Day 1 (Shanghai):
We gathered early in the morning at Changi Airport and reached Shanghai after a long flight at about 4:30pm. It was quite a long trip from the airport to the city if Shanghai. Therefore, on the bus ride, the tour guide told us about China's history and the delicacies (小笼包）in Shanghai. The first place we went to was a restaurant to have our dinner.
After everyone had a full stomach, we went to a famous tourist attraction in Shanghai, The Bund. We saw many skyscrapers and it was somewhat like Singapore's Clarke Quay. Most of the skyscrapers were banks and hotels. After taking pictures at The Bund, we proceeded to take a cruise ship to get a better view of the buildings.
View from The Bund
View on from the cruise
After the experience at The Bund, we proceeded to the hotel. Before, we went to our respective rooms, we went to the meeting room for the debrief session. We learnt that The Bund is a place to show the economic growth of China. Not only did The Bund serve as a tourist attraction to allow the country to earn money from, it also had many important business buildings and these buildings showed how much China have grown economically from a fishing village. We also talked about situational awareness after the trip to The Bund. Mr Dela Cruz said that situational awareness is very important not only this school trip but also in our life. This is because we always have to be aware of what is happening around us and be alert at all times.Day 2 (Yangzhou):
On the second day, we had to wake up very early in the morning (7am!!!) as we were heading to Yangzhou. The bus ride lasted for about 2 hours which made us reach Yangzhou at around 12pm. As soon as we reached Yangzhou, we went to have lunch and proceeded to Geyuan Garden.
A group photo with the tour guide and bus uncle
At Geyuan Garden, we saw many different trees and rock sculptures. It used to be a house of a very rich man. The place was extremely huge and it made me wonder how someone could live in such a enormous house. Unfortunately, it was raining throughout the whole tour around the garden which made it very difficult for us to enjoy the garden.
Group photo in front of Geyuan Garden
Inside Geyuan Garden
After that, we proceeded to the Grand Canal for our boat ride. It was just a river with trees along at the side. There was a television to explain about the river's history. It was a very peaceful ride which kind of made me want to sleep on the boat ride :P
After the boat ride, we went to the Paper Cutting Museum for our paper cutting session. We were given a pair of very special scissors to cut the coloured papers into artwork. For my table, we were given the easier work to do while other tables had the more difficult piece which required a lot of fine cutting. Many of them were complaining that it was very difficult to cut and some of them gave up halfway :P.
After the visit to the museum, we went to our hotel and like the previous day, we went straight to the meeting room for our debrief. During the debrief, we talked about the difference between Shanghai and Yangzhou. Some of the differences we found out was that Shanghai was more industrial while Yangzhou was more into greenery, Shanghai had cleaner toilets than Yangzhou and in Shanghai, more people had cars while in Yangzhou, more people rode motorised bicycles.
Day 3 (Yangzhou):
Actually on this day, we were supposed to go around sightseeing but the schedule was changed. We went to Shuren School for our school immersion program.
Shuren School
Firstly, we went to listen to one of their lessons which was Chinese. They had this very cool set-up where we could watch them having lesson through a screen. I also realised that their lesson were not as difficult as I thought it would be. It was about the same standard as the lessons we had in RV.
After the lesson, we joined one of the classes for physical education. We learned wushu from their teacher and we also showcased out 立华圈. We proudly showed them our school's very own wushu routine. Although we forgot some of the steps, we were still very proud to show them our wushu routine. Following that, we went to the teacher's cafeteria to have our lunch. It was very scrumptious and the people that handed out the food was also very nice.
The food by the school
After that, we had a basketball match with the basketball team of Shuren School. Although we lost in the game, I was still proud that my classmates who were not basketball players still managed to play against them.
Last but not least, we had our debrief again at the hotel. This time, we discussed about the difference between River Valley High School and Shuren School. we discussed that the students in Shuren School were more enthusiastic in learning and their school was much bigger than ours. They also had very high teched classrooms as compared to ours. However, we found out that our school's toilet was much more hygenic than Shuren School's toilet.
Day 4 (Yangzhou):
On this day, it was another day at Shuren School. We meet our buddies on that day and exchanged our gifts. Unfortunately, there was no activities we had with our buddies other than this exchanging of gift session. It was such a pity as we were all looking forward to spend time with our buddies.
