Friends visit Part 2

the first 2 days of their visit, we took them around the suzhou area, visited 观前街, 金鸡湖, 重元寺, 太湖，木渎古镇，圆融时代广场 and 李公堤. nothing really great but they did enjoy the visit to those places. my friends are not really into buying so nothing bought at those places other than food to keep themselves filled.

to keep it short since many of these places I had already visited, so i will posted pictures for your viewing pleasure.

all these 3 friends are actually my ex-colleagues from WD. we had been working together for 6 years before the company started to shift the operation out of singapore. top left is Ah Wee, a coolman and very eager to go beijing to meet his china "female" friend. top centre, Ah Lim (aka handsome), funny guy, always create lot of joke but those cold joke "冷笑话" if you know what i meant. Top right, Sir Chua (aka Tungsten Chua)A great guy but eat a lot of meat. Sir Chua, you have to slow down your meat intake. Ofcourse, my wife, Selina, my son Keith and myself were in the pictures as well.

in the 重元寺, backgroud is the Goddess of Mercy pogoda.

closed up of the pogoda that has a height of 46m

a very peaceful statue of the Goddess of Mercy in the pogoda. this tallest in-door Goddess of Mercy in China has a height of 26m and it is made of 88 tons of bronze.

the day when we were there, it was the birthday of Goddess of Mercy, many devotees were there to pray.

a typical scene in china. throwing coins to some ponds or statue. actually, i saw this habit in western countries as well.

it was clear blue sky when we were at tai hu. lot of little make/shift stalls selling windmills of different shapes, sizes and colors.

weather was cold that day, Wee and Sir Chua bbqing their ice-cream to melt it. maybe it was the melamide.

wee trying out the pineapple while sir chua tried the stinky tofu at mudu town (木渎古镇). i have yet to try that in china. too stinky for me... haha

夕阳西下，小船流水。

3.28 刘德华 Andy Lau Suzhou Wonderful World Concert

attended andy's concert yesterday at suzhou stadium. very good performance by andy lau with good stage lighting, music, dancing, etc. Overall, there are two parts that i would like to mentioned about the whole performance.

first on the good thing
the concert lighting, stage, music were fanstatic. andy performance was execellence. most of his performance were on the stage but he also went on to two crane type stage. this crane bring him closer to those fans on the outer seat of the stadium. he was also cabled (flied) from the stage to the centre portion of the audience where we sat. we were so close like 5m away from him. the temperature was low at 5C, andy was wearing short sleeve performing at his best to entertain the fans.

now on the bad part
the adminstration or the system so bad. we reached the statium at 7pm and managed to get in after wasting lot of time, pushing and shovering. the entrance was just a small opening for one person and 7000 to 8000 people were trying to get in through this opening. it was a messed. by the time we got in, the light suddenly turn off and the show started. i pity those who were far behind, they would have missed the first 1/2hours of the show. very badly managed in term of crowd control.

many still carry camera in to the show including the security themselves. i even saw one guy using a portable video camera. so bring whatever you need if you were told not too do so on the ticket instruction because this is china.

on top of that, for those who had watch the Wonderful World 2008 at shanghai, you should forget about the concert. it was 80% similar.

personally, if I would come again, i will not buy the 880 ticket, i will just get the 300rmb tickets, use a binocular. i could even pay for my son to attend this event. i know that 周杰伦 coming to kunshan in may, that maybe a good time for another show.

Some lousy night pictures taken from my omnia

this picture is when andy sang "苯小孩".

the fans of andy lau, look at the far back, those sat paid 300rmb.

the plastic chair (use by kopitiam) for 880rmb seat

after the show before the crowd started to leave, we quickly took a picture.

Friends visit Part 1

it was a busy week because 3 of my friends from singapore visited me. i took leave to accompany them around suzhou and we visited beijing together. time flies. 7 days past so fast! they come and they go! overall, they enjoyed the stay here and we enjoy their company as well as taking care of keith during the beijing trip especially great wall visit.

these are the friends who visited me. that particular day (14th Mar) was a clear day with blue sky. in the back drop, it was the Suzhou Science & Cultural Art Centre.

tired... continue some other days...

got my new phone

got my new phone, a samsung omnia i900 from singapore. my friends visited me and brought it over to me from my bro-in-law. anyway, trying to use it for the last few days and till now, could not really figure out how to setup the phone for internet access. i manage to get it work through WAP but not too sure if that is correct! need to read more from the web...

shanghai f1

colleagues have been crazy about f1. to join in the fun this year, i bought 2 set tickets for the 3 days event at shanghai. it will be from the april 17th to 19th. this would be my first f1 race. i am execited...

i got the tickets

here are the tickets to the andy concert. i am so happy that i got these. when we got to the ticket agent this morning, we were deciding if we want to get VIP, C, or D seat tickets. we need to know the distance between the seat and the stage otherwise, andy maybe as small as an ant from where we sit... haha. after discussion with the sale agent and the available seats from the computer screen, we were told that the seat from section C will be about 70 to 80 meters aways from the stage. hopefully she was right about the distance from the stage.

a very well printed ticket holder. the ticket holder indicates the section and the entrance for that section. this will help the crowd control on the actual day.

our 2 tickets for the C2 section. we looked at the various C-sections but found that the available tickets for C2 is the best. at the back of the ticket, there is a line seal that proved the authentity of the ticket similar to those on the yuan notes. this is a level of authentication. a colleague told me he happened to buy some fake ticket at the entrance for last concert. thus, it will be good that always get it from authorised agent.

the floor plan. C2 is still close to the stage. there are other tickets (un-colored) that are on the 2nd level of the stadium. those ticket price range 100rmb, 300rmb and 500rmb. Note that the tickets, the holders are colored coded to the seating section.

looking forward to 28th March when we will get to see andy lau in suzhou.

刘德华 - 中国巡回演唱会 2009 Andy Lau Wonderful World 2009

andy lau is staging a concert tour in china. he will be performing in 7 concerts in varous province throughout china from 24th Mar till 27th April. one of the stops will be suzhou. as i love to sing his songs, 来生缘，男人哭吧不是罪 and many more, i will be attending his concert in suzhou the 28th of this month. i have not decided what ticket to buy but i am looking at the 880rmb tickets or the VIP ticket that cost 1280rmb. whatever it is, i will go for the concert as i believe it will be more expensive back in singapore.