OELP reflections 2015

Day 1
Everyone was on cloud nine when the day arrived. The class arrived at the airport on time and we're ready to check in their luggage. After which, we were introduced to this pretty lady, Yuan Fang jie jie, who was going to be with us on this whole journey. We got our 7 day immersion to Yangzhou booklet and  our caps. We were ready to go.
After what seemed like a 6 hour journey, we finally reached Shanghai. "What a beautiful city! " I exclaimed. Upon arrival, we went to a restaurant to eat our dinner. We were surprised at the wide range of food that was before us. Some of the food was good,  but some were too oily. I noticed the difference of the food between Singapore and Shanghai. The food compared to ours was much more oily and salty. I did not quite like the oily nuggets. When I went to the toilet, I got a big shock. There was not a single toilet bowl for us to sit and do our business. What was worse was that the toilet was extremely dirty and smelly. Comparing this with out SG toilets, it was so much dirtier.
Ewwww.
We visited The Bund(外滩) and took many pictures. My group tried to complete the secret mission by taking a jump shot without teacher. I noticed that when we fished out our phones, many locals were staring attentively wide- eyed at our phones. It was obvious that they were trying to get those phones in their hands. How scary. We also took the cruise tour to Huangpu River(黄浦江). The scene was fascinating. The oriental Pearl tower stood out the most in the dark night sky. It was colorful and pleasing to the eyes. Looking at the tower, how I wish I could go up there now.
When the trip ended, it was almost 10pm. All of us were tired by the time we checked into the hotel. After a short debrief by our form teacher, Mr Christian Dela Cruz, we turned in. What an arduous day!

 

 
(Airplane view from inside)

(First dinner in Shanghai)





 
Day 2
Everyone woke up early in the morning, ready to take the bus to Yangzhou. All of us were groggy and sleepy. We took a quick breakfast and boarded the bus at around 7 in the morning.
Upon reaching Yangzhou, we saw many beautiful scenery which made all of us exclaim in surprise. However, there were many cars which caused a heavy traffic jam. Our first destination was Geyuan(个园). We saw the signboard outside Geyuan that showed"园个”。At first all of us started to say the name as “园个" but after the guide told us that sometimes they put the words upside down, we realized we got it all wrong. That was something really interesting that I had learnt on Day 2! The garden had a fascinating scenery. It had shelters and benches for people to rest. We could see that there were also many tourist there, visiting the place. All of us started to fish out out phones to take many pictures of the pretty flowers. In the middle of out tour, it started to rain and we had to hold our umbrella in one hand and hold our phones to take pictures with other. Although it was really wet, but the place was very interesting. The guide talked a lot about the history of the place which made me feel even more curious. It was about 11am when we finished touring the place. We went to a restaurant for dinner and we had a chance to taste the Yangzhou Chao Fan. It was absolutely delicious and nicer than anything I have ever tasted. The had a wide range of vegetables and eat which made us really full.
After which, we went to the Chinese Paper Cutting Museum(剪纸博物馆) to cut paper. We first visited the shops and saw many great works of art. There were nicely but out fans and thinly cut out pictures that could be sold up to 1200 Singapore dollars. After visiting the shop, our tour guide told us that there was another group up in the room cutting papers so we could not go there for the moment. Hence, they changed plans and took us to the Beijing- Hangzhou Grand Canal(京杭大运河). We took a boat ride along the Canal . Some of the scenery was almost the same, but the boat ride was quite comfortable. Many of us were probably too tired from all the long walks and started to doze of. After the ride, we went back to the paper cutting museum to cut paper. Each of us were given a Yangzhou scissors and some pictures to cut out. I got chose a pig out of the few pictures that I got to cut. We cut out the black parts and left out the white parts. When we were all cutting, I could see that every single elf us were all heads down, cutting and staring attentively at the paper that they were cutting. I have never see the class do something so quietly and carefully until today. We cut for two hours and went to have dinner.
After dinner, we went to a shopping mall to visit the super market. We were all split into our groups to go and take a look at the things they sell in the supermarket. My group and I started to find stuff
Ike the cheapest 10kg rice, and we observed how the cashiers treated the customers. We realized that the cashiers were all aged between 30-40 and some were not very friendly. We had to pay for our own plastic bags which were quite expensive. Many of us bought many cup noodles and many sweets to munch on.
We went to check into the hotel and had a short debrief by our form teacher before getting dismissed.
Today, I learnt that the goods that are sold in China would always be the cheapest because they want people to buy them. The have a lot of fresh meat and live seafood to choose from. China has also started to safe the earth by making plastic bags costly. They encourage people to bring their own recycling bags so as to not damage the earth. They also have a lot of museums for people to go and tour in android look at. There seem to be a lot of history hidden in China that they want people to know and remember of.

