Yixuan's Daily Reflection

YangZhou OELP Daily Reflection

 Day1

Finally, the long awaited yangzhou trip. We finally bided our family goodbye. Being a very out going person, i did not not bare to leave my parents. I was very excited to go to China. Going overseas with classmates and friends is a very rare opportunity. However i was not looking forward to the flight. I did not like being on a plane. We had our lunch on the plane and the food there was quite pleasant. The air stewardess was very friendly too. Touching down in shanghai in late afternoon, the weather there was really really pleasant, very cooling.  After boarding the bus, the tour guide started introducing shanghai to us. The bus ride to the bund was quite long and when we reached the bund, it was not very crowded. The tour guide said that we were really lucky as the bund is normally quite packed especially on weekends. The chilly breeze brushed against my face as i alighted from the bus. It was very chilly there. Luckily, i brought my jacket down. The teachers were still reminding us to bring our jacket down. I did not expect it to be so cold. It was much colder than the airport.  As there was quite a heavy traffic, we had to walk a long way to board the bus. Then we proceeded to have our dinner. As we had lunch quite early on the plane and the portion was quite little, many of us was already famished. When we reached the restaurant, there was already a few groups of  tourist eating. We quickly settled down and had our dinner. It was similar to the 煮炒 in singapore. We were all very satisfied with the food. Maybe it was just because we were already very hungry, so everything tasted really delicious. Then we made our way to Huang Pu Jiang for a boat ride. There were many skyscrapers and the lighting there was magnificent. There were more skyscrapers there compared to singapore. Those lightings on the buildings can attract tourist to boost their economy and act as advertisements, promoting their company. Finally after the boat ride, we are going to the hotel. It was already quite late in the night and everyone was already very tired, after waking up early in the morning, a long flight and a long day. The hotel was quite far from Huang Pu Jiang and the bus ride was again really long. The hotel was smaller than i thought and the rooming was quite confusing, losing our way in the same level. We turned in immediately after bathing. We did not unpack much as we were going to check out the next day. 

Day2

Waking at 5.30, thinking i was already late. As we did not close the curtains the night before, the sun shone brightly into the room, waking us up. We woke up even before our alarm ring. At 5.30, the sun shone like it was already 9 in singapore. We changed and made our way down for breakfast. After finishing breakfast, we went to check out and left for French Concession. I really though i was in french when i was at french concession. The stuff there was really french like and there was some cafes there like Starbucks. The buildings were brown and low, about one or two storey. Then we went to Tian Zi Fang (田子坊) it was named after an artist and the streets were filled with many artistic items. Before leaving, we also went to a post office. The tour guide and one of the workers at the post office had an argument. My classmate and i both agreed that the worker had a bad attitude and she was being unreasonable. The tour guide then explained to us that as the workers at the post office are working under the government and even if the post office is not earning money, they would still get their pay. Hence their attitude towards customers are not very good. At first i was quite shocked about the worker's attitude. However after the tour guide explained to us, i understood. But in singapore, no matter where you work, if your working attitude is bad, you will get fired, even if you are working under the government. After that we went to shanghai urban planning exhibition. In there, there was a large model of the whole shanghai. In the exhibition, they showed us how shanghai has urbanized these years. After that, we made our way to HaiDiLao hotpot restaurant. Their service was AMAZING. When we reach, some of their workers even came outside and welcomed us when we alighted from the bus. I was awed by their hospitality. The provided us with a ziplock to put our phones and a cloth to wipe our spectacles. They still gave hair ties to girls, to prevent dirtying our hair. They also asked those wearing white if they wanted an apron. Their service was really perfect that i cant find any fault in. I used to have really bad image of people in china, thinking that they are impolite, rude and have literally nothing good and positive image of them. however after this experience, my thinking changed. there are also nice people in china. Then, we had our 4 hours long ride to yangzhou.

Day3

Today was the first day we are in yangzhou. We woke up later than the previous day, as were not visiting the school yet and we were going to have a yangzhou style breakfast, which was basically what the local yangzhou people eat for breakfast. They have a really heavy breakfast compared to singaporeans. They would have Buns, noodles, dumplings and many many others. Just a bun, they would have different fillings inside and making every bun taste different, allowing people to have more choices. They have a really special dumpling which is really big and they would use a straw to suck the soup inside the dumpling. I have tried this special dumpling in singapore before and the difference is the thickness of the dumpling skin. In yangzhou, the dumpling skin is much thicker than the one in singapore. In my opinion, i think that in yangzhou, their purpose of eating it is to fill up their tummy, as a main dish but in Singapore, their purpose is to eat the fillings in the dumpling and to taste it, as a side dish, not supposed to fill them up as they would still be eating main dishes like rice or noodles. The breakfast being so heavy has another reason to it. Local Yangzhou people only eat 2 meals a day, breakfast and dinner. so in order to not feel hungry in the middle of the day, they would have a very heavy breakfast to last them till dinner. After so, we went to the Slender West Lake, 24 bridges and dong guan street. At the slender west lake and the 24 bridges, we had boat rides. Comparing the boat ride we had in Shanghai the bund, these boat rides are more relaxing and calming. There was also not that many people on board. The boat in shanghai was a larger and more grand boat, more like a ferris. however the boats in yangzhou are bump boats, which are much smaller in size and more traditional. Both boats have their own role to bring out the places. For the bund, it is a more modern place with many skyscrapers around it, so the boat must also be modernised, so that it fits the theme MORDERN. While in yangzhou, the slender west lake and 24 bridges have more traditional buildings around it and it is more of a park, hence it must be of a more relaxing and traditional feel.

