miss heng's china trip journal thingy..has a hilarious picture of her when she was in her twenties or something

6 June 1987 (Sat) Shanghai/Singapore

All packed up and dressed up in our formal uniform (again!) we checked out of our hotel and were on our way.
We arrived at Dr.Sun Yat Sen’s residence. Dr.Sun Yat Sen (1866-1925) the “Father of the Republic”, fought for democracy in China after the Manchu rule.
We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the inside of his house. Cameras and even handbags had to be left in a cupboard and we had to wear plastic shower caps over our shoes so as to preserve the cleanliness of the house! The kitchen served as the main entrance to his residence and was where all our belongings were temporarily with-held from our use.
The house was spotless and looked quite new in fact! Many objects were encased in glass so as to preserve them. Everything was extremely well-kept. We were impressed by the preservation of his residence and its contents.
The spacious house was full of antique furniture, and books, shelves and shelves of books. There were bookcases to be found in the hall and upstairs landing. He must have loved books because he had 2,700 of them! The subject matter of these books varied from economics to psychology, sociology and history.
He appreciated literature, Shakespeare amongst them. He also displayed an appreciation for art as can be seen in the pottery, figurines and other works of art around the house. He also owned several maps. A very intellectual man indeed, this Dr. Sun! He even owned a radio!
We then proceeded to the garden to take photos before leaving the place.
The Shanghai International Airport was our final destination in China. We checked in our luggage, which by now had multiplied (but thankfully not doubled!) in number. But since we were such a large group, we were safe.
We said our farewells to Xu Xiaojie and Mdm. Zhao, our Beijing tour guides who had accompanied us to Xian and then to Shanghai, and our Shanghai tour guide Miss Chou and our bus driver Mr. Su. We then proceeded through customs. Those of us who had excess Chinese currency changed it back to Singapore notes.
We finally boarded the plane at 2.25 pm, the time of our scheduled take-off, so that explained why the crew hurried us up and tried to get us settled as fast as possible.
Our three and a half hour flight was indeed a memorable and fitting end to a successful history tour of China. Since SIA was celebrating its 40th anniversary, they served champagne (we got orange juice!) and cake and gave us each a neck-rest as a souvenir.
We took 30 of SIA’s 40th anniversary menus as our autograph books and passed them up and down the aisle.
They didn’t show the inflight movie because there was so much activity in the rear of the plane (That’s where we were!) and people didn’t seem to miss it anyway!“Here endeth” our historical history tour to China, but the memories we made together in that ancient land of beauty and history would linger on in our hearts and minds for a long time yet.