My nightmare with Standard Chartered Bank

We decided to buy our own property in Apr 2002. The time when we signed the contract with the developer, Standard Chartered Bank salesman came in. He pursuaded us to take a mortgage loan from his bank (in fact we didn't need to take it in 2002, our scheme was under the defer payment). He said firstly you'd better to secure a loan when you still had job and secondly the interest rate was low (2.5%) at the time. That gave us a feeling that if we signed then, even though outside interest rate increase, our loan would still be 2.5%. On top of that, we could enjoy one time a free conversion and legal subsidy. We insisted that the offer items were to be written in the contract. They refused by saying the contract was fixed and the bank was a prestigious bank, they wouldn't bluff. We agreed and signed.

Until the following year (2003), our disbursement started. But the market interest rate dropped to only 1.5%. So we contacted the bank to do a free conversion, the manager (he was the one that came with the salesman and signed the contract with us, his name was M) refused by giving the reason "this was not in the contract and I can't remember we promised to offer you a free conversion". We managed to contact the salesman R who had already resigned at the time. He confirmed what we said and told us in fact it was his manager M who taught him to say so. He found this job was not suitable for him, therefore resigned.

After a long and sorrowful fight, finally Standard Chartered Bank agreed to convert for us.

Since the beginning of last year, Standard Chartered started to raise up their interest rate with tremendous speed. Almost every 2-3 month we would receive their letters about their interest review. It became worse from last Sept. Even with our write-in, they stopped writing to us with the exception of their interest review letters and the regular statements. We were furious and finally we decided to change to another bank after we found the interest they charged us were deferred from our calculation, and received no explanation from them.

We gave them 3 months notice based on our agreement. After chasing them for sooooooo many times, we received from them that we could do a full redemption by 16 Apr this year in black and white. they also verbally agreed to give us the detail breakdown of interest they charged for the controversial months. We were relieved and thought our nightmare was over.

We engaged our lawyer to deal with them. The lawyer told us the Bank informed her the final redemption date should be in Jun not Apr. Puzzled we called them with the proof, they admitted they had made a mistake, but that caused quite a handsome delay and we had to pay at a very high interest for their mistake rather than they paying themselves.

Last month I went to their branch in Raffles Place to close my account. Meanwhile I again made request to give us the breakdown detail. Even until today, more that 1 month already, I still haven't received anything from them yet. We made the same requests about 10 times since last Sept, all been ignored. That made us feel very fishy, if there's nothing wrong, why not just reply to the customer? It only takes few minutes, isn't it?

To conclude, learn from my lesson, don't do any business with this bank. I roughly calculated we lost almost $10K during these years from the higher interest compared to other banks and the lawyer fee for the transfer. Most important their service is terrible.

Tomb sweeping

View Album

Get your own

My granduncle's tomb


My Grandparents' tomb


My cousin Ping He's burning offerings to my grandparents
My uncle Qi's tomb, his daughter (Yin, Qi's third daughter) is paying respect to him
My mother's hometown -- Heng Shan Qiao -- a small town near Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. The picture shows a local delicacy there -- pancake with Chinese leek filling


The house belonged to my mother's grandma before she got married. It was confiscated during the Culture Revolution period


This house used to be my great grandfather's. Also confiscated at the same time. My aunt is standing there, think of the past



My great grandma's maiden house -- confiscated








My great grandfather's house -- confiscated by the government, now bought by another person, he transformed it into a shop selling weighing scales


My great grandfather's house, confiscated






Inside of that weighing scale shop



Inside the same shop













After our family houses been confiscated, my uncle's family was given such a shabby house and nine of them were living here until mid 70's. The persecution caused my uncle's early death

The same house -- his daughter (Wei, Qi' youngest daughter) and her boyfriend

A bridge over the grand canal in Heng Shan Qiao


The same bridge



Dinner gathering after the tomb sweeping at my cousin Ju's (Qi's eldest daughter) place. The standing lady is cousin Chun (Qi's second daughter), the girl sitting left to her is her daughter Jin (24)






The boy with white T-shirt is Zhong (cousin Chun's son, Jin' younger brother (20))

Buddhist ceremony for my grandmother

29/3/06
My grandma will be 99-year-old this April. However, based on the Chinese way of calculating, she shall be 100. (a person is one-year-old soon after he/she was born, so it'll be one year more than the western way) That's the reason we held this ceremony for her. Many nuns came chanting for her.


