AWE# 1: A Glimpse of Heavenly Mansion!
Impressive awe upon arrival at Wuhan Hotel on 10th May 2014. A very new hotel officially opened only in March 2014. Look at the lobby! Wow factor is high! And the interior too is another X-factor!
The interior of the Wanda Reign Wuhan is finished with imported marble and high-end crystal, which exhibits a feeling of extravagance and spaciousness. The large embossed mural in the hotel lobby, which is hung on a 10 meter high and 60-meter long wall space, is sculpted with white marble, Chinese jade and gold threading. The image draws inspiration from the amazing scenery of Wuhan East Lake (6 times bigger than West Lake) ; known as China's biggest urban lake. The Yellow Crane Tower is shown at the peak of the mountain!
Stayed only on the first night and felt like a Queen in the Palace ...Ummm If this is so awesome, wonder how my mansion in heaven would be like! This hotel was built as if part of Rev 21 had come to life- just a glimpse of what is in stored in heaven ...at least for me...
AWE# 2: Famous Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan - a reminder of the Towel of Babel?
Wow,so the Chinese history does have the Genesis 11 imprinted in their myths and legends. In Wuhan .....
AWE# 3: Met an "angel" at the Wuhan train station!
This trip was the fulfilment of a dream of a 85 year old couple, parents in law. They wanted to experience the high speed train in China. So we took the train from Wuhan to Guangzhou by flying to Wuhan for this trip.
Perhaps we were not familiar. Originally as told, we waited for the train at Platform 11 but it was meant to be Carriage 11. So when the train was in station at platform 10, we did not get in. Further the end name of the train destination was "Shenzhen" not Guangzhou. So when the train had the final call, the 7 of us were still happily seated at the platform. But we thank God for the God-send angel train warden - a young man who approached us to find out where we were heading. He took our tickets and immediately told us to get into the train! Hush and rush we did!
Very thankful- as had this been in Japan, we would have bade the train sayonara! And the mix up would entail massive changes to the trip itinenary -with 2 old folks and kidney dialysis schedules!
Well, thank God, we did not miss the train . Took us 4 hours past to arrive at Guangzhou, only to find another event to be thankful for!
AWE# 4; The biggest flood in Shenzhen since 2008 happened on 11th May 2014- His protection
When we pulled into the Guanzhou train station, our local guide who was came from Shenzhen was late for more than 45 min! And little did we realise how bad the flood situation was in Shenzhen then! Better late than never! And with that heavy rainstorms in the next few days, our domestic flight from GZ to Meixian was delayed by more than 2 hours too! That made us change the tour plane to return back to GZ via flight - decided to take a 4.5 hours coach instead! And oh boy, aint we glad to do so on return? Because we had to carry 8x 9KG ceramic gift sets back :( Overweight for sure! Gave away 3 more sets in GZ and with that reduction, we managed to fly back to Spore without the overweight surcharge by the thin margin call! All the hoo hah that followed - all because of a S$70 gift set x 9 given by the village...the shock and awe experience!
AWE#5: 2 smooth dialysis and 1 scare! Yet another God's protection
Because of the major heart by pass done in Oct 2012, followed by kidney dialysis thereafter, one would not be able to imagine that this trip was made possible in 2014. The risk of the dialysis in China vs that fulfillment of the wishes of the old folks finally took off for travel this month. After all the prayers covered by friends and loved ones in Spore, the dialysis went off pretty smooth except for the second one in Dabu. Almost crashed with low BP, in cold sweat and also too much increase in weight beyond 4 kg for patient. The journeys and the excitement of going back to the village finally took its toll on dad in law. However, despite the scare at 10pm - 2 hours into the dialysis, all went smoothly thereafter.
[My feet in plastic wraps - a choice of wearing their shoes in the dialysis centre or in these....
I chose the disposal wraps!]
85 year old.!Heart bypassed patient! Kidney on dialysis! Village medical facilities! We SURVIVED!What can we say except in gratitude to the Lord Jesus for His continued hand of protection throughout.
Awe# 6 : Appreciation of the spirit of generosity, remembering the poor
I remember the days of old when my late parents used to send bicycles , clothings back to Shantou in the 1970s. This was the country in which they were born before coming to Red Dot. Likewise my parents in law had the same emotional ties. But today, China has progressed so much. More highways, more wired up. The villages had transformed leaps and bounds . The new hotels built up is a testament. This trip was like a medical tourism vacation - visited 3 hospitals all in all within the 8 days. The last one was the unexpected which I will mention later.
The acts of philanthropy of my dad in law had been recorded for his hometown in Dabu - the Hakka community. Ambulances, mobile clinics, dialysis equipment, the continued support to the old age home in Kopi - just to name a few.
The Honour Roll
And to end this recent trip at the Dabu Village, 5 trees were planted in honour of the philanthropist...perhaps if body willing, in ten years time, we will be able to see the trees grown taller by then....
AWE# 7 : The Unexpected ! With thanksgiving again!
This trip was undergirded by so many prayers for my parents in laws due to the high risk factors. Because of the scare on the 6th day of the trip where there was a slight crash during the second dialysis, we almost wanted to put forward the homecoming trip by a day to sat instead of Sunday. But by then condition was stabalised and so flight was not changed. To me, it was again the grace of God in action. Because on sat itself, one of the participants, an uncle, suddenly had to be sent to the nearest ER in GZ city hospital for some medical problem. In the nick of time, we managed to see the doc who almost went home in 15 min time at 12:30pm. And with the telephone advice of his son who is a medical doctor in Australia , it was decided that he be flown back without the removal of the medical device.
Had we changed the flight to that of saturday, I would have thought the the journey home would have been the most traumatic one in his whole life! And we thank God it happened on the last day of the trip and not the first too.
So that ended my 3rd hospital visit in the total 8 days! Phew!
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Sceneries of Hometown...Daby/ Fuliao - Ancestor
Hakka Food....
An adventure of a lifetime.................................
Also broke my personal best record of vomitting 4 times and 2 diarrhea in that evening at the village...never before...veg swimming in oil, what to do?
