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Dalian Immersion Program

Chiok Jun Hua Ivan
Singapore Polytechnic
Diploma in Experience and Product Design

Sunday, May 10, 2009
Week 3, Day 21

In few minutes time, I would be entering the 4th week of my Dalian trip. Wow happy time really past so fast. The trip initially seems long but now it seems so short. I want more time to venture more and understand more about Dalian! In 4 weeks time, I will be flying back to the place I was born in. Probably by then I would be missing the people I met over at Dalian as a memory that would not be able to see them again. My China buddies, the 2 aunties in the hostel lobby, the fruit stall aunty, the CD uncle and the teaching and non teaching stuff that guided me in Dalian. The majority of people in Dalian were surprising polite towards us even though some may defend this by saying that China people are generally consider rude as they talked louder than the others and are more ill mannered in the way they portray themselves in public. But from what I see and understand, Dalian is not only a land for romance but also a land that contains many unique culture behaviors that outsiders would only understand if they try to understand Dalian personally. Taking the traffic for an example, drivers may seem notorious on the road but it is something that has become a lifestyle for the locals and if one will be driving as though he was driving in Singapore, he is for sure to face an accident. In China, time is money and there is no wasting of time for the people. Looking deeper into China’s context, the horning of the vehicle is also another unique site on the traffic. The constant horning and horning of the horns may seem impatient and irritating to the drivers on the roads. But if I was to be in the shoes of a China driver I would not see that as totally true. In fact the horning of vehicles is just like a simple friendly wave of road politeness to prevent accident from happening and also a kind of warning for the other driver’s existence. Horning as road safety. These are the kind of examples that made Dalian so different from Singapore. The world is so huge, just like Dalian. A land which is needed by the others to undiscovered itself by looking it at a brand new perspective towards Dalian China.