30/05/2014-OELP DAY 5 ZEHAN

Day 5 in China 

  Today was our second day on Huangshang. We needed to wake up early at around 4.30 am just to capture the beautiful scenery of sunrise on Huangshang, but after going up, I really regretted  my choice of waking up so early. When we got to the site to see the sunrise, there were a lot of tourists who came before us and we need to try our best to squeeze behind them to catch a glimpse of the sunrise. Seeing the place is already so congested, I decided to climb up to the rocks above to take a better view. At there we got a nice view of the sunrise and even manage to snap some pictures but it was very dangerous since the rock was very steep. But to me, although the sunrise is beautiful, I think I prefer sunset more because the shines it gives off are brighter and appeared more cheerful. Although our teachers told us that we still have some time until breakfast and we should go back and sleep,my friends already felt wide awake thus we went to climb the mountains trek near the hotel. After breakfast,we continued to climb the other lower peaks in Huanshang. One of the peaks was very steep and thus it was quite scary to look down from there but the view from above was astounding. At another peak of Huanshang, there was a lot of monkeys and apes, causing a lot of tourists flooding into the spots. We managed to get on the peak and a lot of girls in class who are animal lovers quickly took pictures of the apes. Personally. I found a picture of a ape holding its baby very adorable. However, I saw some tourists ignoring the notice board of 'NO FEEDING OF ANIMAL' and feeding the apes with breadcrumbs and other food. This was a very irresponsible acts

26/05/2014-OELP DAY 3 ZEHAN

Day 3 in China 

  Today after breakfast,we took the bus to the Anhui Museum（安徽省博物院)and learnt more about the history of China and culture. The museum was separated into four different floors,each holding a different cultural exhibition. In each exhibition,there are a lot of artifacts displayed to help us have a better understanding of all the traditions and culture sealed away in the history. Now, I will share with your the learning pionts I gained from the various exhibition.

  After having lunch,we went to China Intangible Cultural Heritage Park(中国非物质文化遗产园), which also act as a theme park. Although it should be a theme park, there was very little tourists or member of public in there. After visitin the cultural attractions such as residential houses and buildings. We even walked along a path, the wall by its side depicting part of the story of 'journey to the west'. The tour guide bring us to a outdoor stadium staged for animal competitions. The first competition held was a rooster fight between rooster from Thailand and China. The fight was quite violent as the roosters were fighting to their death, biting of each other's feathers. The rooster from Thailand has most of its feather stripped off and is extremely skinny as compared to the roosters we saw in pictures. After three rounds of fights, the roosters were put back to their cage.

25/05/2014-OELP DAY 1 ZEHAN

Day 1 in China

  After recharging ourselve in the stay at Shanghai RAYFONT HOTEL, we are ready to embark on the journey to anhui. After we checked out, we headed to the station and took a three hours ride from Shanhai to hefei by high speed rail. It was my first time riding on the high speed rail and I discover that it is similar to the setup of a plane just that they have five seats in a row. The scenery outside was breathtaking as it seemed like a fast foward movie clip. Some classmates take the chance to rest up while the other were engrossed in either their own activities or thoughts. On the way, I thought about how advance technology would provide such a convenient and useful way of transportation for us to stay in touch or reach each other even in different area of the world. Back in the olden days, people may need to take several days or weeks just to travel from one province to another while we only needed spent around three hours to travel to different destinations ! These advances in technology enable us to travel in a much comfortable way and help us saved a vast amount of valuable time that could be put to a better use. It is also a great boost to economic growthof different countries as it allow trade to be carried out more easily between different them such as between China and Singapore. Many people's occupation also rely on traveling to different areas to gather informations such as reporters. After thinking deeply too, I realize the fact that although China is categorized as less developed country while Singapore is a developed country, China's fast speed rail actually have quite a few resemblance to the mrt of Singapore. It taught me that China is catching up at a fast pace and it may have a potential to be even more developed than Singapore thus as singapore citizens,we should do our best in our studies and contribute to the society in the future. When we arrived at the hefei train station, I was surprised that although the sun was bright at here too, but the atmosphere seems to be slightly cooler than singapore's. I think it may because the humidity here is lower than in Singapore.

After lunch we traveled to our first destination,三河古镇(Sanhe Guzhen).

We had dinner at a nearby restaurant. We have a scrumptious meal together and the toilets there were also quite clean. During dinner time, we were split in to four tables and at each table, we were bonding with our classmates and the teacher accompanying us while playing some games. In this games, we got to know our teacher and classmates even better. We went to check in our hotel (Holiday Inn Express Hefei South) where we will be staying for three nights. That night,we ended by playing some ice breaker games and reflection time where we shared and reflected on the learning pionts we learnt today.

