Yet another day of travelling was ahead of us. After breakfast at the hotel, we headed straight to the Cheng Dawei Abacus Museum (程大位珠算博物馆). Upon reaching the museum, which was conveniently set up in the house that Cheng Dawei had previously lived in, we were brought around by a guide who showed around and told us about the many different kinds of abacus used over the centuries. Despite some of the stories and information being too difficult for me to understand, I found it interesting to see the myriad of different abacus tools, some of which might even have been used hundreds of years ago. One thing I did understand that left an impact on me was the fact that Cheng Dawei spent just about his entire life researching on this mathematical tool. This clearly shows his passion towards mathematics using the abacus. Passion is an important trait of a person who aspires to do well in something. Without passion, a person will never do as well as others in anything, just because this person will lack the drive and motivation to do this particular thing to the best of his ability. Hence, Cheng Dawei's passion for mathematics using the abacus is undeniable and was probably what propelled him to such great heights. 

With the previous place we visited being the actual home of a well-known historical figures, a question close to the hearts of all Singaporeans' comes to mind: Should the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew's house be demolished following his wishes, or should it be preserved and turned into a museum or heritage site? As seen frequently on the news, this is indeed a mind-numbing question that the family members of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the Government and many fellow Singaporeans all have different opinions on. On one hand, since Mr Lee Kuan Yew stated in his will that he wanted his Oxley Road home demolished, his family members want to respect his wishes and do as he says, on the other hand, however, the Government and the public strongly believe that his house should be preserved due to its historical significance. In my opinion, I feel that since Mr Lee Kuan Yew wants his house to be demolished so strongly that he wrote about it in his will and told it to the Cabinet, we should abide by his wishes. As PM Lee Hsien Loong said to end off his eulogy for Mr Lee, “Mr Lee Kuan Yew built Singapore. To those who seek Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s monument, Singaporeans can reply proudly: ‘look around you’.” Indeed, we do not need Mr Lee's house to be preserved to be reminded of him and his contributions. Mr Lee built Singapore. Singapore should be enough for us to be reminded of and to appreciate him. Hence, though everybody knows that Mr Lee Kuan Yew is a great figure that deserves to be remembered and respected, these need not be done through the preservation of his house, but rather, through the country he spent his entire life building. In all, respecting Mr Lee's wish in his last will and testament is probably the last thing we can do for him, and we should do it. 

Next, we headed to Tunxi Ancient Street (屯溪古街), a street filled with stores and stalls selling Chinese traditional snacks and items. It was supposed to be visited yesterday but had to be pushed forward to today due to the lack of time. Walking into the entrance of the actual street, I was not surprised. It would remind just anyone of Singapore's very own Chinatown, and this is not just because it is a street in China. The stores and stalls sold things such as Chinese brushes, Chinese fans, Chinese malted candy and practically everything Chinese, just like the shops in Singapore's Chinatown do. 

Before we explored the street on our own, the teachers gave us a task and a few questions related to the task to answer. The task was to take a photo of a traditional handicraft, snack or diminishing trade on the Cultural Street. The following are the questions that were asked:

- Why do you choose that?

- What does it tell you about the culture, heritage and development of the Tunxi Street?

- What kind of entrepreneurship and creativity have the shop owners displayed in keeping this trade alive and catering to the needs of the tourists? 

- What are some of the older trades in Singapore that you think will disappear given ten to fifteen years down the road?

- How do you think such trades can be transformed to keep up with time? 

This is the photo that I have taken for the task:

The following are my answers to all the five above questions: 

- I chose to take a picture of this stick of traditional Chinese malted candy as malted candy is an extremely well-known traditional Chinese snack that is sold at almost every store that sells traditional Chinese things. The fact that it is, too, found at Tunxi Ancient Street just makes it stand out more. Malted candy used to be loved by kids and adults of all ages in the past, but now, with the growing variety of sweet treats, malted candy is slowly being forgotten. This has resulted in malted candy becoming a diminishing trade. 