(Famous Yangzhou Fried Rice)

(Geyuan Garden)

Day 3
We went to 树人中学 to have a school immersion. We noticed that all of them were wearing the same sweaters and windbreakers which seemed to be produced by the school. The only difference was that they wore shoes of different colors and shape, there seemed to not be any specific rule stating that you would have to wear white shoes like ours. How I envy them! We went to join a class for PE lessons. Their hall was not as big as ours but their compound was definitely bigger. The teacher let us do some warm up exercises and taught us some 武术. We learnt a series of moves but some of us still found not master it after some practice. I could catch the moves fast, however. We also showed them our 立化拳，and then we talked to some of the students. They seemed shy when we approached them but they were quite friendly. It was a bit awkward because none of us wanted speak up. We then visited their garden which they invested a lot in. Their garden was so big and wide and was almost the size our our school. They even had a waterfall. We took some pictures and then went to have our lunch at the canteen. They had two separate canteens, one for the teachers and another for the students. They did not have stalls like us to choose for, but it was like the old times where you would just take a plate and they will give you whatever they had. I like some of the meat but just felt that some were too oily.
After having our lunch,we went to their coffee house to have some hot coffee and to have a rest. We then went to the broadcast room to showcase our presentations done by 6 of our classmates and they also showed us some performances. Then, we went back to the hall to have some small matches with the China students and had a Basketball match. We competed with them and cheered on but we lost both the female and male matches.
We then left downtown for dinner.
At the end of the day, I could really feel the difference when I am in 树人中学 and when I am in River valley high. We could choose our own food that we liked and were able to go around freely. Even thought the school was really big, many of them had to line up in rows to the canteen and were not able to stay in the classrooms like us. I also realized how fortunate I was to have such clean toilets in my school. They had smelly and dirty toilets and did not even haves proper toilet own to sit on. They also did not have a good flushing system unlike us. Therefore, we must treasure what we have now!

(Shu Ren school)

(Picture at the garden)

Day 4
We went back to 树人中学, the part of the school where the place is not that developed. We met our arranged buddies and exchanged presents. I started talking to my buddy and we talked about our school life. I could sense that they were trying very hard to speak in English because they new that we often spoke English. That was quite thoughtful of them. I asked him about his school hours and found out that their school hours was from 7am to 6pm. What long school hours! That is like almost a whole day! We talked on for about 10 min. After that, they went back to their classrooms to have lessons and had a talk with the school principal and vice principal. We prepared some gifts for them and then they also prepared gifts for our teachers. We all introduced ourselves and my chairperson gave a short speech on how great his experience was in the school so far.
Then, we went to their broadcasting room to attend a Chinese culture talk about cutting papers(剪纸，编中国结) . I really had a great time there.
We then proceeded to the lecture theatre to see the performances that the China students have prepared. I thought that some were quite boring because they were reading many many poems that I could not understand and this was really new to me. My friends also told me that it was quite boring. Hehe.
We had lunch again in the canteen but this time, the food was served to us by some waitress. The cutlery were not in really clean but the food was quite good. They even served watermelons for us to eat.
We went back to the lecture theatre thereafter and both schools, 树人中学，立化中学showcased our performances. The lecture theatre was about then same size as ours but the stage was a little too small so our dance performance was a little messy. Sad to say, some of us even forgot our moves and ruined the whole thing. But, it was till a good experience performing on someone else's stage, to people who, we do not know at all.
I also got the chance to attend their painting lessons(书法). The teacher gave us a little bit of background knowledge on the types of 书法. He also told us that there were students training to be great Chinese painters. These painters guided us in writhing Chinese characters. Their words were really nice, the nicest I have ever seen. How could such a young student write such nice Chinese words with a brush? I really admire them.
Then, we bade goodbye to all the teachers and principals and headed out of the school to the book store, XinHua Book Store(新华书局). We had dinner and went back to the hotel to rest.
总之，我真的很佩服那些能写书法的人。他们这么小，还能坚持下去，变成一位这么优秀的书法家。他们也一天不抱怨地区上课，上到很晚才回家。我真的有很多很多东西要跟他们学习。他们那么迟回家，天天也要应付那么多的考试，真厉害！