Ancestor worshiping

Back to my aunt's place

My cousin Yin (Qi's third daughter) and her daughter Ru(24)

My aunt Zhi(Qi's wife) and her grandson Hu (20)
My cousin-in-law Han (Qi's son's wife), cousin Ju (Qi's eldest daughter), cousin Wei (his youngest daughter)
The left most is cousin Xian (Qi's 5th daughter)

Day tour in Suzhou

The following morning, my cousin Ping -- his father Qi was my mother's eldest brother who passed away 1995-- drove us to Suzhou.


Houses along a canal

Suzhou was famous for its private courtyards. This time we visited two of them (Shi Zi Lin and Liu Yuan). (there are plenty of them, each one has it's uniqueness) It's also been called Eastern Venice because the local people lived by canals. But now most of the canals have already disappeared due to reclaiming of land project since Liberation (1949).

Located in the northeast of Suzhou, Shizilin is a good representitive of antient classical private garden designing. Shizilin has a very long history. It was first built in 1342, Yuan Dynasty. Covers 2.5 acres in area, it is famours for its groteque rocks, which are limestone from Taihu Lake in Wuxi City. Some of them resemble lions, and that's the reason why it is named as Shiziyilin, which literally can be translated as Lion Garden.










A miniature shows how people in Suzhou lived a few hundreds years ago















A hall in Shi Zi Lin -- A private garden belong to Song official






Shi Zi Lin


One of the hall -- Yuan Xiang Tang --inside Shi Zi Lin




Another hall -- San Shi Liu Yuan Yang Guang -- inside Shi Zi Lin

A lady was taking photo inside the hall

Shizilin is an ideal sightseeing site as it has richly ornamental pavilions and towers in different styles; each has its own history and story. Walking through those numerous winding pathways and caverns of the anfractuous stone forest, one could easily lose one's way. With the old pines and cypress trees, the whole landscapes represent scenes of real mountains and forests.




A tree inside Shi Zi Lin Garden











Peach blossom in Shi Zi Lin




Beautifully decorated -- Shi Zi Lin











Inside Shi Zi Lin







Eastern version of Venice -- near Shi Zi Lin











Another private garden --Liu Yuan

Just like Shiziyilin, LiuYuan also has a long history. It was first built in 1583, Ming Dynasty. It had been changed many hands and finally belonged to Liu Family before it was donated to the Government and that's the reason why it was named.

Today the garden is separated into the eastern, central, northern and western parts. The central part features a man-made mountain and lakeside scene, resembling a long scroll of traditional Chinese landscape painting. The eastern part is noted for its joyous groupings of garden courts and elegant buildings, the western part for the enchantment of woody hills, and the northern part for cottages with bamboo fences and idyllic scenes.


Liu Yuan



An artificial hill made from Taihu rock is always the main component of Suzhou gardens. The 6.5-meter-high Cloud-Capped Peak in this garden, as the highest limestone in classical gardens of Suzhou, is believed to have been left behind by the imperial collector of the Northern Song Dynasty. Weighing about 5 tons, the limestone is supposed to have been carried from Taihu Lake, 40kms away.

One hall inside Liu Yuan

Outside one of the halls in Liu Yuan










Chinese calligraphy -- last time rich family like to decorate with Chinese calligraphy -- in Liu Yuan







Inside Liu Yuan

Bonsai in Liu Yuan

Bonsai in Liu Yuan

Bonsai in Liu Yuan

Liu Yuan

The story of Liu Yuan is written here

We had dinner at Xian's (Ping's younger sister) place. Many cousins, cousin-in-laws and their children came. It was indeed wonderful.

