2012 Ing Cup University Go Tournament in Chengdu, China

Before I embark on my next trip, I guess I should update a bit about my previous one.

(Full photo album can be found here:)

15th July

We boarded the plan at 2 am. I really hate this kind of plane because 1 thing I can never do is sleep properly on the plane. I have experienced it so many times. In the end I just feel so shack and worn out when I reach my destination.

We reached Chengdu airport at around 6 in the morning. A girl called Nelly came to pick us up and bring us to the university, 西南财经大学(South Western University of Finance). It was kind of funny because Xingwei only communicated with her through sms so we were discussing whether "Nelly" was a guy or a girl.

The school was quite big and beautiful. Upon reaching the school we had to immediately attend the opening ceremony. And it was a shock that we had to play the first round at 2pm on the same day!!! We were so tired that we thought we would all lose the first game... Well at least we got to see famous faces like Nie Weiping and Wang Yuan during the opening ceremony.

The place where we stayed was kind of a let-down... It was just like a normal school hostel, just that there was no air-con, the bed was a hard one, and most importantly, there was NO mirror!!! Yes, can you imagine how you live in a place without a mirror?? There are just simply so many things you cannot do!!!! Omg, I don't know how we managed to stay at that place for 7 days...

First game I played with this guy called Kang Ji Moon from Seoul University. I was really very tired but somehow he made quite a few mistakes and I managed to win him. Xingwei also won his first opponent. The other two of us lost the first game.

We also met up with the Koreans after the opening ceremony. They came one day before us and they couldn't take the hostel anymore, so they decided to move to a hotel nearby. It was only near the end that we realised many other schools did the same too. We decided to stay in the hostel because it was free for us, but now I regret doing so...



16th - 17th July

2nd and 3rd day was just normal competition day with 2 games per day. Nothing much happened, except for the drinking with the Koreans at night. Very interesting to see many famous faces in the competition including the pros. Because me and Xingwei won the 1st game, so for the 2nd game we miraculously sat at the first two tables, and I played with the super strong pro called Lan Tian (literally means blue sky). In the end he got the individual champion! What an honour to have played him.

Lan Tian in action

 For the drinking, we learnt a lot of new drinking games. Last time I only knew "I love you game"(사랑해, 병신), but this time we learnt so many more~ It was really very fun~ I think I'll make a list of drinking games next time~



18th July

4th day was a rest day. I went to many competitions but it was very rare to have a rest day in between games, haha. So we decided to go to Chengdu city with the Koreans, and went to this very big shopping place that looked like 王府井(wang fu jing) in Beijing. Didn't really have much time so only bought some shirt at Uniqlo. I think at least we were better than some people who only went there to buy coffee and bread, haha.

19th - 21st July

Another 3 days of continuous games. Honestly I can't remember much what happened during the competition games. I think my condition wasn't that good also. In the end my result was only 5 wins out of 11 games. I lost to 4 pros and 2 amateurs. I had chance in both the amateur games, but I didn't catch the chance and lost. Out of the 5 games I won, I won 3 games by 3 points exactly. Coincidence? And one game was winning my own team mate... The only game I can say I won by my own strength was the first game against Kang Ji Moon, but in the end he managed to get 6 wins, one more than me...

Our teammate Alvin with his dream girl, Wang Xiang Ru Pro

All I could say is my Baduk really still sucks... Looking back on the games and reviewing them, I didn't play a lot of good moves. Sometimes I didn't even know what I was doing, and was at a losing mindset from the set. Especially the games against the pros. I think I don't have enough fighting spirit... God of Fighting, please help me!!



22nd July

Once again, we went out with the Koreans to the city. This time we went to this place park where they displayed many things related to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Well I'm not really a history person so it was kind of boring, but it was fun to walk around.

One thing I realised is that Koreans really like Scissors, Paper, Stone. Wherever they go, they will play this to decide who will buy ice cream, food or drinks for everybody. And the sad thing is I lost 3 times in total... Somebody told me if you lose once, you will never lose again. But in the end I lost 3 times... What kind of bad luck is this? Or is it just because my Scissors, Paper, Stone is so lousy??

We went to a Korean restaurant for dinner. It was kind of funny to eat Korean food in China, but I guess it was even weirder to bring them to a Chinese restaurant because they wouldn't be able to eat anything. The taste was really not bad, especially after eating so many days of Chinese food. But of course, the taste in Korea itself was much better.



23rd July

The Koreans were leaving at night, so we went out with them to a nearby area to do some shopping in the day. Had dinner with them at a nearby steamboat restaurant, and sent them off after that. It was really fun knowing them and playing with them. They are really a bunch of nice people, and 1 thing I realised that they always like go in groups. They are a Group Creature. No matter what they do, they will think of every person. And they will always the respect the decisions of the most senior person. I think it is a very good culture.



24th July

So the last day we were left on our own. We decided to go walk around the city and look for books that Mervyn was looking for at the same time. Went to 2 book stores but couldn't find the books that he was looking for. Instead, we bought some books to learn Korean. I never thought I would buy those in China, but I think since they are cheap no harm buying. And I could practise my Chinese that way also, haha.

And yup, that's the end of our 10 day trip in Chengdu. Actually there's more stuff to write but I don't have much time right now, so I'll just end here. On the whole it was really a nice and fun trip! It could have been much better if there was more interaction between the players though.