After that, we went to a lecture theatre to proceed with our performances. Our class performance was a great success. We did not make any mistakes on stage and performed with confidence. While watching the China student's performance, I have observed that these student's performance were not that good but they were all very confident.
After the whole immersion ended, we went to Xinhua bookstore near the school. It was a very big bookstore and it was nothing like Popular in Singapore. It was 6 stories high and had everything from books to study tables. It was very fun looking at assessment books and comparing what the Chinese students study and what Singapore students study.
We visited the local supermarket after that. Everyone bought loads of things to eat in the hotel at night :).
Lastly, we had debrief session in the evening and it ended very early. We talked about how the Chinese student performed and what we should learn from them which was confidence.
Day 5 (Yangzhou):
On the 5th day, we visited many places. Firstly, we visited the local market. The local market sold many different things like pets and pottery. As for me, I felt quite bad for the pets that were sold as many of them were crammed in one small cage. The pottery on the other hand was very fascinating to see as they had very detailed designs and were colourful.
2 puppies crammed in one cage :(
Pots sold in one of the shops
Secondly, we went to Slender West Lake and 24 Bridges. The most interesting thing that we did there was to take picture on the 24 Bridge. As the 24 Bridge had 24 steps and we had 24 girls, each one of us stood on one of the steps each. I think that the picture was very cool and I really liked the idea of it.
Thirdly, we went to visit Dongguan street. We were given 2 hours to look around the street in our CID groups. We had actually had a lot of fun looking at the interesting stuff that they sold and buying food as we walked down the street. It was more fun as we were not restricted to whhere we have to go and we could venture our ourselves without a teacher. We learnt to look out for each other as it was very crowded and we did not want any of our friends to get lost.
an ancient building in front of the street
Lastly, we went to the Former Residence of Zhu Ziqing. Zhu Ziqing was a respectable man and he even had a famous short story "背影" written by him. His house was very small as compared to Geyuan Garden. I also thought that his house was very small for a successful poet like him.
Entrance of Former Residence
A figure of Zhu Ziqing in the former residence
During our debrief that evening, we talked about preserving history. We compared how Singapore preserved our historical buildings and how China did them.
Day 6 (Shanghai):
On this day, our schedule was very packed again. We went to 4 different places in one day. We travelled from Yanghzhou to Shanghai early in the morning and stopped at Shanghai Science and Technology museum. It was filled with what was related to Science and Technology. We also watched a 4D movie in the theatre that was in the museum. It was very funny and I enjoyed it very much.
Next, we paid a visit to Chenghuang Miao. It was a very crowded place that had temple like structure. They sold many goods and souvieners there. It was very fun to look at what they had as Singapore did not have this kind of place.
The structure of the building
After that, we visited Tian Zi Fang. It was a street that had many shops that sild things related to art and craft. I have noticed that the things sold here was much more expensive than the things sold in Chenghuang Miao. However, it had more modern feel to the place.
We also visited the famous Pearl Oriental Tower. I have heard and seen of pictures of this famous tower and I was very excited to look down the 200 storey structure. As we reached the gallery to look down the building, everyone excited took photos. I felt that it was very cool as the floor for the gallery was made of glass so it was possible to look down from the building. We took many many photos and we enjoyed ourselves alot.
group photos!!! :)
Lastly, we visited the Old French Consession. It was a beautiful street, quaint and pretty, with outdoor cafes here and there. I almost felt as though I was walking somewhere in Europe. It was definitely the most westernised place that I visited in China.
One of the buildings in the French Consession
One this day, we behaved badly as we did not practise situational awareness. We were scolded for only caring about taking about that pictures and ignoring the tour guide that was explaining to us. We also did not clear up our rubbish on the bus which made Mr Dela Cruz very angry.
Day7 (Shanghai):
This was the last day that we were spending in China. We went to three places before we took our plane at 7:30pm. We visited the Qibao Ancient Town. Like its name, it was really ancient and it was not very clean for a tourist attraction. However, the things there were very very cheap as most of the things there were only 10 RMB. Our group stopped at a bubbletea shop and all of us got bubbletea(except for Sihan who preferred water) ! :)
with our bubbletea and water
The last place that we visited in China was the Shanghai museum. It was a museum with all the history of Shanghai in it. We learnt about the Chinese painting, Chinese costumes, Chinese coins and many other things. It was very meaningful visiting this place.
Unfortunately, after this we had to head to the airport as we needed to catch our flight. It was a very short trip and I enjoyed it tremendously :)
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