OELP (25 - 31 May '14) Trip advisory

Changi Airport - 5/5

Free wifi, comfortable, signboards everywhere, no queue, toilet is very clean.

Flight (SQ836) - 4/5

Too cold, food was fine only, quite pleasant ride, entertainment, movies are updated. Service was pretty good, as the air stewardess would service you as soon as you ask for them.  The flight was also really smooth, primarily the reason we rated 4.

-DAY 1-

Rayfront hotel - 3/5

Dim lighting, window in the toilet, quite small, drain got clogged.

High-speed rail - 4/5

Quite spacious, very fast, toilets were quite clean. Seats were also comfortable for people to enjoy a good rest on the train before their destination.

Sanhe Guzhen - 2/5

Historical things were not maintained, dirty. It was also very dusty in several residences there, would not recommend people that have sensitive skin to visit, there are also live sea creatures such as oysters, eels being captured and put on the outside of the shops on the floor. May be revolting to some people.

-DAY 2-

Holiday Inn Express Hefei South - 4/5

Food was good, big room for us to do reflections, minimart, toilets were clean. Food was decent.

Hefei 45 Middle school - 2/5

Classrooms were too cram, toilets were really dirty and stinky ,and have no doors, not much ventilation in the classrooms. Too many students in a class, which may not allow the teacher to be able to take care of every single student.

-DAY 3-

Anhui Museum - 5/5

Good tour guide, a lot of information on Anhui, good security, toilets were clean, miniature of many buildings in Anhui. Place looks new and very clean. 

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Park - 1/5

The shows there all included animal abuse (ostrich, horse and dog race, chicken fighting and circus show where they hit the lions and tiger with a metal rod), it was a new experience as not many people are able to have entered a circus, however the animals were not only abused but were not well trained for the performance, nothing to learn about, the place was beautiful though.

-DAY 4-

Cable car (that could include about 100 people) - 2/5

Big, very cram, fit as many people before they move on. 

Huangshan Scenic Area - 5/5

Weather was good, beautiful scenery, one in a lifetime experience, clean, tiring and exhausting but worth the climb. Was able to watch the mesmerizing sunrise which was at around 4-5, it was simply beautiful.

Beihai hotel - 2/5

Small, bad ventilation, food was ok only, minimart, wifi only in the lobby. Not all hotel rooms are able to be accessed by the lift. For ours, we weren't able to have the chance to use the lift and we had to climb the stairs, would be hard for older people to walk up the stairs if they had such rooms. 

-DAY 5-

Xidi and Hongcun Ancient Villages - 3/5

Pretty alike. However, the guides at these villages are very informative. They explain to you the significant points of how and why the furniture were placed that way. Xidi has a beautiful scenery of a lake and a bridge in the middle of it. But it was pretty dusty at both places, probably due to not enough care taken of these places.

Chinese Culture seminars @ 中国三大地域文化之一徽文化的起源及传承 - 4.5/5

Very interesting, very detailed.However, was pretty shocked at the incorrect population of Singapore repeatedly being shared. Not for the slight incorrect data, we would definitely want to give it a 5/5.

-DAY 6-

Tunxi Ancient Street - 3/5

Not a lot of things to buy, most shops sells the same things, interesting things that are not sold in Singapore, many souvenirs to buy. Sells some tidbits, self made ones, that are mostly not found in other places. As Tunxi Ancient Street does not have any signboards, that gives directions to visitors, people may get lost there. Would be good to see signboards or directories in the future.

West Lake Cruise - 3/5

Cooling, good ventilation, open seats at the rear of the boat gives a good view,you would get to enjoy a gentle breeze; but life jackets were really dirty. 

Yue Fei Mausoleum - 3/5

A lot of people when we went that day, so it's quite packed and difficult to keep up with the guide. Although it was said that Yeu Fei was buried in his tomb here, some debated that his body might not actually be here. 

Shanghai airport - 3/5

Variety of food, pretty hard to find places, as not many signboards to direct us,big, spacious,many seats for us to wait for plane. 

Flight (SQ825) - 4/5

Plane was quite spacious, food was quite good, service was good (although there was no entertainment but they made up for it).

