Day 1 in China

Today, we took the high speed rail and went for a cultural visit to Sanhe Guzhen. I experienced the high speed rail for the first time in China and it was quite a pleasant trip. I was lucky to get the window seat and seen many sceneries that cannot be seen in Singapore.

After the train ride, we proceeded for lunch right after. Thinking that it would be a good meal, I entered the restaurant happily. I needed the washroom and was astonished at what I saw. There was no door, blood-stained tissue was all over and it was dirty. It affected my view of the restaurant and of course I did not have the appetite to eat anymore. Furthermore, I realized that the people I was sitting with did not have much table manners or maybe just isn't up to my expectation.

After the lunch, we headed to San He Gu Zhen and walked around the place for 3 hours. It was hard for me to understand the cultural history of the place because the tour guide was talking in Chinese and it is hard for me to understand Chinese. Although I did not understand Chinese, I still tried to understand and just learning visually from what I see.

The place is a village where olden people still live there. There are a few museums in the village where we went to visit about the different famous people who had lived in that area. I feel that we are lucky to be in Singapore as we do not live in such a state and we have a more private area. 

In conclusion, I feel that even though we only visited one place, it made me understand about being appreciative of what we have. As a leader, I also felt more responsible as we have to look out for one another during the trip as if anyone is missing, we probably have to account for.

-Zhi Yan