- This tells us that the shop owners of the stores along Tunxi Ancient Street embrace the history, heritage and culture of it, making these factors of it strong. Despite some of their trades being diminishing ones, they still do not let go of their businesses and continue to make sure that they keep going, possibly to preserve past traditions so that their trades will be remembered long into the future. Hence, the culture and heritage of Tunxi Ancient Street is strong, so strong that they may never be taken over completely by this rapidly modernising world. As for the development of Tunxi Ancient Street, I personally feel that it has not developed much. However, some of the shop owners have smartly incorporated elements of the newer world into their products for sale. This will be further covered in my next point.

- The shop owners have displayed great entrepreneurship and a ton of creativity in keeping this diminishing trade of malted candy alive. As mentioned in my previous point, one of the actions they have taken is incorporating elements of the newer world into their products for sale. This Minion-shaped malted candy is a great example. In the past, malted candy used to only be created in the shapes of traditional Chinese animals and mystical creatures, however, in the present day, with the Minions from the hit movie, Despicable Me, being so in trend and stuck in the minds of every child, malted candy creators and sellers have resorted to making malted candy into the shapes of it and other cartoon characters like it. This attracts children and tourists alike to buy it out of interest, leading to malted candy and its sellers gaining both popularity and money, in turn making sure that this trade will not disappear and encouraging tourism to Tunxi Ancient Street. 

- Although I really hope that this is something that will not happen, I think that Singapore's very own hawker food and hawker centres may disappear sooner or later. With more and more educated Singaporeans, most will choose to take up more professional office jobs instead of jobs as hawkers, aside from the extremely passionate ones. This will lead to there being less hawkers, and therefore, less hawker food. As hawker food is part of Singapore's culture, it would be a shame to see it be diminished. 

- Nowadays, youngsters are noticeably more attracted to eat in places with cleaner environments. Thus, hawker centres can be kept cleaner and made air-conditioned. This has already been done, actually, with the opening of food courts around town. Food courts not only provide customers with the above advantages, but because of these advantages, they also help to attract tourist. With more popularity from tourism, Singapore's traditional hawker food culture will be promoted and will thus be able to last longer. Another thing that can be noticed is that youngsters tend to enjoy other cuisines such as western and Japanese cuisine. With these cuisines found at only a minimal level in hawker centres, there can be more stalls open selling food of these kinds of cuisines. This will attract youngsters to visit hawker centres more often, maybe even making them willing to try traditional hawker food. 

Lunch was next on the itinerary, and right after it, we drove to Xidi Ancient Village (西递民居群) and Hongcun Ancient Village (宏村民居群) to observe and look around. These two villages are both World Heritage Sites listed by UNESCO and were declared this prestigious title in 2000. Being from the Ming and Qing dynasties, they are both human settlements that reflect the socio-economic structure of a long-lived settled period of Chinese history. 

When we reached the first village, Xidi Ancient Village, which has nearly 200 well-preserved houses from the Ming and Qing dynasties, I was breath taken. The view of the mountains and water by the village was just amazing. The blue and green along with the dirty-white rustic village houses complemented each other perfectly, giving the place a peaceful feeling. The beautiful three-tiered stone arch also blew my mind. Despite its dull grey colour, being so great and tall, it indeed stood out. As we strolled into the actual village, walking along the cemented pavements in between the many houses which were even now actually occupied by people, my classmates were quick to note that every house had a body part of a pig hanging outside on its walls. This is probably because of their village beliefs and rituals, something that we have no right to comment on, though rather interesting. There were also many red papers and lanterns hanging on the outside of the houses. These are probably, similar to the previous point, put up because of their beliefs and rituals. Stepping inside a house that has a black elaborately sculpted decorative piece on top of its doors, we were greeted by a small table that had a tiny clock, a mirror and a few vases, with a painting hung above it. There were also a few sets of calligraphy pieces hung on the walls. Though this is not commonly seen in the present day, I am able to understand that the words written on these calligraphy pieces probably reflect the house owner's beliefs and mottos, or are perhaps just quotes that inspire them. In the middle of the village, there was also a large pond. This pond had probably acted as a water resource for the people in the past, a note as to how much China has developed since then. 

