Day 1 (26th
May):
Itinerary
- Departure from Changi Airport to
Shanghai
- Upon arrival, we met our tour guide there and went for dinner.
- went cultural visit to The Bund, Cruise tour to Huangpu River.
- Check in hotel in Shanghai
- Debrief (quite late)
- Upon arrival, we met our tour guide there and went for dinner.
- went cultural visit to The Bund, Cruise tour to Huangpu River.
- Check in hotel in Shanghai
- Debrief (quite late)
Reflections
(Economy)
After so many
months, looking forward to this OELP trip, the day is finally here! I still
remembered the previous night when I could not fall asleep due to nervousness! Although
I was looking forward to this trip, I was a bit sad and reluctant to leave my
family. Soon after we went to Changi Airport to meet our classmates and
teachers, we boarded the plane. After a few hours, we finally reached Shanghai
and met our tour guide there.
Afterwards, we went for dinner and headed to The Bund next. Once I reached there, I was impressed by the beautiful night scenery by The Bund located near the Oriental Pearl Tower. Our teachers warned us to be aware of our surroundings and not stray off ourselves as it was super crowded there. They want us to have situational awareness which was to look around us and to act according to the situation, which was to constantly keep a look out for our classmates and quickly gather when teacher tell us to do so. At first, we keep getting scolded as we were not very aware of our surroundings but slowly, we practiced situational awareness which i thought was very important in a group trip.
After that, we went of a cruise tour around the Oriental Pearl Tower which were very crowded too. I thought it was quite expensive as the ticket for each of us were about 30SGD and it is only one ride which lasted for 30 minutes and we have to squeeze in order to go outdoor of the cruise to see the beautiful scenery of The Bund. I thought this cruise was similar to the boat by Singapore River which also cost about 50SGD, just that the one in Shanghai was much more bigger. This brought me thinking of how this is a way for the tourism to earn money as i think they are just some what "cheating" the tourists money although this is a way of business.
After taking many pictures on the cruise for 30 min, we got down and headed straight back to the hotel in Shanghai. We went into the meeting room in the hotel for our debrief although all of us were already super drained mentally and physically. However, we still tried our best to listen to our teacher, Mr Dela Cruz. During the debrief, he questioned us on how does The Bund has to do with China's economy and how is it similar to Singapore?
On a first thought, I only thought that it was only a tourist attraction. However, after the debrief, I felt that the cruise we took is actually a source of income for Shanghai. Just imagine one cruise carrying about a few hundred passengers, how much would China have earn in one night with many trips around?
The river also signifies the growth of Shanghai over the years from a fishing village to a prosperous city. The finance departments such as the banks like DBS, HSBC and ICBC also contributes to China’s development. This can be compared to Singapore too. Like Shanghai, Singapore was a fishing village too. The Singapore River is like Shanghai’s Huang Pu River, whereby it signifies and sees Singapore through its growth in the past years, until now, a tourist attraction and for trading. I pondered for a while and realized that this similarity might probably be because of the similar geographical location between Shanghai and Singapore, whereby both countries are surrounded by the sea and allowing the trading business to be set up in both countries and thus cause us to prosper.
However, I still had some questions which are:
How is Shanghai’s development and geographical characteristics similar to Singapore’s?
Other than the Huang Pu River, what else contributes to China’s economy?
Will Huang Pu River continue to be China's source of income in the later years?
 |
| (class photo before departure) |
 |
| (Night scenery of The Bund 外滩) |
Afterwards, we went for dinner and headed to The Bund next. Once I reached there, I was impressed by the beautiful night scenery by The Bund located near the Oriental Pearl Tower. Our teachers warned us to be aware of our surroundings and not stray off ourselves as it was super crowded there. They want us to have situational awareness which was to look around us and to act according to the situation, which was to constantly keep a look out for our classmates and quickly gather when teacher tell us to do so. At first, we keep getting scolded as we were not very aware of our surroundings but slowly, we practiced situational awareness which i thought was very important in a group trip.
 |
| (Photo of ticket for cruise tour) |
After that, we went of a cruise tour around the Oriental Pearl Tower which were very crowded too. I thought it was quite expensive as the ticket for each of us were about 30SGD and it is only one ride which lasted for 30 minutes and we have to squeeze in order to go outdoor of the cruise to see the beautiful scenery of The Bund. I thought this cruise was similar to the boat by Singapore River which also cost about 50SGD, just that the one in Shanghai was much more bigger. This brought me thinking of how this is a way for the tourism to earn money as i think they are just some what "cheating" the tourists money although this is a way of business.