Brief outline of the trip

Day 1 (25 May):

- High speed rail to Hefei

- 三河古镇

Day 2 (26 May):

- Lessons with buddies @Hefei No. 25 Middle School

- Visit buddy's house 

Day 3 (27 May):

- Anhui Museum

- 中国非物质文化遗产园 (theme park) (circus and animal competition: animal abuse)

  ➡️ Remaining time played at playground

Day 4 (28 May):

- Cable car ride (very big, faster, can hold up to 100+ ppl)

- Climb up to Huangshan's tallest peaks

Day 5 (29 May):

- Watch sunrise at 清明台

- Cable Car (smaller, not as fast, can hold up to abt 8 ppl)

- Visit 宏村 (Yixian)

Day 6 (30 May):

- Visit 西递 (Yixian)

- 棠樾牌坊群 (Shexian)

- 徽商大宅院 (Shexian)

- Chinese Culture Seminar abt Anhui

- Circle time 

Day 7 (31 May):

- Tunxi Ancient Street (屯溪老街)

- West Lake Cruise (Hangzhou)

- Yue Fei Mausoleum (Hangzhou)

- Bus trip back to Shanghai Airport

10 things

Top 10 things I love about the trip

1) Teachers

2) Culture

3) Food

4) School exchange

5) Classmates

6) Shopping

7) Informative tour guides

8) Educational component

9) School life (10mins break between lessons)

10) Beautiful scenery at Huang Shan

Top 10 things that I learn from the trip

1) Food Culture

2) Educational system

3) People in China

4) Perseverance

5) Architecture buildings

6) Animal abuse

7) Anhui history

8) Pricing in China

9) Appreciation

10) Teachers

31/05/2014 - OELP Day 7 (LAST DAY!😭😭)

Last day of OELP. Time really flies. 

Firstly, we went to Tunxi Ancient Street (屯溪老街) to shop. This was also one of the most anticipated event, especially among the girls. We had 40 minutes of shopping time, but I think in the end we took more than that. 

Tea was one of the famous must-buys in Anhui. Too bad I did not buy any home because I thought my family does not really drink tea. I thought this shopping trip at Tunxi would be quite exciting, but it turned out to be not as fun as I thought it would be. There were nothing much that was of use to me so I did not buy anything, except for a cup of bubble tea to satisfy my crave for it. It did not taste very nice though. 

We took a long bus journey to Hangzhou for lunch and then enjoy a West Lake Cruise nearby the reastaurant. It rained on our way to Hangzhou, but luckily it pretty much stopped when we reached. One of the local Hangzhou dishes we ate was the pork belly (东坡肉). It was one of the most delicious dish I had in China. There was nothing much to see during our West Lake Cruise because everything appeared to be small from our boat. However, we did had fun chatting and joking with one another. 

Scenery outside the boat

In the boat

We also visited the Yue Fei Mausoleum too. 

After that, we took another long bus journey to the airport. There was a rest stop in between for us to go to the toilet or buy some snacks. I was waiting for some of my friends outside the toilet when I was taken aback after seeing the sign above the toilet for the disabled: "Deformed". It was rude and insulting. Definitely did not sound nice too. I do not know if they lacking in vocabulary or something, but I hope they would change the sign soon. 

Finally, we reached the airport for dinner. We were told later that the flight was delayed by 1hr, and some food vouchers were distributed for compensation. I was very full after dinner and did not know what to use the vouchers for. However, I heard from Zhi Yan that we could get some Haagen-Dazs ice cream for dessert. I was quite satisfied to eat it for free as it was quite expensive. 

This marked the end of our OELP trip in China. Although I was quite happy to return home and enjoy the June Holidays, I was also reluctant to leave China. After staying one week in Anhui, I got used to the environment here more or less. Thinking about how much fun we had, I hope time could rewind to the Day 1 of OELP. This OELP trip taught me not only more about the Chinese culture, but also many life lessons. Even though they were simple things like appreciation, it was only being in China that I saw the difference between Singapore and China. I also started to realise how I was fortunate to be born in Singapore. Our class 2E always thought that we were not bonded at all but after one week being together as a class, we all felt that our class have become more close knitted. Some of us made new friends while some of us learn more about one another. OELP really gave me profound lessons.

Even until now, I am missing OELP. 

~ Kitty

30/05/2014 - OELP Day 6

Today was quite a busy and packed day visiting different cultural attractions such as 西递，徽商大宅院, 棠樾牌坊群, etc. 

Most of the things we saw today were memorial archways (牌坊), which were built to commemorate people and their achievements. Most of the building attractions looked the same and I often got confused with one another. 

One of the attractions I liked was the Yuling Dam (渔梁坝). The view of the water body was simply breathtaking to me the moment it came in sight of mine. Although it does not look that great in the pictures, it does look nicer in real life. 

Tonight's dinner was quite special because we celebrated Zehan and Lijie 老师's birthday together and we got to eat cake! Some foreigners dining in the same restaurant also celebrated with us. The cake was delicious. 

