Qi Ting's daily reflection

Day 1
It was finally the day of the OELP trip to China. I was very excited that day as it was the first time I would be going overseas with my friends and without my parents. 
The flight to Shanghai was 6 hours long. After arriving at Shanghai and meeting our tour guide, the first place we visited was the bund. Over there, one of the interesting things we saw was a monument to remember the three wars which China had gone through, which are the Opium War, World War 2 and the Chinese Civil War. Afterwards, we went to a restaurant to have our dinner. Since this was one of the few times which I had the chance of trying out Chinese cuisine, I was not really used to it and preferred Singaporean food. After dinner, we went for a boat ride at the Huang Pu Jiang (黄浦江). On the boat ride, we got to see Shanghai's night scenery, where we saw many colourfully lit-up buildings, brightening up the night sky. From this, I can see that the government actually put in a lot of effort into making the Huang Pu Jiang into a tourist attraction. 

Day 2
Our first destination was the French concession. There, we saw many European-style buildings, even though we were in China. The environment there, with all the European-style designs and brown bricks, almost made me feel like I was really in Europe. However, although the French concession was supposed to be a historical site, there is the Starbucks outlet there, which I feel is not very appropriate to have there. Having something so modern in a historical site, gets rid of what makes the historical site, a historical site. It would be like a historical site, without historical meaning in it. However, we should consider that China needs to keep up with the current trend and modernise. As such striking a balance between preserving culture and heritage and mordenising is important. After that, we went to Hai Di Lao (海底捞) for lunch. The dining experience there was unforgettable for many reasons. Firstly, the service provided was excellent. The staff members there were very polite, for example, when serving a dish, if the waiter places the plates on the table too loudly, they would even apologise to us. Spectacle cloths were provided before we started eating in case our glasses got dirty, ziplock bags were provided to protect our phones, hair bands were provided for girls to tie up their hair, and so on, all these are services which we would not normally see in a restaurant. Even when we go to the toilets to wash our hands, the staff would help us take tissues for us to wipe our hands. From this, I can see that they probably liked and respected their job a lot, as they treat all of their customers with sincerity and respect, putting customers as priority. After lunch, we had a 4 hour long bus ride to Yangzhou. During the trip, we played some games to pass the time. One of them was the "pass the speaker" game, where music would be played with the speaker while the speaker was being passed around. When the music stops, the last person holding the speaker would have to do a forfeit. We had quite a bit of fun with this game and afterwards, most of us just did our own things or just slept.

Day 3 
We are at Yang Zhou today. Our first destination was the 冶春荼社, where we would be having our first breakfast at Yang Zhou. On the way there, one of the interesting things we saw was that there were many elderlies selling animals while chatting with one another. From this, I can see that life in Yangzhou is very slow-paced and relaxed unlike Singapore, where most of us have a very busy, hectic life. I feel that maybe we should learn from them, that sometimes we should learn to take a break. At the tea house, I was shocked by the portion of food served to us. In Singapore, for me, my breakfast would normally be only one or two slices of bread with milo or some other drink. However, here at Yang Zhou, the breakfast consists of many buns, cakes, vegetables, soup, and even meat. One of the unique foods which I tried was the bun which had some hot soup in it. The proper way to eat it is to use a straw to suck up the soup inside before eating the whole bun. Most of us could not finish the food as the amount of food served was too much. From this, I can see that the people of Yang Zhou really feel that breakfast is very important. I feel that we could all learn something from this too, as sometimes, in Singapore, we might be too busy to even have a proper breakfast, and this may be detrimental to our health in the long run. After breakfast, we went to the slender west lake, where we had a boat ride. One of the interesting things there was that the people rowing the boats were mostly women, and not men strangely. We were told that the reason for this is that women rowing the boats would look more elegant than if men were to row the boats. Another interesting thing is the unique trees there. One of the trees there would shake slightly when scratched. We were told that this is due to the thin bark of the plant, such that when the plant is scratched, the vibration of the plant would travel up to the leaves, and hence, causing the plant to shake slightly. Next, we went to a block printing museum. There, we saw displays of the instruments used for Chinese block printing, and also some demonstrations of the process of block printing itself. I feel that this is a very good chance for us to see the process of Chinese block printing and get to know more about Chinese culture and history at the same time. When the people were asked why they were willing to stay in the museum and do these demonstrations, they said that block printing was their hobby and that this would allow the future generation to know more about this culture, so that the culture of block printing may not be lost. I feel that we should respect the people doing the block printing demonstrations as they are willing sacrifice their time at the museum doing block printing demonstrations just to pass on this culture to future generations so that the culture may not be lost. These people could have spent their time doing other things or pursing other better jobs but they did not. Without people like them, the culture of block printing may have already been lost long ago. Our last destination was Dong Guan Jie (东关街), where we watched the Xie Fu Chun (谢馥春) performance. This performance was to showcase the effects of the cosmetic products of Xie Fu Chun. The most interesting part of the programme was when we got to sabotage our friends to go up on stage to guess the meaning of some Yang Zhou dialect, and afterwards, to try speaking the dialect. It was funny to hear our friends trying speak the dialect. After the programme, we shopped at Dong Guan Jie for a while before heading back to the hotel.

