Blog

I visited this place today. It’s a massive building complex. Its said to be the world’s largest free standing structure.

It’s about 30 minutes from the old city center. The city center is packed with smaller roads and side lanes and buildings of all sizes and vintages. This area is well planned with newer buildings, lots of open spaces and well laid out gardens and roads. I saw quite a few new hotels on the way there. I can imagine this to be a good place for hosting huge events.

It was built in 2014. Part hotel, offices, shopping, convention center, Olympic sized ice skating rink, cinema, garden with lots of places for children’s entertainment and with a huge car park.

I didn’t spend much time there. It’s a pity the shops were mostly local brands. Not many exciting food options like the other places I visited either. There were a few Chinese tea shops and I drank tea but it wasn’t a very satisfying experience.

The design of the building might be ok for a convention center but not ideal for a shopping mall. Quite a number of units were not occupied. There was a huge escalator from the 1st to the 4th floor. That was impressive.

Spent the whole day here. Amazing how they have designed an entire complex of low rise buildings with many different shops centered around a temple.

They have high end designer brands, high street brands and many restaurants and cafes.

I started the day with a 2013 lincang raw puer at Wang De Chuan Fine Chinese Tea. Lovely sit down place serving only tea. It’s from Taiwan and the place was well patronized. I sat down for a while sipping tea and reading the Economist.

After walking around the shops there I discovered a wonderful Chinese dessert place called Very Chinese Pastry. They had such wonderful Chinese desserts. All freshly made. The sesame pastry was wonderful! Must try this place again.

Then I had red bean soup at RuXu. Lovely pastries and Chinese desserts. I only managed to try the red bean soup and am hoping to try some of the other desserts before I leave.

Came across Zara. This was one of the few selected Zara stores in China that carries special collections. I picked up so many items but in the end I narrowed it to only 4. The new collection was a collaboration with Anderson Bell. The shop assistants were very helpful in showing me the new things and patiently waiting for me to try.

An entire section of the complex was decorated with LV Murakami items. So beautiful!

I also came across Abercrombie and Hollister, both of which were mega crowd pullers about 15 years back but both these brands have since disappeared in most places. Chengdu had both of them and it was good to see them well patronized here.

Finally rounded of the day with an early dinner at a Michelin starred Fujian restaurant YanYu Fujian. I was really impressed with the high quality of the food and service and the items were all so reasonably priced.

This is a must visit place in Chengdu.

Sometimes I wonder why Chinese come to Singapore to spend their money. I can understand if it is to sightsee or visit the casino.Otherwise it just doesn’t make sense.

I had coffee today at M Stand. It’s a coffee chain with different varieties of coffee and tea from Shanghai. The coffee was good and cost $4.20. Cheaper than what you would pay in Singapore.

Lunch at a good Chinese restaurant in the shopping center. I had 5 dim sums, radish cake, tofu and tea. It was $52 all in.

I started the day with red bean soup and yogurt at a food court. Both from specialty shops. Good.

Bought some t shirts from Urban Revivo. It’s a local Chinese brand but high quality stuff. True Religion was having a 50% sale on all their items.

Then I came across several local designer brands from Shanghai. I was surprised with the quality and price point. These are not brands seen outside China.

Their shopping center even for a Fri night wasn’t crowded. Not sure if it’s always like that or a current phase because of the present state of the economy.

Every Didi ride I’ve had here is a brand new electric 6 seater. So quiet and comfortable. Feel like royalty when traveling in these new cars.

I thought Malaysia was cheaper and better. Now I can say that Chengdu is also cheaper and better.

Singapore seriously needs to think about what it can offer the world. At some point in time, if the quality and prices are not competitive, tourists will not come, except for very limited and specific purposes and even Singaporeans will decide to spend their hard earned money elsewhere.

Today I visited the Terra Cotta warriors museum in Xian.

Although it was a weekday , it was still packed with people. Mostly locals. I had a guide to pick me at the train station.

Xian, which is almost in the center of China, was the capital of China for a long time starting with the Qin dynasty. The capital only moved to Beijing with the Ming dynasty and the Qing dynasty later.

This place was discovered in 1974 by some farmers who were digging a well. They came across broken pottery pieces, clay figures and metal weapons and alerted the authorities. It was only then people realized what they had discovered. The mausoleum of the first emperor of China, Qin shi huang, together with his fully armed terra cotta army comprising soldiers, horses, archers, generals and chariots to serve him in the afterlife.