Maybe because of the influence of others, I thought the atmosphere of the hotel we stayed in was a bit creepy. Nonetheless, the toilet glass wall looks quite cool to me. 

Transparent wall 😏 Of course there were blinds. 

After dinner, we also had a 2hr Chinese Culture Seminar about Anhui. I thought this was a rather good plan because this lecture covered up and made up for pretty much of the things I did not understand or missed out during our tour at Anhui's attractions. I thought it would be very boring, but actually if you listen attentively and try to understand what the lecturer was trying to say, it was not so bad after all. 

It was the last night here in Anhui. Mr Wong showed us some photos he had taken during the past 6 days. Looking at how much fun we had in these few days, I could not believe time passed so quickly and we almost came to the end of our OELP trip.  How I hope time could rewind. We had a class circle time and it made me think hard about what to do and how to improve our class. We also got to hear how some of our friends feel about the class and some areas of improvement. I thought this get together time was very meaningful and deep as we learnt about how one another felt.

~ Kitty

29/05/2014 - OELP Day 5

Today was the day we were going to catch the sunrise. Waking up early in the morning at 4.30am on Huangshan was definitely extremely cold. I could not stop myself from trembling, even though I wore the windbreaker. My roommate and I missed the morning call and woke up a bit later. When we got to the site to see the sunrise, we saw our classmates as well as other tourists squeezing in the little space. It was quite disappointing as there was no way to get in and we could not see anything. We only could finally see something at all after the sun has completely risen. I thought watching a sunrise would be interesting, watching all those television programmes, but it turned out to be not what I have expected. 

After sunrise, we were told that we could go back to sleep. However, I did not feel like going back to sleep so my friends and I decided to play a while before going back to hotel for breakfast. 

We continued climbing to other lower peaks in Huangshan after breakfast and headed back to the cable car station to ride down the mountain. The cable car we took down the mountain was much smaller and slower. This time, I could finally see the sceneries outside as we were seated. 

We proceeded off for a cultural visit at 宏村 (Hongcun) in Yixian.

There were many painters by the bank of the lake of Hongcun. If only I could draw as well as they do. 

~ Kitty

28/05/2014 - OELP Day 4

Today was the day we were going up to Huangshan which I anticipated most! I believed everybody anticipated this day too. 

Firstly, we boarded the bus to the cable car station at the  Then, we squeezed in a huge cable together with some other 50+ people up the mountain. The ride was quite fun because it was quite fast and the sceneries were breathtaking. However, it was a pity I was too short and everybody was taller than me and I couldn't see those sceneries outside. 

After a 15 minutes ride or so, we finally reached Huangshan! The weather was quite cooling and the air was very fresh. We were told that we still have to walk for 30 minutes to our hotel. One of the things that I observed during our walk to the hotel was that there were workers carrying heavy items like rice or rubbish in two bags which were tied onto a long pole. I later learnt that this was to reduce the pollution on Huangshan to keep the environment as natural as possible. Seeing how hard they worked for us carrying all the items we need and do not need on foot, I realised that we have to appreciate what are given to us. We should not waste rice as they are transported by foot to the restaurant, and any left overs will be transported by foot again down the mountain. It was already difficult for me to climb to our hotel, what more to say for those workers? 

Also, I noticed even the 'dustbins' along the way were unique. 

On the way to our hotel

Upon reaching our hotel, we emptied our bags, we went out again to climb several famous peaks in Huangshan. It was an endless adventure climbing and climbing to the peak of the mountain. It was much much tiring than climbing stairs during PE lessons. There were times that some of us thought that we could not make it, but the others cheered us on and sang songs to distract attention and make it more fun than tiring when climbing up to the peak. It was then I felt that we are 2E. 

After much climbing, we finally reached the second highest peak in Huangshan, 光明顶. 

The view was defintely breathtaking. The sceneries seen in person are much much much more beautiful than what we normally see in pictures. All those climbing was worthwhile after all. 

Today was one of the most relaxing days in China as we had a lot of free time to explore the mountains ourselves or resting in the hotel. Lights off tonight was quite early too because we will be waking up early the next day to witness the sunrise. 

~ Kitty

27/05/2014 - OELP Day 3

Today, we visited the Anhui Museum and learnt more about the Chinese Culture. For example, the Chinese painting 水墨画 that we have learnt during RV Literature. 

C: Bronze

There were a lot of bronze antique here in Anhui Museum. 

S: Bronze Ding

It appeared in one of our CID worksheet. Seeing the real ding made us mouth agape with awe. 