(Picture with buddies)

Day 5
我们差不多八点就出发了。到哪里去呢？原来是瘦西湖！那里人山人海，几乎不能呼吸呢！那里也有很多游客，跟我们一样，向参观这个地方。导游带了我们进去，介绍给我们这里的美景，也跟我们提到了一座非常特别的桥。那座桥是因为二十四个美女而造成的。有一个人看到了这二十四位美女，就想建一座桥，让每一个人记的他们。那座桥的两边各有二十四个楼梯，桥的身高是二十四公分，真的很特别。我们的班刚刚好有二十四个女孩，所以我们每一位站在一个楼梯，拍个照片。很有创意吧！那里也有很多艘船，让人有机会自己驾船。我很想家的，但是因为导游没安排，所以我们没机会驾船。真的好可惜啊！我们看到了不同的景色，也拍了很多行照片。的确，那里的景色很美！过后，我们吃了午餐，然后到了朱自清故居的地方。他的屋子虽小，但是那里很不同。他的家有很多小房间，而有人把他居住的一部分建成了一个小博物馆，让别人更了解他。到了那里，我对他有更深的了解，也知道他所付出的一切。之后，我们到了东关街，买了很多东西。我们每一个人追喜欢的是去购物！我们集合的时候，每一位都拿着一包一包的东西，有些人还买了鞋子呢！吃了晚餐后，我们回到了饭店。

(Residence of Zhu Zi Qing)

 

(Picture at the local market in Yangzhou)

Day 6
Today, we woke up early in the morning to travel back to Shanghai. All of us were really unwilling to go back because Yangzhou was just too beautiful. When we reached Shanghai, we visited the 田子坊. There were many shops for people to go to and for people to shop. There were also small eateries for people to eat and rest in. I spotted a Starbucks and went in. To my surprise, the food was much more expensive than in Singapore. The prices were exuberant. Me and my friends bought many things like toys and postcards. We then headed for the restaurant that was near 田子坊.we ate heartily and then went to the Shanghai Science and technology museum. There were many animals exhibited that looked really real. We even watched a 4D movie.then, we went to the famous Oriental Pearl tower. We took a class photo at the entrance. We had to queue for a long time before we could take the lift to the top of the tower. It was really beautiful from the top of the tower. We even stepped on the glass and looked down. We also visited the Old French concession and Chenghuang Miao(城隍庙).

(Oreintal Peral Tower)

(Animal's World 3D)

Day 7
Today was our last day of the trip.
 We visited the Shanghai Museum and the Qibao Ancient Town. We actually planned to got to the Shanghai Urban Planning centre because of change of plans but then when we went there, we realized that the place was closed on Mondays. We were quite disappointed because we did not get to go to the Planning Centre.
我们依依不舍地上飞机回新加坡。我们都很感谢导游和跟我们一起的远方姐姐。真是个难忘的一次！真希望我还有机会一起和同学去国外旅游。

这个旅游后，我发现中国和新加坡有很多不同的地方。关于教育，经济，和别的方面跟我们新加坡很不一样。

 

About Huangpu River, The Bund

Huangpu River is a branch of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. It lies in Shanghai City, formerly known as Huangxiepu or Chunshen River. It takes its rise from the Tai Lake, runs eastwards through the Dianshan Lake in Qingpu County and then flows to Minhang District in Shanghai. At the Baidu Bridge in the center of Shanghai City, it flows together with the Wusong River (i.e. Suzhou River) and finally flows into the East China Sea.