Visit Jiangyin

In the morning of 29/4/6, my cousin Ping sent his driver to fetch us (my parents, uncle Pei -- my mother's elder brother) to his place -- Jiangyin.

In the afternoon, we visited the Library, Museum and Theatre. His friend -- the director of that library guided the tour.

My aunt Zhi (my uncle Qi's -- my mother's eldest brother -- wife). She's 79-year-old now




My mother and my aunt in front of the theatre.

The square

The library

Inside the library

Inside the library

Inside the library

Inside the library

The museum

Animal body found in Jiangyin -- inside the museum

Fish specimen in Jiangyin museum

This miniature shows how people in Jiangyin lived a few thousands of years ago










A miniature of an ancient tomb.

This miniature shows how people in Jiangyin lived during Song dynasty

At uncle Wu's house

Next day (28/4/6), we were invited to uncle Wu's (my mother's cousin) house. He had already two great grandchildren even though he's only 70-year-old. The younger one was a cute little girl.


The little one is her












Is she cute?


We went back in the afternoon.

Back to Changzhou

Next morning, we didn't feel like go back to see the West Lake again even though the trip in the previous day was a quick one and it didn't cover all. We took 11:30 coach back to my aunt's home. Since the night before I couldn't sleep at all -- too angry to sleep, I missed lots of nice sceneries outside the window of my coach.

One day trip in Hangzhou

The next day, (26/3/06) we started our one day trip in Hangzhou from Yue Wang Temple. This temple was dedicated to Yue Fei, a national hero during Song Dynasty. He was a general fighting with Jin (ancestor of modern Manchu) and was framed and persecuted by his fellow colleagues.

A camphor tree in the courtyard of Yue Wang Temple -- according to the local custom, once a girl is born to the family, her parents will plant a camphor tree for her in their courtyard, because camphor wood is one of the best wood to make a wardrobe, they will cut the tree and give to the girl as dowry when she get married.



If it is a boy born to the family, his parents must plant a cassia tree, the reason I forgot.




Inside the temple












Jin Zhong Bao Guo -- Loyal to the country -- praising him












The statue of Yue Fei







Eating Xi Hu Ou Fen (Lotus root paste) -- how to tell whether Ou Fen is good? By looking at color. Good one suppose to be pinkish. If it is white, it means too much potato starch added, black means too much sweet potato starch added












Still eating -- it's not cheap, such a small bowl cost RMB5 (S$1)
















In front of the Mausoleum of General Yue Fei













At the entrance of the temple















Next followed by West Lake (Xi Hu). Xi Hu, undoubtedly the most renowned feature of Hangzhou, noted for the scenic beauty that blends naturally with many famous historical and cultural sites, is a huge lake with clear and tranquil water. Surrounding was lavishly green decorated by all sorts of flowers, peach, cherry, and so on. The only thing was too crowded.

Xi Hu (West Lake)















Xi Hu













Xi Hu













San Tan Yin Yue -- Xi Hu












Xi Hu











Xi Hu


San Tan Yin Yue -- Xi Hu


Xi Hu












Xi Hu


Xi Hu


Peach blossom at Xi Hu













Peach blossom



Cedar tree -- The seed was given by former American president Nickson, unfortunately it never able to grow properly, people joked about it that's the reason why the relationship between US and China would never be good




Hua Gang Guan Yu -- Xi Hu






My father and I in front of cherry blossom at Hua Gang Guan Yu West lake










Yuan -- Fate, it means marriage depends on fate



Tour guide definitely would persuade you to buy their silk local products. We were brought to a silk factory there. They promised all the products there were 100% silk. The typical one for eg. Can Si Pei (a quilt filled with silk). They had demonstration there how this thing had been made and explained this one was suitable for any season, If you used it in winter, it would keep you warm and summer keep you cool. The price was based on the weight. It's about S$50+/Kg. My uncle bought one which they claimed to be 2Kg, after coming home he found it was only 1.5Kg.

Lunch was expensive(S$3) and terrible if you joined the package.

