i went to 城隍庙 on saturday morning with noelle. 城隍庙 is a famous tourist attraction, and the best thing about it is… it is near my home! just 4 bus-stops away, but it was only my second time there. my main purpose there was to visit 豫园 (the house of a rich man 400 years ago), be a “rich” tourist, and take pictures. i realised that’s how i am going to spend the rest of my weeks here in shanghai- (try to) be a young working professional in the weekdays and scrimp on meals; turn into a rich tourist and spend a lot of money on sight-seeing when weekends come :) anyway, at 豫园, i noticed things i haven’t known before. no, nothing to do with the beautiful chinese architectures constructed over 400 years ago. it has got to do with me and you. since 豫园 is one of the main tourist attractions in shanghai, there were many tour groups there on the sunny saturday morning. noelle and me paid the entrance fee of 25 yuan but were walking around aimlessly looking at the decidedly too-chim-to-comprehend halls and buildings and paintings and antiques. the cheap-skates in us decided get our money’s worth by tagging along any tour groups which came along our way, and listened to the guides explaining the rich chinese heritage and cultural. to prevent anyone from discovering us two cheap-skates, we jumped around from one group to another. hurhur, pretty funny, we could be listening to a guide speaking english at one hall, another speaking mandarin at the pavilion… then another speaking german… opps, wrong group! we joined this small chinese group where the tour guide looked quite sian. and the tourists in this group, unlike those in all the other groups we joined, seemed to be more interested in taking photographs than listen to the guide. in fact, me and noelle were the only people listening to him! for once, the tour guide seemed to appreciate the 2 free-riders. then, a young girl in the tour group spoke to the guide, “ ’scuse me, 这里有没有 toilet huh?” singaporeans! that distinct, familiar accent, that weird language… i don’t know about noelle, but i felt quite bemused. hiyo, so that’s my fellow countrymen, i should’ve known! the disinterest in historical artefacts and stories, written all over their faces. was that what was on my face too? i mean, even the ang mos were showing so much more enthusiasm, and they couldn’t even read the chinese characters on the paintings hanging on the walls. hmm, maybe should forgive the singaporeans, the guide wasn’t that good… but, still…! i used the rest of the time i spent in 豫园 playing a mini “spot-the-singaporean” game with myself, while noelle was busy taking pictures. i couldn’t help it. the discovery of that group of singaporeans surprised me, and i hadn’t realised we were so distinct. i noticed one other physical feature: the arms of singaporeans have immunization injection marks on them. i don’t know about people from other places, but whenever i spot the immunization injection scar on any auntie or lady wearing sleeveless blouse that morning, she inevitably turned out to be my fellow countryman! hmm, i don’t know what to make out of these distinct traits of the singaporean. i have never seen my own people from an outsider viewpoint, and what i saw that morning wasn’t something i can say i really like or don’t like. it’s not anything admirable or tangible, it’s just something very comfortable, like an old blanket, or well-worn pair of shoes. i think it’s simply very us.