The Huangpu River wriggles like an undulating dragon from Wusong to the East Sea. The yellow and ice-free river is 114 kilometers (about 71 miles) long and 400 meters (0.25 miles) wide with an average depth of nine meters (30 feet). It joins 29 kilometers (18 miles) north of downtown Shanghai and divides the city into two parts, east and west. Local people call them Pudong and Puxi.

The Huangpu River is a multi-functional river with the values of drinking water, shipping, fishery, flood discharge, tourism and many other aspects. The famous Shanghai Port is situated on it. In the past several decades, the Port has been developed to be the port with the largest throughput in China.

The Huangpu River is not only the mother river of Shanghai, but also assembles the splendid attractions of the city. Here, the Huangpu River cruise is a traditional tourist program. Cruises are available everyday, including the shorter cruises (navigating the main waterfront area between the Yangpu Bridge and the Nanpu Bridge) and the complete cruises (meandering eastward along the golden waterway, over a distance of 60 kilometers or 37 miles). The cruise starts from the Bund and goes upstream. Towards the south, it takes you to look at the Nanpu Bridge, and then turns round to the north to go to the Yangpu Bridge and finally reaches Wusong Mouth (Wusongkou), which is an inlet of the sea that the Huangpu River and the Yangtze River flow into. When flood tide happens, you can see the marvelous spectacle of 'Three Waters Mingle Together' – blue-grey water from the Huangpu River, blue colored water from the East China Sea and yellow colored water with silt from the Yangtze River. The famous Oriental Pearl TV Tower, which is the tallest TV tower in Asia and the third highest in the world, just stands between the Yangpu and Nanpu bridges. This forms a very beautiful picture about 'Two Dragons Playing Ball'.

During the cruise, you can find the obvious differences of architecture between the east bank and the west bank. On the west bank, a lot of western-style buildings can be seen, full of exotic flavor, while on the east bank, rows of skyscrapers spring up and rise above the clouds. Whether it is in the daytime or at night, the views along the river are the same beautiful. The great modern skyscrapers and the characteristic buildings in different architectural styles are the best records of the development of the city and the Huangpu River, the birthplace of Shanghai, is the faithful eyewitness.

Ferry Wharf to get the cruise:

Yangzhou's folks- background and beliefs

Yangzhou is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu province in the People's Republic of China. Sitting on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, it borders the provincial capital of Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, Yancheng to the northeast, Taizhou to the east, and Zhenjiang across the river to the south. Its population is 4,414,681 at the 2010 census and its urban area is home to 2,146,980 inhabitants including three urban districts plus currently in the agglomeration.
Historically it is one of the wealthiest of China's cities, known at various periods for its great merchant families, poets, painters, and scholars. Its name refers to its former position as the capital of Yangzhou prefecture in imperial China.




The Yangzhou riot of August 22–23, 1868 was a brief crisis in Anglo-Chinese relations during the late Qing Dynasty. The crisis was fomented by the gentry of Yangzhou who opposed the presence of foreign Christian missionaries in the city, who claimed that they were legally residing under the provisions of the Convention of Peking. Threats against the missionaries were circulated by large character posters placed around the city. Rumors followed that the foreigners were stealing babies and killing them to make medicine.



The riot that resulted was an angry crowd of Chinese estimated at eight to ten thousand who assaulted the premises of the British China Inland Mission in Yangzhou by looting, burning and attacking the missionaries led by Hudson Taylor. No one was killed, however several of the missionaries were injured as they were forced to flee for their lives.
As a result of the report of the riot, the British consul in Shanghai, Sir Walter Henry Medhurst took seventy Royal marines in a Man of war and steamed up the Yangtze River to Nanjing in a controversial show of force that eventually resulted in an official apology from the Chinese government under Viceroy Zeng Guofan and financial restitution was offered to the C.I.M. but not accepted, to create goodwill among the Chinese. The house that they had purchased in the city was however restored to the mission. Hudson Taylor and other Christian missionaries in China at that time were often accused of using gunboats to spread the gospel. However, none of the missionaries had requested or desired the military intervention.


Poet Li Bai (c.700–762) wrote in Seeing Meng Haoran off to Yangzhou from Yellow Crane Pavilion:

At Yellow Crane Pavilion in the west

My old friend says farewell;

In the mist and flowers of spring

He goes down to Yangzhou;

Lonely sail, distant shadow,

Vanish in blue emptiness;

All I see is the great river

Flowing into the far horizon.

