imperial palace, I was smacked with the green nettings of (re)construction.

The “automatic guide” that explains to you where you are at every designated station. I rented the Chinese one, because it’s one quarter the price of the English one.

Temple of Heaven (天坛) was rather stunning too, but we didn’t linger long… because we wanted to go to ShiJingShan Amusement Park, which caused a big hoo ha last week over the Disneyland impersonation.

ShiJingShan Amusement Park (石景山游乐园) was a gigantic disappointment, because it was stripped of anything that implied its open imitation of Disneyland. Banners that say “Disneyland is too far, please come to ShiJingShan” were no longer there, nor were the animated impersonators of Mickey Mouse and Hello Kitty. The only evidence left of their attempt is on the ticket, where they tried to black out the “去迪斯尼太远” in “去迪斯尼太远，来石景山游乐园!!!”, and in the castles and colours. The place was really deserted. With no more than 20 visitors while we were there, and judging from the stale sausages and fishballs, I think this place has been hit by a cold draught.

Left: ShiJingShan Amusement Park. Right: Hong Kong Disneyland.

Actually some of the rides looked pretty good, but the thrilling ones cost 50RMB per ride

Check out what is blackened out

Beijing has many hutong-style hostel accommodation, which I strongly recommend. It’s relatively cheap, and offers you plenty of what a hotel cannot. You can be greeted by neighbours who actually live in the remaining hutongs, wake up early for taichi class, and just chill out in the quadrangle courtyard (四合院). We stayed in a 4-bed mixed dorm at Beijing Lotus Hostel (北京莲舍), which cost us 60RMB per bed. Very clean and comfortable.

More pictures at Squareface’s Shots.

Someone I know was an unfortunate victim of laptop crashing, and ended up losing EVERYTHING that was in her laptop. The most painful fact was losing all her pictures with her particular someone.

For that extra security — because hard drives and external hard drives are too susceptible to crashes — back up your most important files online.

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