There was no mention of this army in any records and therefore this was a lucky accidental find. Assembled in about 230 BCE, it had been buried underground for 2000 years waiting to be discovered.

3 pits that have been dug and exhibited. They have started digging a further 3 pits but they suspect there are over 600 pits in the surrounding area.

Can’t imagine the immensity of this construction more than 2000 years ago.

As a mausoleum for an emperor one cannot imagine a more perfect place. The place is very serene with lots of trees and mountains in the background. This place was clearly picked for a auspicious reason. Hard to imagine he had so many people killed to ensure the location of his mausoleum remained a secret and many others buried alive there to serve him after he died.

It is now suspected that after the emperor died, a rival entered the pits and stole the arms and destroyed most of the warriors and burnt the place down. That would also explain why all memories of this massive historical endeavor were forgotten to posterity.

It has been described as the eight wonder of the world and rightly so.

Outside the museum, the guide introduced me to the farmer who discovered the warriors while digging a well. He was 18 years old in 1974. He is farmer Yang and I got to shake his hand and get his autograph!!

I had a quick lunch near the museum before the tour. Pleasantly surprised with the good variety of food. I had broccoli, eggplant and chilli chicken.

In 2019 I saw the Great Wall and I have now seen the other wonder of China!

Took the train from Chengdu East Railway Station to Xian at 0609.

It is a huge train station but surprisingly easy to navigate. I arrived here early but they only opened the gates about 15 minutes before the train left.

I planned this day trip as I wanted to see the Terra Cotta warriors. It’s a 3.5 hour train ride covering 658km.

It left at 0609 sharp. All the announcements were in Chinese and English. Currently traveling at 244km/h.

A few stops on the way but an otherwise comfortable journey. The Chinese have done an amazing job connecting the country with a convenient and comfortable network.

The Xian North station I got off is more like a huge airport. Its an itegrated hub with trains, bus and metro. Massive.

Pity the HSR from KL to Singapore didn’t materialize. It was slated to start operations this year-(.

It’s a smooth exit from Chengdu airport. A new airport with clear instructions for visitors in English everywhere. There were no queues and immigration clearance was fast.

I tried the Alipay app for the first time. It has everything you need in one app. Incredible. You can pay for anything here, even the ride hailing app is in Alipay. Called a car via didi. Brand new 6 seater. Electric of course.

The way to the hotel had well paved roads and smooth traffic. No traffic jams or accidents on the way.

The US says it is trying to slow down the progress of China. Apart perhaps in the fields of high end tech and weaponry, not sure if the US is ahead in anything else anyway. Clean streets, well ordered traffic and generally well behaved people. Not sure this can be said of the US.

Pity that Singapore which has been touting itself as a smart nation and a digital nation has nothing to show anything comparable to what China has in terms of digitalization for the masses. We are just so far behind.

China has announced that Deepseek has now been classified as a National Treasure and the Chinese Government has confiscated the passports of Deepseek’s engineers and their key executives to prevent them travelling.

This apparently is to prevent any leak of information of Deepseek’s engineering processes to the outside world.

I wonder if it’s a bane or boon to be classified as working for a national treasure. Does this ban also apply to the close family members? What if they quit working at Deepseek? Would the ban continue? For how long? Perhaps indefinitely?

Yesterday at lunch I was told that many people in China are under a travel ban. The list includes senior executives at key companies, civil servants and professors at prestigious institutes.

According to him, unlike in the past, top students in China are now prohibited from coming to Singapore to study because the Government is afraid that they would not go back to China after finishing their studies.

I wonder how it feels to become so clever or important or high up in a key organisation that you end up being put under a travel ban.

It’s true that China is huge and there are many things to see and do there but surely there will always be a yearning to want to see the outside world?

I would have thought that for professors, attending conferences and meeting people from other countries and sharing research and experience is critical.

Even for a key engineer surely  sharing ideas and listening to other views can expand one’s horizons I would have thought.

I do wonder how those placed under this ban feel about the  prohibition against any travel outside your country?

Would a Chinese engineer, or a top professor student, who is presently overseas, want to go back to China if you thought there was a remote chance you can never leave China thereafter?

I wonder how other countries would view such a protectionist attitude. It is apparently alright for your people to study, work, learn and take information from elsewhere but if your information is deemed sufficiently important, it is protected by drastic travel bans to prevent any leaks.

Israel conducted a raid in Gaza just now that has killed more than 413 people. This is after a month of relative calm and during their fasting month.

This has happened because Israel is emboldened by Donald Trump and they believe there will be no consequences to whatever they do.