After taking many pictures on the cruise for 30 min, we got down and headed straight back to the hotel in Shanghai. We went into the meeting room in the hotel for our debrief although all of us were already super drained mentally and physically. However, we still tried our best to listen to our teacher, Mr Dela Cruz. During the debrief, he questioned us on how does The Bund has to do with China's economy and how is it similar to Singapore?
On a first thought, I only thought that it was only a tourist attraction. However, after the debrief, I felt that the cruise we took is actually a source of income for Shanghai. Just imagine one cruise carrying about a few hundred passengers, how much would China have earn in one night with many trips around?
The river also signifies the growth of Shanghai over the years from a fishing village to a prosperous city. The finance departments such as the banks like DBS, HSBC and ICBC also contributes to China’s development. This can be compared to Singapore too. Like Shanghai, Singapore was a fishing village too. The Singapore River is like Shanghai’s Huang Pu River, whereby it signifies and sees Singapore through its growth in the past years, until now, a tourist attraction and for trading. I pondered for a while and realized that this similarity might probably be because of the similar geographical location between Shanghai and Singapore, whereby both countries are surrounded by the sea and allowing the trading business to be set up in both countries and thus cause us to prosper.
However, I still had some questions which are:
How is Shanghai’s development and geographical characteristics similar to Singapore’s?
Other than the Huang Pu River, what else contributes to China’s economy?
Will Huang Pu River continue to be China's source of income in the later years?
Day 2 (27th
May):
Itinerary
- had our
breakfast in hotel and travel to Yangzhou early in the morning
- Visit to Geyuan Garden
- Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal
- Chinese Paper Cutting Musuem
- Local Market Visit
- Debrief
Reflections (Heritage)
After a tiring day in Shanghai for the first day, we still had to wake up early in the morning to get ready to travel to Yangzhou as the journey would need to go early in order to avoid traffic jams due to the traffic conditions in Shanghai.
After 4h of journey, we finally reached Yangzhou and the first place we got to when we reached there was Geyuan (个园). When i first arrived there, i didn't expect much as i thought it was just a garden with many bamboo trees. However, i was surprised by the size of it. It was previous owned by a rich merchant in the Qing Dynasty and i was impressed how China could still continue to preserve this place without demolishing it to build more infrastructures. I also came to realize the importance of the rich merchants in the past that contributed to China's economy. Therefore, i guessed this old 个园 was preserved in such a good condition due to the heritage value it has. This garden that holds historical value is of importance of Yangzhou as it is currently known to be one of the world's heritage site.
We proceeded to the Chinese Paper Cutting Museum afterwards. However, there were some confusing when we got there. Soon after we reach, we spotted another tour and i realized that our tour guides and the other tour's tour guide were in a heated argument and they were arguing with very loud voices. We were supposed to be cutting papers in the museum however, the other tour were inside. At first i thought it was quite rude of them as this would never happen in Singapore, if not, we would be on "STOMP"! However, this brought me thinking of the previous lesson when my CID told us that having loud voices is because of China's history whereby people have to shout across villages and these genes were passed down until now. This make me realized the difference between Singapore and China just with the way of how they fight, the louder they are, the higher chance they would win.
Therefore, we detoured and went to the next place which was the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. We went on a boat and toured around the Canal. As we were going around, i saw some bridges which were like the ancient type ones. Additionally, the whole feeling when i was onboard on the boat gave me a very old and relaxed feeling as there were no green metal barring like Singapore's canal.
Instead, they kept the design of concrete built barriers along the canal. Also, i saw many old people doing Taiji together by the side of the canal and people fishing. This reflects the slow pace of living that Yangzhou has, unlike Singapore's when put in comparison.
Although i did not really know what this canal was for, i knew this canal was of great significance to China's economy and had quite a long history in it. I was surprised how this source of income for trading became a tourist attraction with the boat rides which cost around 10SGD.
We went back to the Chinese Paper Cutting Museum to carry out our paper cutting. As we started, I had difficulties cutting and also destroyed one of my work and restarted. I soon got impatient and complained why people had time in the past to do all these cuttings. However, i think i was wrong, this was part of their culture and heritage of Yangzhou and i should not say this kind of comments. Because those paper are cut by hands edges by edges, i thought it added value to the work rather than using machines in the modern days now.
After dinner, we went for a local market visit in Yangzhou. We were given a task, which was to compare the prices of the things sold in the market of Yangzhou and Singapore. After 1h with my CID group members, walking around and taking note of the prices of the things sold in Yangzhou, we found out that there were actually much more stuff sold there in a supermarket which is not sold in Singapore ones ranging from bed to live seafood to chewing gum and many more.
