Day 1:
It was finally the day of the long awaited trip to Yangzhou and Shanghai. Being an introvert, I could not bear to leave my parents. I had mixed feelings for this trip. On one hand, I was excited because I have never been to China and it was a rare opportunity to travel overseas with my classmates and friends. But on the other hand, I was apprehensive as it was the first time I was traveling without my parents. I got really emotional and teared up.My friends comforted me, saying that they will be my mummy and daddy for the week!😂I stopped tearing up after awhile. However,my mood did not become better as I was not looking forward to the 5-6h flight because I have motion sickness and I dislike the feeling of wanting to vomit.😖
Touching down in Shanghai, I was anxious to get wifi or 3G to contact my parents.😩The weather was cooling but it was not what I had expected😅 I imagined that it would be much colder. When we boarded the bus, the tour guide started introducing Shanghai to us, telling us it's history, economy and etc. The ride to the bund was quite long but I was kept occupied by the views of Shanghai.
Reaching the Bund! The tour guide explained that the Bund was less crowded then usual because it's a weekday. If we were to go to the Bund on a weekend, it might be a lot more crowded. There were people taking wedding pictures there because of the beautiful scenery and some photographers started taking photo of us.😂
After that, because of the heavy traffic, we had to walk quite a long way to board the bus. Our next destination, DINNER!😍 I was quite hungry already because we had an early lunch on the plane. 
The dinner tasted like the food we have in Singapore. It tasted really good! Then we made our way to HuangPuJiang for our boat ride!
Day 2:
Waking up to the sound of my alarm clock, I groggily switched it off and went back to sleep. However, LiXian woke me up and refused to let me go back to sleep because I had to shower in the morning and it would take a while so there's no time for me to sleep for another 10min.😞 During breakfast, I realised that I was the only one who didn't wake up with the sun at 5.30.😂 Lixian, Yixuan, Clarissa Neo and some other friends woke up with the sun at 5.30. Breakfast was okayy I guess. I rarely had time for a proper breakfast because normally it was too early to eat so I just drank milk and made my way to school. After breakfast, we checked out and went to the French Concession. The French Concession had really beautiful architecture!
There was also cafés and restaurants such as Starbucks and Haagen-Daz ice cream. Starbucks had a additional product in their menu which was Chinese tea. Chinese people like to drink Chinese tea so Starbucks added tea to the menu to attract Chinese customers.
We also visited the shanghai urban planning exhibition hall, where we got to see the rough 3d image of the whole of Shanghai. The tiny 3D building of Shanghai was magnificent. From this, we could learn that Shanghai is currently building a lot of modern buildings to keep up with the mordenization of the world but at the same time, is trying to preserve the cultural heritages of China.
After the visit to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition, we went for our Lunch, at the HaiDiLao.（海底捞）😍 The service by HaiDiLao was Spectacular! Before we even reach the restaurant, they has people stationed outside to bring us in. They provided us with spectacle clothes, aprons so that we do not dirty our clothes, and hair tie so that our hair does not get in our way when we are eating. Their service was perfect! I feel that Singapore restaurants should learn from HaiDiLao. Before this, I use to think that China people were arrogant and rude but after this experience, I realised that not all China people are the same. There are actually friendly people in China. The food was great! But after adding the mutton, the soup tasted like mutton too.🐑🐑🐑 So it wasn't that nice after that. 😅After that filling sumptuous meal, we started on our four hour trip to Yangzhou.
Day 3:
We went to the 冶春茶社 for our breakfast to have a real Yangzhou Breakfast. It was really heavy and I wasn't used to the food because the dim sums we normally have are 虾饺，叉烧包，and etc. But there are none of these in Yangzhou. They had buns but they had different fillings inside that buns which I have not tried before. However, I enjoyed the special dumpling which is huge that had soup inside which we had to use a straw to suck it up. Local Yangzhou people eats heavy breakfasts because they only have two meals a day. Breakfast and dinner. So they have to eat more in order to not get hungry during the afternoons.
Oops it's slanted😅
After this, we went to the block printing and paper cutting museum. I learnt how printing was made in the past and I admire them for having the paitence to carve each word slowly on the wood because it's a really hard job. If the carver were to carve a wrong word, he has to redo the whole thing! Of course there is another type of block printing which is the one word per block printing. It makes things a lot easier for the carver but the printer will have difficulting looking for the word he needs because there are a lot of Chinese characters.😰 These are the dying occupations because not many has the patience to sit and carve out each word. We interviewed the people there and asked them why they would want to work in this line and they said that if they didn't work in this line, there will be no one else to continue on and the future generation would not be able to see how it is done. Moreover, they liked their occupation a lot.
In the evening, we went to the dongguanjie to watch the 扬州四大美女show and got to shop there for awhile.