I: Anhui Museum building

Next, we proceeded to a theme park called 中国非物质文化遗产园. At first when we entered the theme park, the impression was not bad, although it seemed empty. After visiting the cultural attractions, the guide took us to watch animals competition. Before the matches start, some of my classmates and I discovered the barn of horses. It was my first time seeing and standing in front of a real horse. I was excited and wondered what kind of performance are awaiting us. 

Horseeee

However, during the first competition between the chickens, all of us were shocked and disappointed with the way they treated the animals there. The chickens were fighting to their deaths, with strips and patches of feathers being ripped off by one another. We could literally see the red flesh of the chickens. They were also extremely skinny, almost like a skeleton. 

After the competition, they were locked back into small cages. 

Next up was racing competitions of horses, dogs and ostriches. Although they do not seemed to be abused, I thought they were really very thin and the owners should feed them more. 

We went around exploring the different cultural sites and caught the circus show in time. Here, we experienced yet another wave of trauma. The first act was tigers performing tricks. It was my first time watching a circus show and I was rather excited when the lights dimmed for the first performance. However, it was just another round of animal abuse. Poor tigers, they were forced to obey and were totally controlled by the trainers; or rather their whacking sticks. Some of our classmates cried at the sight of this behaviour. As we could not stand the cruelty of animal abuse, we left the circus halfway through the show. 

For the remaining time, we played at a playground nearby. 

Although we might complain that animal abuse is cruel and vicious, inhumane actions that are against the laws (in most countries), we should also take time to argue that those people are poor and they only had these animals to make money from. However, I thought instead of hitting the tigers to force some tricks out of them or making chickens fight to death, maybe rewarding them with snacks would be a better idea. This will motivate them to put up a good performance and at the same time, not getting hurt. The audience will also then enjoy the show comfortably. 

Today was also the last day with our Hefei guide and shifu. They were very friendly towards us and were probably the best I had met so far.  

Overall, today was really a meaningful day indeed. 

~ Kitty

26/05/2014 - OELP Day 2

Today, we finally met our buddies in Hefei No. 45 Middle School.  At first, I was extremely excited but worried at the same time because I was afraid that my buddy and I would be very awkward together, especially it was the first meeting. However, my buddy, He Yuwen, was a very cheerful and lively girl who greeted me with wide smiles on her face. Even I was shy, she took the initiative to pick up a conversation with me. During lessons, she explained what the teacher was saying, ensuring that I understood everything. She also introduced some of her classmates to. The students there were very welcoming to us too.

I noticed that their lessons were quite different from us. For example, they do not use calculators during Math lessons at all. At first, when the Math teacher told the class to find the average of some numbers, I was expecting my buddy to take out her calculator. But instead, they mental calculated. I was amazed as in Singapore, we always have our calculators with us. For Chinese lesson, they had to memorise 文言文, which is ancient Chinese passages that looked very difficult to me. On the other hand, many of them could memorise and read out the whole thing very quickly. 

We were dismissed from lessons earlier to interact with our buddies. Some of us went to our buddies' house while the others hang around in school or nearby places. Honestly, I did not expect much. However, I was speechless at the sight of her house. It was much beautiful and big compared to mine. It changed my perspective of the way of life and standard of living of people. 

Part of my buddy's living room

Another thing that I observed was that the people here were very enthusiastic and treated visitors as one of them. My buddy's mother kept asking us if we wanted to eat or drink something. She brought me to nearby places around like stationary shop and bought me some snacks after that. I felt quite embarrassed as they payed for all of our food. 

A stationary shop near her house. The things there were really nice 👍

We gathered back in school after two hours or so. We were disappointed when we found out that our itinerary has changed and we will not be going to Hefei No. 45 Middle School the next day. 

I really enjoyed having lessons and interact with them. I hope there is a chance for me to participate such exchange programmes in the future. By visiting their school, it also taught me to better appreciated and be grateful for what RV provides me with. 

5 THINGS I LIKE ABOUT RV:

1. Beautiful and clean toilets ❤️

    -> RV toilets are much cleaner than the ones in China. The best thing is that every RV toilet cubicle has a door.

2. Beautiful field ❤️

    -> In Hefei, they only had 2 basketball courts. But RV has a huge field with tracks.

3. School uniform ❤️

    -> I have not take much notice about RV uniform, but after several compliments during the trip, I kind of felt so too. Even the Hefei students are envious of our uniquely designed uniform. 

4. Canteen and hostel cafe ❤️

    -> They do not have a cafeteria in school and had to eat their lunch at home or outside school. However in RV, we have not only a canteen that provides us with different delicacies, but also hostel cafe that gives us more food options to choose from. 

5. Classroom ❤️

    -> Our classrooms are much bigger and spacious than Hefei's ones, where they are squeezed together with 60 others. 

~ Kitty