Merlion, national icon 10/4/15

Do you think that the merlion would make the best icon for Singapore?
I think that the merlion would not make the best icon for Singapore.
Firstly, I there are many other iconic places in Singpore other than the merlion. for example, the Singpore flyer, Gardens by the bay and many more. To be a national icon means that everyone who thinks of Singapore would definitely know Singapore. When asked, people do not know that a merlion even existed in Singpore. I have gone to many countries and whenever I say that I am from Singapore, they would say,' Oh! Is it the one with the Marina bay sands and Gardens by the bay?'
When asked if they know about the merlion, they would say that they had no idea about it. So, how can a merlion be considered as a national icon?
When people go to the merlion to take a look, do they understand or know a little history behind the merlion? If not, how can it be considered as a national icon.
Hence, to me, I think that our Singapore Changi airport best represents Singapore.
Why? Because, they first thing that people see when they come into our country, is the place that they enter, Changi airport. Not only is it the first thing that they see, our Changi airport is also one of the top airports in the world. Many more people may know about the Changi airport even without coming to Singpore. When mentioning about our airport, people would be able to understand and would know about the Changi airport.
Hence, I conclude that the merlion is not a national icon for Singapore.

Remembering LKY reflection

WITH WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNT ABOUT THE GOLDEN AGE OF TANG DYNASTY, REFLECT ON THE THINGS YOU HAVE LEARNT ABOUT LYK AND HOW SINAGPORE CAN BE AT ITS OWN VERSION OF THE 'GOLDEN AGE'.

Mr Lee Kuan yew believed in himself and strived on. No matter what happened, he did not give up and trusted his own ability and knew that he would surely succeed. An example was the failure in merger with Singapore and Malaysia. When Malaysia did not want Singapore, Mr lee was really disappointed and sad but then he realised that he could not do nothing or else Songapore would fall. Hence, he stood up and persevered and mademSingapore a great, developed, and successful country.

To me, I think that Singapore is called the 'golden age' in a way that we have accomplished many things. We managed to sign a contract with Malaysia for the supply of water, if Mr Lee Yew did not fight for that contract, I would not even be living in this world. We also have our very own successful and beautiful Singapore Changi Airport. Tourists are able to come into Singapore to visit our country and would be able to understand our very own culture. We Singaporeans exercise bilingualism. We learn to speak English and Chinese. Because of that, we are able to understand our foreign friends and allow us to communicate with more people.

Reflection- China's Economy

http://www.sipac.gov.cn/sipnews/yqzt/engcsmp/index.htm
link for the article: enjoy :)

-Reflect on China's economic growth and opening of their country to international trade. Explain the implications on Singapore.

China's economic growth is growing rapidly especially in Suzhou. This opening of the new Suzhou industrial park is China's first efforts to build partnership with foreign countries, especially neighboring countries, which effectively published the image of a open China to the outside world. To borrow the proved experience from Singapore and to maintain local traditions and distinct features, to lay a solid foundation by studying successful systems and practice from other and to sustain continuous development by identifying unique local superiorities, are the real secrets of the success story. China opening their country to international trade allows them to let more people know about them and want to get to know more about them.

 

The country that might work for China may also be more popular as before because they know that those countries that are working with China could be successful.

Singapore--One child policy

Singapore did not face a similar issue about wanting Singaporean parents to only have one child. but instead, after world war 2, Singapore emphasized about the fact that parents should have more than 1 child.
The likely cause that Singapore did not enforce the one child policy could be that because Singapore's population was not increasing and there Singapore could manage just that number of people that they had in Singapore.



FUTURE SCENARIO- dwindling population growth
Future scenario: There would be lesser and lesser people working in the business industry and there would be less people working for Singapore.

Possible situations: There would be more job opportunities and hence it would be easier for people to find a job. However, if the population in Singapore keeps decreasing, there would be no one to help govern our country and lead the people. There will be less people married and there will be less children.

How Singapore can prepare for it: We could try to encourage married couples to have more than one baby by putting up campaigns and posters. Singapore could also enforce a more than one child policy to make sure that all married couples have more than one baby by the age of 40.