Day 4
Today is the first day that we will be going to visit a local Chinese school ,杨大附中东部初中学部, for the immersion program. I was excited but at the same time, nervous to go to the school then, as it was the first time for me to go to a school overseas for an immersion programme. I did not know what my buddy was going to look like, or even what the teachers or students would be like. We had our breakfast on the bus on the way to the school. Upon reaching, we were warmly welcomed by the principal, teachers, and students. The first thing which I noticed about the school was that the school was much bigger as compared to ours' in Singapore. However, one bad thing is that the toilets were really dirty. Whenever we passed the toilets, there would always be very strong, pungent smell coming from it. Every time we walked pass the toilets, we had to either endure the smell or hold our breath so as to not show disrespect. From this, I think that we should learn to appreciate the toilets we have in Singapore, as it is already very clean as compared to here. We were shown around the school before being brought to a classroom where we first met our buddies. At first, it was really awkward for many reasons. For one, the language we used. I was used to speaking English and to be honest I could not communicate very well with Chinese. To add on, my buddy and I did not really have much to talk about. As such, it mostly just awkward silence during the interacting time with my buddy, though after awhile, we gradually warmed up to each other and talked a little. Afterwards, we left our buddies and went to attend their music lessons. The music lesson there is very different from ours, in terms of what they teach. In Singapore, we usually learn music as a whole, while in China, they learn about music in China, and about what instruments were used. After lessons, we went with our buddies to the canteen to eat lunch. The lunch there is also different from ours. Their lunches are provided in boxes and are all standardised, and in addition to the usual food, their meals also consists of some soup and fruits. I quite liked the food at the school. After having lunch, we had a 2 hour break and following that, a nap time for the students there. During the break, we played games with the students there and talked with them, giving us an opportunity to make friends with the students there and interact with them. Although I like the long breaks schools in China have, I rather not have more breaks in school than have school end later, which is at 6pm in for schools in China. After the break, we had some more activities and left the school at late afternoon. Next, we went to Lu Shi old mansion to have our dinner. At the restaurant, we finally got to try out more of Yang Zhou's cuisine, including the famous Yang Zhou fried rice, which I rather enjoyed. The unique thing about this restaurant is that it preserves tradition. The designs and decorations of the restaurant is like those of a restaurant we might see in China in the past. I feel that this is something that few restaurants have. After dinner, we went to the last destination of the day, Beijing-Yangzhou grand canal, where we went for a boat ride. The boat ride at the grand canal is similar to Singapore's bumboat rides at the Singapore river. However, compared to the boat ride at Huang Pu Jiang, we did not see any skyscrapers, but instead, there were many bridges and small buildings around the area. 

Day 5
Today is the last day of our school immersion programme, the last time that we would be visiting 杨大附中东部初中学部. During these 2 days, I did not really get to see my buddy much as she had other classes and hence had to go off often. As such I did not interact with her much, but nevertheless, we exchanged gifts and said goodbye. The last programme we had at the school was the performances put up by us and the students there. The students of their school had a cultural performance, while ours was more of a modern dance performance. I enjoyed the performances, though I feel a bit ashamed that the performance put up by us, the boys, was quite last minute and unprepared. After the programme at the school, we went to a paper cutting museum. There, we learnt more about the history of paper cutting and its culture. We also had some hands-on experience with paper cutting, where we learnt how to do paper cutting properly and also got to try out paper cutting. At first, I thought paper cutting was quite easy, as it sounds simple, just cutting out designs on paper. However, when we got to try it out ourselves, I found it very difficult to cut out the designs as the designs were rather complicated, especially at the small, detailed parts. Moreover, we had to be careful with the paper, as the paper was quite thin and easy to tear by accident. At one point when cutting, I got so frustrated I gave up. It's really hard to imagine how people in the past could cut so much more elaborate and beautiful designs. As such, I feel that we should learn to respect this culture.

Day 6
Our first destination today was the Ge Yuan garden. At the garden, I learnt how the garden got its name, and got to learn a little more about Chinese culture and history. The garden is surrounded by bamboo, which represent filial piety, as new bamboo grows to surround the old bamboo, making it seem like the new bamboo is protecting the old bamboo. We also saw many unique architecture there. One example, is the stone arc built into the wall near a well. This was built as the air around the well was moist, and as such, the bricks would become damp and need maintenance overtime, so with the arc there, they can remove the bricks for replacement without having to demolish the whole wall. Afterwards, we visited the Daming temple. We walked around the area while the tour guide told us some facts about the place and I learnt that many people would actually come here to pray for good academic results. Perhaps I should pray too. The last place we visited was Shanghai Volkswagen. There, we had ride on a minicar and got to witness the whole process of making cars, something which we rarely get to see. I quite enjoyed the experience and this trip has also let me learn more about cars and car-making companies like Volkswagen. I rarely pay attention to the cars we see everyday so this trip has increased my knowledge about them.

Day 7
Today is finally the last day of our trip. For today, we spent most of the time travelling. I got to experience travelling in a bullet train for the first time that day, as we boarded the bullet train to Shanghai. I feel that this transport system, as compared to Singapore's, is better as I noticed that the trains are much more punctual than the MRTs in Singapore. Also, the Chinese would queue up orderly at the trains' doors, unlike in Singapore, where most people would just rush in or squeeze in when the MRT arrives. I think that this is something we can learn from the Chinese. Inside the train, I also noticed how clean the train was, even though eating was allowed in the train. In Singapore, even though eating is prohibited in the trains, the trains are still not as clean. I think that this is also another thing we could learn from the Chinese about being considerate. Something unique in the bullet train is the seats. The seats are rotatable, allowing one to turn back to chat with a friend easily and comfortably. Perhaps this kind of seats can be implemented in some of Singapore's transport systems as well. After reaching Shanghai by bullet train, we took a bus to the airport, where we finally flew back home.