Some things that were found in Singapore were not sold in Yangzhou. Examples are Malay food and milo. I thought why don't they sell milo as it is such a nice drink and everyone drinks and love it. The only reason i could think of was that maybe there are too much substitutes that are similar in China that they need not import Milo that will increase the competition in the F&B industry in China. The things we noticed that were sold much cheaper in China than in Singapore were like cup noodles, chicken, tidbits.
I noticed that they reason why they were so cheap as compared to Singapore was that China do not need to import all these goods as they produce them, that's why they are so cheap.
Some goods whereby they import from other countries were like the water and chocolate were more expensive than Singapore too.
Through this trip to the local market, I saw the differences between the things sold and why that would lead to the question: Is China's cost of living higher or Singapore? Of course, i would say it is Singapore after the comparison as Singapore do not produce our own products and mostly import them, hence things in Singapore tend to be more expensive as compared to other countries.
In conclusion, in day 2 of this trip, i learnt the importance of preserving heritage like how Yangzhou preserved 个园 and the tradition of paper cutting. I was also told to notice the differences between Yangzhou and Shanghai and my conclusion was that i think the pace of living Yangzhou is much more slower than Shanghai based on the old buildings i saw, the old people i saw by the canal doing Taiji and the people i saw dancing yoga outside of the local market in Yangzhou. All these activities would be rarely seen in Shanghai due to the fast pace of living. Shanghai's fast pace of living is also seen through the more developed buildings and banks seen as it is a port city where there is strong economic potential. People in Shanghai were also seen rushing around more than people in Yangzhou. Lastly, comparing the number westerners, i think Shanghai has more as there are more business opportunities there as compared to Yangzhou whereby everything there is still not so developed due to the slow pace of living.
- Visit to Geyuan Garden
- Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal
- Chinese Paper Cutting Musuem
- Local Market Visit
- Debrief
Reflections (Heritage)
After a tiring day in Shanghai for the first day, we still had to wake up early in the morning to get ready to travel to Yangzhou as the journey would need to go early in order to avoid traffic jams due to the traffic conditions in Shanghai.
 |
| (photo with Yu Han at entrance of Geyuan) |
After 4h of journey, we finally reached Yangzhou and the first place we got to when we reached there was Geyuan (个园). When i first arrived there, i didn't expect much as i thought it was just a garden with many bamboo trees. However, i was surprised by the size of it. It was previous owned by a rich merchant in the Qing Dynasty and i was impressed how China could still continue to preserve this place without demolishing it to build more infrastructures. I also came to realize the importance of the rich merchants in the past that contributed to China's economy. Therefore, i guessed this old 个园 was preserved in such a good condition due to the heritage value it has. This garden that holds historical value is of importance of Yangzhou as it is currently known to be one of the world's heritage site.
 |
| (Me doing paper cutting) |
 |
| (Paper cutting that I did ;>) |
Therefore, we detoured and went to the next place which was the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. We went on a boat and toured around the Canal. As we were going around, i saw some bridges which were like the ancient type ones. Additionally, the whole feeling when i was onboard on the boat gave me a very old and relaxed feeling as there were no green metal barring like Singapore's canal.
Instead, they kept the design of concrete built barriers along the canal. Also, i saw many old people doing Taiji together by the side of the canal and people fishing. This reflects the slow pace of living that Yangzhou has, unlike Singapore's when put in comparison.
Although i did not really know what this canal was for, i knew this canal was of great significance to China's economy and had quite a long history in it. I was surprised how this source of income for trading became a tourist attraction with the boat rides which cost around 10SGD.
We went back to the Chinese Paper Cutting Museum to carry out our paper cutting. As we started, I had difficulties cutting and also destroyed one of my work and restarted. I soon got impatient and complained why people had time in the past to do all these cuttings. However, i think i was wrong, this was part of their culture and heritage of Yangzhou and i should not say this kind of comments. Because those paper are cut by hands edges by edges, i thought it added value to the work rather than using machines in the modern days now.
After dinner, we went for a local market visit in Yangzhou. We were given a task, which was to compare the prices of the things sold in the market of Yangzhou and Singapore. After 1h with my CID group members, walking around and taking note of the prices of the things sold in Yangzhou, we found out that there were actually much more stuff sold there in a supermarket which is not sold in Singapore ones ranging from bed to live seafood to chewing gum and many more.