You would have thought that a people who suffered so much during the Second World War would know how it is to be persecuted and be defenseless in the face of military might. They were driven out of their homes, deprived of their properties and forced to live in ghettos. It is shocking that they are now doing the same to another defenceless people.

The sympathy that much of the world had for them as a people and a country will evaporate with this.

Even if the US has now closed both its eyes, Europe and the rest of the world need to step up and say this is not acceptable and try and put a stop to this.

It is sad that the Arabs do not stand up and support the Palestinian people because much of the protest against Israel is from countries outside the Middle East.

The last time the Arab countries in the Middle East stood together against Israel and the US was in 1973 with their oil embargo. It threw the US and the world into a major recession. I don’t think that will happen anymore. They are no longer united, oil is no longer their sole domain and economic interests now prevail against principles.

History sometimes has a way of repeating itself. The next time if what happened during the Second World War happens to them again, the world will once again turn a blind eye.

This morning I had coffee with Joshua. He had messaged me yesterday and suggested that it was time for a chat to catch up with the many things happening in the world.

I got to know Joshua in 2014. I needed to invite a VIP to be the guest of honour for my firm’s event and I was told to liase with Joshua if I wanted this to happen. Until then I didn’t know who Joshua was. We spoke and texted each other for weeks in relation to the invite. The VIP did come for the event and I became friends with Joshua.

At first glance Joshua appears forbidding. After knowing him, he has always been helpful and obliging whenever I have asked him anything.

Over the years he has introduced me to several Indian organisations such as SICCI, Sinda and to many people and community groups. He has been very much involved in community work for a long time. During Covid, he did a lot of work for the migrant workers. I once did a food distribution to migrant workers, who were then locked up in the dorms, in Taman Jurong. He arranged this.

His community and grassroots work spans some 25 years. Some of his contemporaries who started doing the same work have gone on to become MPs or political appointment holders. I have always wondered why he never got picked. He has so much dedication in his work for the community.

He has excellent connections in India and one of my temple visits in India was arranged by him.

There are people in your life you are glad you met. Joshua is one of them.

Our chat this morning was on the electoral boundaries report and who are the likely people either standing up or stepping off this coming elections.

I am pondering this as I sit here in the airport lounge en route to Singapore.

When I was studying in the University in the early 1980s all the Malaysian students I knew wanted to be in Singapore to live and work here. The smaller cities and towns then were backward. Even KL, they said, was too laid back, withno shops, restaurants or decent infrastructure. Anyone wanting to go shopping then would come to Singapore. Singapore was clearly seen as a more desirable place than Malaysia back then.

But now they have all the shops and brands Singapore has and many more. More shopping centers, most of which are bigger than ours and more diverse; a much greater variety of food outlets; good infrastructure; nice hotels; good foreign universities; good private housing; medical centers and a good road network. The buildings and towers in KL are impressive. Things in Malaysia are not just as good as in Singapore but cheaper. Further the service standards are as good as and in many cases even better than Singapore.

And because it’s a huge country, there are so many different options when one is bored with the city life. You can drive up to the highlands like Genting or Cameron to enjoy cooler weather, go jungle trekking or even take a trip to the East Coast to soak in a very different atmosphere.

So what will eventually hold them back?

Some are wary about the underlying racial and religious tensions in Malaysia and the uncertain political situation. People worry about what will happen after Anwar. That is an important consideration. If the PAS or any Muslim party were to form a government in Malaysia, the situation may  change and things may not be how things they are now.

But I do wonder if any new government can afford to shut off the revenue they collect from the present economic activities including tourism, which apart from providing tax revenues is also providing jobs for the people, and go back to the 1970s and 1980s? Would people support this? Where would the people, including Malays, find employment if the shops and restaurants started shutting down and the foreign companies move out?

Even conservative Middle East Muslim countries like Saudi and Qatar which were once a lot stricter in applying Islamic rules in their countries are now embracing greater openness and becoming welcoming of foreigners by hosting world class events. Tourism is encouraged. I was surprised to see alcohol consumed quite openly in Qatar during the 2022 World Cup. The foreigners didn’t need to follow Islamic dress codes and women were not wearing any head scarves. Saudi now has a large investment from China and other parts of the world. Many Chinese are living there undertaking business activities and as a result many Chinese restaurants have opened up.

These countries are realizing that growing the economic pie by promoting foreign investment and finding employment for their people is as important as applying religious codes strictly within their countries.

Can Malaysia conservatives think differently?