We visited Song citadel after the lunch. It's built based on the novel "Shui Hu" (Chinese version of Robinhood). It's quite small and ticket was expensive (S$20+). Things there were expensive too. One small bowl of bean curd cost more than S$1.

Next was the tea plantation. It's famous for Long Jing(a kind of green tea) here. It was so good that the emperor Qing Long appointed it to be royal tea. The girl there demonstrated how to differentiate the different quality of tea. Tea around the Qing Ming festival was the top one, then followed by Autumn tea. Summer tea was cheaper than these two. grade one could not be found in the market. It's reserved for the Central Government. Even grade two was too expensive, it's normally exported to foreign countries Like US, Europe and Japan. Grade three was more than few thousand Sing Dollars per kilo.

After the tea break there, we went to the last stop -- Huang Long Dong, a Taoist temple which was famous for fortune telling.

Huang Long Dong -- a Taoist temple

The whole trip ended at 6:20pm unlike what the sales woman promised us 5:00pm and we had to take our own taxi to the coach station, not as what she promised she would arrange transport for us. We heard the terrible news soon after we reached there -- there were no coach available, the last left at 6:15pm.

Can you imaging my feelings at that time? I was completely new to the place with no friends no relatives there. Where could I go if no transport going home? I was shocked how that woman could do such a terrible thing to me just in order to get some commissions. In fact, in the moring we found something wrong already. The girl in our group told us she stayed in the same type of room was only charged at RMB150 instead of 200. It made me already feel not comfortable and now was even worse. We found the complain hotline number to lodge a complain but in vain. The lady (Miss Hong?) in charge was terrible. She refused to admit that the staff told us about the time of the last coach. She asked me to provide the proof. As for the difference of the price, she said it was our problem. We accepted the price the woman offered us and did not bargain with her. "Since you are happy with the price, what's the point for us to lower it down". I really did not know how to answer her. But based on my previous travel experience, I never even heard hotel price also could be bargained like buying some cheap from roadside. Well, guess that's the lesson I learned. So, remember, next time when you go there, must be very careful, everything must have black and white as I told you before the local people there were cunning and unfriendly. No choice we went back to the same hotel. ( we did not know any other hotels in Hangzhou and it was too late)

Tips: The hotel I stayed is "Dong Hai Bin Guan", the travel agent I followed is "Chang Yun Gong Si Lv You Bu". They are two different department of the same company. Try to avoid this. It's better to book your hotel in advance through the internet. It'll be cheaper.

My trip to Jiangnan China(Hangzhou, Zhejiang)

25/3 my father and I went to Hangzhou, a famous tourist hotspot. There's a saying in China: There's heaven above, down below we have Su & Hang. Su refers to Suzhou, which I'm going to talk about it later. Now we are going to Hang, which refers to Hangzhou. You can easily go there by train or coach from Shanghai. It's only about 1 hour by train from there. We went there from Changzhou, my aunt's place. It's also convenient. We went by coach and coach trip is no more the same as before. The coaches are quite new and all imported from foreign countries. They are very comfortable and not much difference from Japan. Road condition is also fantastic nowadays. So for such a distance it only took us 2.5 hours to go there and 2 hours coming back. I guess going there is going up the slope and coming back is down since Zhejiang Provence is higher than Jiangsu. Halfway through we arrived at the highway stop. The building was also more or less like the one in developed countries.

One of the stopover along Hu-Ning Highway

By noon we reached Hangzhou. Soon many people gathered around us and promoted their lodging and transport. We chose the one who claimed they belong to the Government simply because the private one usually could not be trusted. The woman(in her 50's) offered to drive us there and told us their hotel was 3-star hotel and RMB200 per night after discount. We followed her. Though we found the hotel did not look like 3-star as what she said, we still agreed to stay there since we did not want to waste too much time on finding hotels and her one looked acceptable. (a standard room with attached bathroom, with TV, hot water supply and a shower set) After we settled down, the woman persuaded us to join there 1 day tour for the following day. We told her we'd like to do so, the only thing we worried about whether we could catch the last coach to go home. She reassured us by saying it should be no problem at all because the trip would end at 5:00pm and the last coach would at 7:15pm and since the hotel and coach were belong to the same company, she could arrange everything in a package. So we accepted. (You'll hear more about this in my next day's blog)

