July 7, 2009

Will Smith arrived in Beijing with his entire family today. Their energy levels are truly amazing. They basically didn’t get any rest after arriving in Beijing and then they went out sightseeing in the afternoon. When they finished viewing some of the scenery, they started rehearsing the film with me. I can’t publish any of these photos on my website yet because I need to ask the production team for permission first. There really isn’t much I can tell you about what I’ve been doing these days. Honestly, I’m either having meetings or I’m rehearsing for the film. This is all I’ve been doing from morning till night.

Today was special because many government officials from Singapore were in Beijing. The reason why they’d come here was because I’d agreed to donate five historic houses to Singapore, so the Education Minister of Singapore and many other officials travelled to Beijing to have a meeting with me. We discussed what needed to be done to preserve and maintain them. Later on, they’re going to fly to Hong Kong and look at these old historic houses. I also hope to sort out these houses as soon as possible because we recently discovered that these houses had termites. I’ve already authorized some workers to try and exterminate the termites quickly. If I continue to keep these old houses stored away, I think that all of them are going to be put to waste. Rather than keeping them in my warehouse, I thought – “Why not give them away to other people?” I wasn’t able to find a place in Hong Kong where I could put them and this is a real shame. I noticed that the Singaporean government is very proactive and positive so I thought that I might as well give the houses to them. I also believe that they will have the ability to take good care of these historic houses. Now these houses finally have a place they can call home. There are still four other buildings left; what am I going to do with them? I’m constantly looking for land and I want to find a place where I can have them displayed because it’ll be much better than having them stored away in my warehouse, deteriorating with termite infestation.

I wanted to allow my Singaporean guests have a better understanding of our Chinese culture so I took them to visit the Zitan Museum. This zitan (red sandalwood) museum is the largest privately owned zitan museum in the world, owned by Ms. Chen Lihua. Every time I come here, my jaw always drops and my eyes light up in awe; I always think that this place is so beautiful. Besides, Ms. Chen keeps the museum going not to make money; she actually pays for all the expenses herself.

This is the Red Sandalwood Museum in Beijing. You can take a 360 Virtual Tour of this museum by clicking here.

I truly hope that these historic houses will be relocated to Singapore soon so they can be settled into their new location.

July 7 （星期二） 

今天威尔史密斯整家人都到北京了，他们的精力真是非常好，到了北京根本没有休息，下午看外景，看完外景就开始跟我排练。因为还没有问过剧组，所以我还是不把这些照片登出来了。这阵子其实真的没有什么可以讲，因为真的除了开会就是排练，从早上一直到晚上。 

但是今天比较特别，因为新加坡的官员全部到北京了，因为我捐赠了五间老房子给新加坡，所以他们的教育部长等全来北京跟我开会商讨后续的工作，之后他们就要飞到香港去看我那些老房子。我也想尽快把这些房子处理掉，因为最近才发现有白蚁了，我现在已经是在让工人赶工清理白蚁，如果再这么摆下去我想所有的房子都浪费掉了。与其摆在货仓，不如送给人家，而且在香港又找不到一块地让这些老房子栖身，真的很可惜。我看到新加坡政府这么积极，我想还是送给他们吧，我也相信他们有能力把这些古房子照顾的很好，终于有一个归宿了。另外还有四间怎么办呢，我现在不断的在找地，把它们亮出来好过摆在那边给白蚁住让它们烂掉。 

为了让新加坡人更了解中国文化，我带他们去了紫檀宫。紫檀宫是现在全世界唯一最大的一个私人紫檀博物馆，而且也是陈丽华大姐的。我每次去都是张大嘴睁大眼，每次都觉得是那么的漂亮，而且陈大姐做这些也不是为了赚钱，全部都是她在付出。 

真的很想快一点让这些房子在新加坡落户