Day 4:
We had to wake up earlier because we'll be having our exchange programme today.😩 At first, everyone was just awkward but after a while we got familiar with our buddies and started opening up abit more. I realised that students in Singapore are more fortunate than the students in China because our curriculum hours are way shorter than than the schools in China. Also, cca is not compulsory for them as the school wants them to focus more on their studies. They only have ccaa on Saturday which they get to change every week. The students there are also very hardworking and obedient. They are very self-disciplined as they do not play with the things on their table, talk in class or sleep in class. They pay full attention in every lesson and are very pro active, fighting to answer the teacher's questions in class. During the debrief, my friend, Yixuan shared that her buddy said they had army training during the holidays ensure that they are disciplined and obedient in class. In my opinion, I really think it's unnecessary to put children through such trainings because children should have their childhood and be happy. Their lunch was also really sumptuous, with chicken wings and prawns. However, we are told that normally they do not have such lunch. They never had prawns or chicken wings during their lunch before. It would be vegetables, rice and soup that tasted bland with a bit of veggie in it. I think the school should not treat us differently and provide us with chicken wings or prawns because we are there for and exchange programme, to experience their school curriculum and learn their culture. Going to the toilet was a shock beacause there was no toilet bowls for us but a drain that is connected through the six cubicles and the cubicles are no taller than our waist. Also there was only one flushing system. But I soon got used to it because when you got to go you got to go😂. The toilets as compared to our school toilets does not have mirrors because the school doesn't want the students to spend time on vanity so they did not put mirrors in the toilet.
After that we went to the Lushi Old mansion to have our dinner.
Day 5:
It was the second last day we would be going to the Yangzhou School. We learnt how to make dumplings and an egg holder necklace for the dragon boat festival, 元宵节. In Singapore, we just eat the dumplings and have a dragon boat race during the festival but in Yangzhou, they have a lot of other traditions that they have to do. They even take time to make their own dumplings! My grandma used to make them but she's grown older and does not have the strength to make them so she buys from the supermarket. Moreover, my family doesn't really like to eat the dumplings. BUT I DO!😅 We also learnt how to make Chinese knots and the traditional paper cutting. We actually had these activities in school during the RV lit lessons in year 1. I thought it would be easy since I have done it before but I was wrong!😔 For paper cutting, we were normally given a picture to staple onto the red paper but we weren't given a template and weren't sure how to begin. But the teacher told us that we can draw on the paper and then start cutting and it was a lot easier with a guide line. It was a tedious job. The lines were too thin and the paper felt as if it would tear any moment. It requires a lot of patience and skills to finish the cutting. If the petals of the flowers were too thick, it wouldn't have looked as nice as what the teacher had showed us. If we cut the petals thinly, the paper would tear and we would have to redo it. It was very irritating. Today, I also learnt that the students in China weren't allowed to bring electronical devices to school because the school wants the student to focus on studies. So no phones or iPads. Moreover, some students aren't allowed to have phones until the age of 18 because their parents don't allow them to. I think it's abit too extreme to treat their children that way. They should give children some freedom so that they can relax after a stressful day in school for example. One of the many friends I made in China said that they had extra activities on weekends as well. I thought that the extra activities would be hobbies such as piano, guitar or ballet. But it was tuition for the subject that my friends was the weakest in. From this, I have learnt to cherish my parents because they do not force me to go for things that I don't want to go for. I feel that they parents in China are abit too hard on their children.
Day 6:
Today, we went to the Volkswagen company. We had to travel in a tramp. I think it's a tramp😂. It was damn fun! Reaching the Volkswagen factory, the sun was scorching hot. It was like when I was training during my cca! It was my first time in a car factory and I always thought that a car factory would be quite hot because of the weather and dirty. However, the factory was really clean and it was air conditioned! It was really a rare experience to enter a car company factory. The workers there were kind of surprised to see us. I think they rarely get visitors😅 During that debrief, some of my classmates mentioned that they observed that most of the cars in Yangzhou were Volkswagen cars. I think that Germany would want to work with China and invest in China because China is really big so there would be sufficient land to build their factories. Also China has a huge population, thus the large amount of manpower. They can hire more workers and give them a lower wages so the company can earn more money so it would be an advantage for the company. Also there are less car brands in China to compete with Volkswagen as compared to Singapore. So Germany would rather invest in China than investing in Sinagpore.
It was the last day of the OELP trip. I was anxious to return to see my parents but also sad that we had only 7 days in Yangzhou and Shanghai and soon we had to return to reality and face our pile of homework.😂There was still so much that we have yet to see in China. We took the maglev train from Jiangsu station. I was exited to travel on the bullet train because it was another first time. It is said to travel at a really fast speed. Before we boarded the train, the tour guide told us that the chairs on the train were reversible because in the past, people like to talk and chit chat with one another or play card games throughout the journey. It's damn cool!😂 I assumed that the interiors of the bullet train would be like that of Singapore's Mrt train. But I was wrong again. It was like the interior of our Singapore airplane! The chairs were cushioned and were able to lower the chair for us to lie down and there was a person pushing a trolley and asking if we wanted a drink like the air stewardess would. Throught the trip, I have learnt to become more Independent and to appreciate Singapore.
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