We had our lunch in a small local restaurant. One of the most important parts of traveling is tasting the local delicacies. Hangzhou dishes are noted for their elaborate preparation, sophisticated cooking and refreshing taste. There are many famous dishes worth trying like Dongporou (braised pork), Jiaohuaji (a chicken baked in clay), xihucuyu (vinegar coated fish fresh caught from the lake), etc. Yummy.. and cheap.

After food, we went to Hu Xue Yan's former residential house. It was more than a hundred years old and it was so luxuriously built. Even today we could tell that this was one of the most prestigious families at the time. Hu was a successful businessman as well as a high rank government official. That's why he could accumulate his wealth in such a short time. From there we could see corruption was nothing new, it started long time back. The wood used was a top kind of camphor wood and you could see all the carving so much in detail either on the wood panels or on the walls. The garden was nice too. It was so big that we could not believe it belonged to only one family. Artificial hills and ponds were everywhere. There were so many halls that I even lost my count. Second floor were all chambers for the family. He had countless of concubines, each of them had her own building and a group of servants.

At the entrance of Hu Xue Yan's former residential house

The entrance

Isn't the carving so vivid? It's a mixture of mud, glutinous rice and some other ingredients

My father sitting in front of one of the halls there

Outside the hall

Inside one of the halls -- Bai Shi Lou

Inside the same hall

Inside the same hall

The kitchen

The courtyard

The courtyard

Another hall -- Yuan Yang Ting

The carving

Another hall

The courtyard

The courtyard

One of the building

The courtyard

The courtyard

Then we carried on to Qing He Fang, a replica of a commercial street of Song Dynasty. It's just beside Hu's House, about 5-10 mins by walk. Everything there was still kept according to the Song's style. Shops selling local products were along both sides. The most famous one tourists must buy were tea (Xi Hu Long Jing), silk, Lotus root paste (Xi Hu Ou Fen), etc. But must be very careful. The local people were very cunning. One got very easily cheated there. For eg, when they filled up tea in a can, the way they did was super fast. We could not see properly. Tea was very expensive, so if you bought many cans, one or two were empty, you would lose a lot. Worse case was you bought as a gift for your friend. Not only losing money, but also embarrassing yourself. Bargain was a must, usually started from the half of the price they offered you.

The shop assistant wearing Qing Costume to attract customers

The street looks as if we were in Song Dynasty

A girl was taking photo in front of the copper statue -- Mai Tan Wong (an old man selling charcoal)

The street

The shop selling traditional Jiangnan wearing

Traditional Jiangnan dining table

A girl wearing a costume of an ancient princess of a minority group

In front of Wu Shan hill (near Qing He Fang)

