First few days of the new school year…
- January 10th, 2008
- By Samuel Ma
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The Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Region and other economic regions in China
So it has been quite a few days since a brand new school year has started. In August this year, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will be held in the capital of China, and I am very excited about it as a Chinese. You already can see a countdown flash plugin on my blog now. Time flies. I remember in July 2001 when I first heard that Beijing managed to become the host city for the 2008 Olympic Games, everybody in Chengdu was overjoyed. In just seven years, many new facilities were built to cater for the athletes participating in the Beijing Olympic Games. Meanwhile, many changes have happened to me, as I became more matured.
As students in my batch are going to JC1 next year, studying the Extended Curriculum in Hwa Chong Institution (College Section) is definitely one of my goals. I will work hand in hand together with my classmates and friends this year to ensure that we all have a stable foundation, so that we will not suffer in JC next year. This year reminds me of year 2004, when I was preparing for the Primary Schools Leaving Examination (PSLE). Although I am not taking the O Levels but am in the Integrated Programme, it is still important to ensure that I have a good foundation before I study the JC Curriculum.
The Chengdu-Chongqing Pilot Reform & Economic Region
My senior, Branden Seow, recently approached me to help him in his China Studies in Chinese (CSC) research paper. He was a caring senior of mine in NCC last time, and he is now in JC2. The 城乡一体化 idea of the Chinese government attracted him a lot, and I must say that he has chosen the right person to work with. I have a lot of information on Chengdu and Chongqing’s ecnomic development, and I am sure they will be of great help to his research paper. In June last year, Chengdu and Chongqing were selected by Beijing as trial zones to pilot a reform. The objectives of the reform is to actualise the equal standards of living and economic development in both urban and rural areas. Since 1997 when Chongqing was separated from Sichuan Province and became Chongqing Municipality together with Wanxian (now known as Wanzhou) and Qianjiang, the concept of Chongqing’s economic development can be summarised as “small city leads big village”. The following diagram shows the main city, Wanzhou and Qianjiang shall influence economic development in regions nearby, also known as the “One Circle, Two Wings” Concept:
The “One Circle, Two Wings” Concept
On Monday, I passed a 6-disc DVD series to Branden. It contains the recordings of the 14-hour LIVE telecast by China Chongqing Television on 18 June 2007, with important materials featuring Chongqing’s economic development over the 10 years since it became a direct-controlled municipality. Togerther with that is another documentary series named “Memories of the Land of Abundance” which features the economic development of Chengdu. Branden says that he plans to watch them over the weekend. Branden developed the interest to research on this topic as he felt that the political systems in China and Singapore are quite similiar to each other. I wish Branden success in his journey to discover more!
This afternoon, Yin Jiunn, me and Jing Yi went to Ang Mo Kio’s Jubilee Entertainment Complex to catch the latest horror movie, One Missed Call. It was indeed a thrilling experience. Though it is somehow related to the popular Japanese horror story, The Ring, but I am glad to see that the storyline has much difference as compared to the Japanese version. There were some other movies last time with almost the same storyline as The Ring, and the only difference was the Japanese actors were then Western actors. These movies get viewers like me very bored. One Missed Call is definitely a nice movie to watch.