Some things that were found in Singapore were not sold in Yangzhou. Examples are Malay food and milo. I thought why don't they sell milo as it is such a nice drink and everyone drinks and love it. The only reason i could think of was that maybe there are too much substitutes that are similar in China that they need not import Milo that will increase the competition in the F&B industry in China. The things we noticed that were sold much cheaper in China than in Singapore were like cup noodles, chicken, tidbits.
I noticed that they reason why they were so cheap as compared to Singapore was that China do not need to import all these goods as they produce them, that's why they are so cheap.
Some goods whereby they import from other countries were like the water and chocolate were more expensive than Singapore too.
Through this trip to the local market, I saw the differences between the things sold and why that would lead to the question: Is China's cost of living higher or Singapore? Of course, i would say it is Singapore after the comparison as Singapore do not produce our own products and mostly import them, hence things in Singapore tend to be more expensive as compared to other countries.
In conclusion, in day 2 of this trip, i learnt the importance of preserving heritage like how Yangzhou preserved 个园 and the tradition of paper cutting. I was also told to notice the differences between Yangzhou and Shanghai and my conclusion was that i think the pace of living Yangzhou is much more slower than Shanghai based on the old buildings i saw, the old people i saw by the canal doing Taiji and the people i saw dancing yoga outside of the local market in Yangzhou. All these activities would be rarely seen in Shanghai due to the fast pace of living. Shanghai's fast pace of living is also seen through the more developed buildings and banks seen as it is a port city where there is strong economic potential. People in Shanghai were also seen rushing around more than people in Yangzhou. Lastly, comparing the number westerners, i think Shanghai has more as there are more business opportunities there as compared to Yangzhou whereby everything there is still not so developed due to the slow pace of living.
Day 3 (28th
May):
- School
immersion whole day
- Debrief
Reflections (Education)- Debrief
On the third day of OELP, we still had to wake earlier as we were going on a school immersion. Earlier in that day, the principal of the school that we were supposed to be going, Shuren School specially came down to the hotel we were staying at to wait for us to fetch us over to their new school campus in Yangzhou. I felt that this represented and shown the close relationship of the two schools and how much they cherish it with the principal coming down herself to fetch the whole 40 of us.
However, 2 of my classmates woke late therefore, our itinerary were pushed back. The 3 teachers were all very angry at them at first. however, we later found out that they couldn't wake due the fear of ghost therefore they on their tv so loudly until they couldn't hear their alarm and was late. Although this was not entirely their fault, the teachers still wanted to the 2 classmates to apologise to the whole class during debrief that day as they caused our itinerary to be delayed. Through this small incident, I learnt what is one for all, all for one. The whole class were scolded too. We did not take up our responsibility as their friends to help take notice of each others' presence and wake each other up. I truly learnt what teamwork was through this small incident of waking up late.
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| (Entrance of Shu Ren School) |
As i mentioned earlier, our itinerary was delayed, so the part whereby we needed to tour the whole school were cancelled as we needed to attend a Chinese lesson as soon as we arrive at the school campus. Once i stepped in their school, we were warmly welcomed by the teachers and staffs of their school. I was also very impressed by their big campus as compared to RV as they have very good facilities like their indoor sports hall, their own park, basketball courts, etc.
Shortly after we took a group photo infront of their campus, we rushed to the observing room of theirs whereby they are having Chinese lesson.
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| (in the observing classroom looking into the class) |
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| (Class listening to Chinese lesson) |
I felt that actually the style of teaching is about the same whereby both the teacher and the students uses textbook as a lesson material. However, i think the only difference was that the students immediately responded to the teacher's question when called upon and their answers given were of quality unlike some of us in RV whereby we stammer and idle for quite awhile before giving an answer and some of us did not even give quality answers. One more difference i noticed was that i felt that the students in China have very high level of learning and absorbing the things that were discussed in class. i said this because i could not quite keep up with what they are discussing in class as the teacher talks 2 or 3 times faster than the teachers in Singapore. Hence, i assume that maybe this is because they were used to this kind of education and teaching.
 |
| (Class touring the park) |
Next, we were given a tour by the school leaders of their school. I was largely impressed by the own park, not even garden that they own. I reckon that park is 9 or 10 times much bigger than our school garden. Then, i wondered why would they have so much money to spend on this park which would probably cost a lot. After that i came to conclusion that maybe its the fact that China has enough land, hence land is not as expensive as compared to Singapore's land. Therefore, the school campus is so much bigger than Singapore's, or rather RV.
Afterwards, we went to their coffee lounge to relax for about 1h+. There were also free flow of coffee. I was very envious of such facilities that their school had that RV doesn't have. i think this is because their school is rich.