After our long walk around Xidi Ancient Village, we took a short 15 minute bus ride to Hongcun Ancient Village. Once we walked in to Hongcun Ancient Village, a long lake with a cement bridge was much so passionately noticed. The view was indeed just as picturesque as that seen at Xidi Ancient Village. The cross across the bridge was tough, with the steps of the bridge being steep to quite a large extent. Upon crossing the bridge, we were led into a building of an old elementary school, Nanhu Academy, where children in the past received their education which were mostly based on Confucian studies. The classrooms then were noticeably much more spacious than the classrooms both at home and in China, a fact we were going to find out about during our days at the school in Anhui. In addition to tables and chairs, there was also a room at the back for students and teachers to pray to an important figure in the world of education even in this day and age, Confucius. As a matter of fact, children who misbehaved in class were also punished there, right in front of the large portrait of Confucius, forcing remorse over them and making them determined to change for the better. The respect shown to Confucius in the past was this great, making it the probable the reason for the Chinese's strong character when it comes to studies. Walking out of the school and into the location of actual village houses, we realised that the houses were pretty much comparable to those at Xidi Ancient Village, except for the fact that the space outside was larger than that at Xidi, despite the narrower streets, giving children the space to play and for other activities to be conducted. There was also mini art gallery in the village itself, showing the village's love for art. In addition, with it being a tourist site, there were numerous small shops. This made the feeling of really being in an ancient village a little less convincing, though inevitable as as mentioned above, it is a tourist site and no doubt a way of life for some. Visiting the two villages was nevertheless an unforgettable experience, but describing it is a little challenging. You have got to see it to believe it! The marvellous view, the insight into the locals' way of lives, you will not be disappointed.

Comparisons between the two villages have definitely got to be made, even with both of them being similar in many ways. 

Firstly, they are alike in the fact that they are both black and white painted housing settlements that provide housing for people even till now. It will be interesting to note that the black and white painting of the buildings, the classic Huizhou style, make them exceptional in China. This is as just about every building in that particular area is painted this way, with the roofs black and walls white. 

Secondly, they are also alike in the fact that people from both the villages use water from water sources such as lakes and rivers to conduct their basic activities that require water, like bathing. This is as they did not have proper water systems in the past, though they may or may not have built some now. 

Thirdly, they are both surrounded by greenery and nature, partly contributing to their popularity as tourist sites. 

Lastly, the people in both the villages have similar, though not completely the same, practices of decorating their houses in a certain way. For example, they all have a habit of putting red paper with calligraphy written on top outside on the walls of their houses. Additionally, they also have many elaborately sculpted objects decorating the ceilings of their homes. These two practices are special to the Chinese and are unlikely to be found in western countries. 

However, no two places in this world are exactly the same. Hence, a discussion of the differences of the two villages is a must as they are what make them special.

Firstly, there are differences in their architectural form. While the houses in Xidi Ancient Village carry both Anhui and Southern Chinese architectural styles such as having horse-head gables and their walls descending staircase-style according to the angle of the roof, some of the houses in Hongcun Ancient Village have carved wooden beams, a main feature that differs them from the rest. 

Also, the layout of both places are different to a certain extent, though hard to explain. However, Xidi does have its unique three-tiered stone arch that welcomes you as you walk in, while Hongcun only has its bridge, lake and trees. 

Although there is probably a ton more differences, I may have failed to notice them due to the short time spent at each of the villages. Despite this, I have learnt plenty from this rare opportunity to visit the villages on top of a mountain. 

We ended the day off with a trip to the hotel for dinner, a debrief session and a good night's rest. Though busy and tiring, I feel that today has indeed been a fulfilling one with knowledge gained and thinking done. The highlight of my day was definitely the trip to Tunxi Ancient Street, an extremely different shopping experience than my usual frequent trips to air-conditioned shopping malls. Definitely looking forward to day 4!