My trip to Jiangnan China

24/3 was my "frightening" day. I supposed to go to Qi Shu Yan, Changzhou at 1:00pm. I thought it was still early after my breakfast. So there was no hurry. At 10:30am, I was ready to go to catch my train. Only at that time, I found I did not even know how to open his door. After a careful check up, I realized I was locked inside. I was not sure how to unlock it and there was no way to call him, because he had no phone at home. What should I do? I had to wait for him to come back in the evening? Then what about my lunch, nothing to eat, fridge was empty. Oh, my God! Nobody knew I was inside and he was unreachable. How? How? Suddenly I saw a intercom on the wall, I picked it up and made a call to the security guard. He was very helpful. He said he would send someone to help me. I took out my wallet to inform him my cousin's mobile phone number so that he could contact him. He told me it was not necessary because his man would be at my door soon. After a short while, I heard his knocking. Luckily the day before by accident I asked my cousin for his address. Otherwise, these people could not even find my unit. He asked me if I had the key so that he could open the door. That was another problem, because the key I had was only a single key. If I simply followed the man's instruction and throw it downstairs, we might lose it. So I hurried to the kitchen to find some weight to tie together with it, with my wallet in my hand unconsciously. The door was open, and finally I managed to go out. I felt so happy. The man showed me how to open it from inside. It was quite tricky. Anyway I was still on time when I board bus 129 to West Shanghai Railway Station. From there, I supposed to switch to 106 to Shanghai Railway station. But soon after I board this one, I found the second problem. Guess what?......... Yeh, I could not find my wallet. So strange, how come, nobody even went close to my bag and there was no cut on it. How come only this one was missing? I quickly alighted the bus and ran to a public phone trying to contact my cousin. At this time, I remembered I took out somewhere when I made phone call. But where? Where? Cool down, cool down. Another public phone? Which one? Guess already taken by other people. Oh no, it was at home I made call right? Yea, so no worries. Better rush back. After I went home, I quickly set my eye on the table, it was not there. Where could it be? Finally I found my wallet in kitchen. This time was the front gate which gave me problem. No choice, I knocked the neighbours' door and sought help from one old lady. It was too late when I settled these problems. Suddenly one idea flashed in my mind, I asked the conductor to alert me when we reached the nearest stop to the Railway Station and from there I took a taxi, so that saved me the trouble of switching to another bus.

Tickets were fully sold out that day which was quite not normal. I quickly rushed to the platform to board the train. The officer was very nice. Having heard my problem, he(she)? just let me go inside. The train so super crowded and I board it just few minutes before departure. I was happy. Though some unexpected happened, I managed to settle all of them and I was on time to go to my aunt's home. Most important, the train reminded me of my childhood. I was sitting on my suitcase in a corner beside the door with no room even for turning my body. Lucky this side door would never open during the journey. Yellow flowers all over the fields, small stream here and there. Grandma always brought me home by train when I was a little girl. Almost the same setting except grandma is no more with us.

I reached this small town after 2 hours journey. I made a call to my aunt. None of them were at home. This also seldom happened in my memory, because most of the family member are retirees. I waited for about 20 minutes. This time my cousin Yan picked up the phone. She came to me in just few minutes time and brought me home. In the evening, my parents also came back. The booked tickets to Hangzhou for me. So the following day, my father and I would go for a short trip to Hangzhou.


My aunt Jian -- my mother's elder sister who is 80-year-old now

My trip to Jiangnan China (Shanghai)

Garuda check-in counter at Changi airport Singapore

I flew to Shanghai at 2:00am 23/3 by Garuda Indonesia. I checked in quite early because the last train stopped by 11:00pm. The plane came from Jakarta, there was no more window seats when reached Singapore. I was given an aisle seat. I was lucky because the other two seats beside me were empty, so I managed to get some sleep on the plane. It reached Shanghai by 7:00am 23/3. Check-in was quite smooth this time, guess this was because I came back quite often recently. By 8:00am, I finished everything, I even managed to make a phone to my sister back in Singapore using my Singtel world card.

Shanghai Pudong International Airport (taken from airport shuttle)

I took the airport shuttle to go to Shanghai Railway Station. It's one hour's journey, and my cousin Bing came to fetch me to his place. His new flat was just ready. After we reached there, he went to work and I went for a "Nong Tang trip" after a nap. When evening fell, we met at Xu Jia Hui, a famous hangout for the local youngsters. Dinner was at a local restaurant with many local delicacies. We went home after our dinner.

Below are my "Nong tang trip"

Fan Yuan -- old colonial house early last century

Fan Yuan

Fan Yuan

Fan Yuan

Fan Yuan -- Rong Yi Ren's (last time the richest man in China) former house before Liberation, now occupied by 5 households

Peach blossom in one of the park in Shanghai

Heritage Architecture in Shanghai

Heritage architecture in Shanghai

Madam Soong Qing Ling's former residential House (Huai Hai Zhong Road)

Old colonial building in Shanghai

Tips: When travel to Shanghai, airport shuttle is very helpful. It's cheap and fast. Normally it only cost less than RMB20 (S$4) and there should be one every 15 mins.