Next, we had a small exchange programme with the students there. Our class had 3 groups, each introducing different topics about Singapore and i was in one of the group too and i was extremely nervous as i saw how confident the China students were when they were presenting about different topics and showcasing their talents. At that moment, i noticed the difference between the students in Singapore and in China. I noticed that students in Singapore like me are lack of confidence unlike those students in China. However, apart from that, i learnt a lot from the students that presented.
After the exchange, we had a friendly match of basketball with our Shuren School. I thought we shown much more school spirit than Shuren School although we lost by cheering for our classmates who were playing.
A day of fun filled with joy and laughter ended, however, i learnt many things from that day too. I saw how China's education system was like and also some culture that China has from playing the basketball.
Day 4 (29th
May):
- Went other
campus of Shuren
- OELP performance
- Xinhua Book Store
- Supre Market
- Debrief
Reflection (Way of living)
On the forth day of our OELP trip, we went to another campus of Shu Ren School. That was the old school campus of Shu Ren School which was also the first campus that they have. It is built since the year of 1999. Although the old school campus was only a 5 min bus journey from our hotel, their same school principal still came to our hotel to bring us there. This further impressed and prove to me that Shuren and RV's relationship is so close for the principal to do that. - OELP performance
- Xinhua Book Store
- Supre Market
- Debrief
Reflection (Way of living)
Once I stepped into the old campus, i felt that it was much more smaller than the new one. However, all the teachers and staffs there were still as friendly as those in the new campus. First, we went to a meeting room and heard a speech from the vice principal of theirs and we got to know of their school more. Afterwards, we had interactions with our China buddies. Besides exchanging gifts, we managed to have time to talk about each other's lifes in different countries and exchanged each other's contact method. Through my buddy, I realized how fortunate we were, because i heard from her that she has never went overseas with school. Upon hearing that i felt how lucky we were to be in RV to be able to travel overboard to experience all those and i learnt to cherish this opportunity too. My buddy also told me that it is actually quite stressful studying in China as the competition is very fierce. Unlike RV, Shuren do rank the students according to their academics in their classes. My buddy told be that its very stressful not only because of the ranking, they also have to stay back in school for a compulsory self study session whereby they need to finish all their homework. She even told me that some days, after the self study sessions, she still needed to attend tuition that her parents made her to. After listening to how she lives, i told her our lifestyles in RV and in Singapore too. She said that she envy such a life of ours whereby there are much more freedom and life does not only consist of studying. I do agree with her. I realized that i should be cherishing what I have now and not always complaining about the amount of stress from school because students from China experience them more but they face it and not complaining about it. Hence, through this session, i learnt a lot from them and we promised to stay in contact with each other through email.
After this exchange session, we went to attend calligraphy lessons and learnt how to 编中国结手链. Through these lessons, I also learnt a lot more about China's culture and history.
After this, we went for lunch and prepared for our long waited OELP performance!! After a few months preparing, today is finally the day! All of us were very anticipated, some nervous when we were having lunch.
Very quickly, our lunch ended and both school exchanged our performing items. Our class prepared Chinese dance, modern dance, class dance, singing and skit. As we stepped on the stage the few minutes seemed surreal to us as all our hardworking were paid off. For the past few months, we had been practicing hard, either during our breaks or after school. I felt touch after our performance ended as i was one of those who leaded the class for the performances. It was not easy for us to lead the whole 34 of us, but we did it. Through all those practices, I learnt the importance of teamwork too.
- Shanghai Musuem
- Shanghai Urban Planning Centre (didn’t go as it was closed)
- Left for the airport and waited for our flight back
- Debrief
Day 5 (30th
May):
- Slender
West Lake & 24 Bridges
- Former of residence Zhu Ziqing
- Dongguan Street
- Debrief
- Former of residence Zhu Ziqing
- Dongguan Street
- Debrief
Reflection (history and culture)
Today, we went to quite a few places that are of historical values. Early in the morning, we went to the slender west lake and 24 bridges. We walked for 2 hours to tour around the whole slender west lake and 24 bridges. The scenery was very nice along the river and
Day 6 (31st
May):
- Travel to
Shanghai
- Shanghai Science & Technology Musuem
- Oriental Pearl Tower
- Old French Concession
- Tian Zi Fang
- Debrief
- Shanghai Science & Technology Musuem
- Oriental Pearl Tower
- Old French Concession
- Tian Zi Fang
- Debrief
Day 7 (1st
June):
- Qibao Ancient Town - Shanghai Musuem
- Shanghai Urban Planning Centre (didn’t go as it was closed)
- Left for the airport and waited for our flight back
- Debrief
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