Day 4 

Today, we finally went for the exchange programme at a local Yangzhou school. During the time spent in the school, i learnt that the school hours are much longer than singapore an their CCA is optional, as the school wants them to focus on studies more than CCAs. The students are also very obedient and they are very hardworking. They do not talk in class and they pay full attention in class. They are also very pro active, fighting to answer the teacher's question in class. They are also very self disciplined, they do not fiddle with things in class or do other things in class. My buddy told me that they had army trainings during the holidays, to make sure that they are disciplined and obedient in class. Their lunch is also really scrumptious, with chicken wings and prawns. However my biddy told me that their lunch was not normally so scrumptious. They never had prawns nor chicken wings in their lunch set before. Normally it is vegetables and rice(free flow of rice as they tend to eat a lot). Later in the evening, we went to Lushi Mansion to have our dinner. It was a traditional building which serve traditional Yangzhou. It was sort of an 'atas' restaurant compared to others which we had dinner and lunch in. it would the chinese fine dining. In order to preserve the architecture and to boost China's economy at the same time, it is a really efficient method. Through this, you would be able to eat traditional food in a traditional place, allowing the diner to know a bit more about the traditions. After which, we went to the Grand Canal, which is another boat ride. At the side of the canal, there is elderlies doing folk dances and chit chatting at pavilions. The boat used is a bump boat, to comply and fit the theme of traditional. The Grand Canal has many traditional buildings and many traditional looking pavilions at the side of it, and the buildings beside the Grand Canal also cannot be higher than 3 storeys, in order to preserve the traditional feel of the place. Comparing the Grand Canal to the Bund in Shanghai, there is a large difference. Shanghai is more of modern, while in yangzhou everything is more traditional. the architecture in yangzhou is mostly preserved while in shanghai, most of the buildings are demolished and rebuilt, into skyscrapers and high rise buildings for housing. Shanghai chooses to boost it's country economy by attracting more tourists and business instead of preserving its traditions. However, Yangzhou chooses to preserve its traditional buildings and culture. In my opinion, it is a good way that some provinces of china choose to preserve its culture while some choose to boost it economy and not preserve its culture. It strikes a balance between modernization and traditions. With this, china would be able to boost its economy and perverse its tradition at the same time.

Day 5

Today was the second and the last day we will be going to the to the Yangzhou local school. We have been practicing a dance for the last event we have in the school, a kpop dance. Although we were supposed to be performing a dance for Singapore culture but instead of having chose a Singapore based song, we used a kpop song. Although we did not use Singapore based songs, I am proud to say that we had put up a great performance, especially the guys. They only started practicing a few days before the performance, in the hotel room. During the last day, we also leant how to make dumplings and an egg holder necklace for dragon boat festival. In Singapore, we simply just eat dumplings during dragon boat festival. However in Yangzhou, they have a lot of traditions that they would make and do. They even make their own dumplings. My parents would normally just buy dumplings from supermarkets. From these, I can tell that the local Yangzhou past down their tradition from generation to generation, not belittling these traditions. Even schools make effort to pass down the traditions of dragon boat festival, teaching students to make the egg holder necklaces and how to make dumplings. During this last day, we were also thought how to make chinese knots and traditional paper cutting. From these lessons, I realized that tying chinese knots and paper cutting does not seem as easy as it seemed to be. Chinese knots are much easier than paper cutting but it is still really tedious to do chinese knots, remembering which string go through which and people with inflexible fingers would find it really hard to do. Paper cutting requires a lot of skill and practices. Especially those small holes and small pieces. If you cut the holes too big, it would not be nice. And if u cut the small pieces too small, you would break it and you would need to re cut the whole piece, which is really frustrating and annoying. After we left the school, we were all very sad as we have already formed bonds with our buddies and it was already time to leave them. Through this immersion program, we have learnt many things from the students in the immersion school. They are much more hardworking compared to us and they are very self disciplined. They aren’t allowed to bring phones to school and they have really strict teachers, so we should feel fortunate.

After we left the school, we went to a few book shops to get some books and stationaries. From this trip to the book store, I realized that the standard of books we are reading currently is the standard of books a primary school student would be reading. The standard of chinese language is much higher than Singapore and I am not sure if I should be ashamed or not.

Day 6

Today, we visited the Volkswagen company in china and this is the first time I visited a car factory. I was amazed at how they make cars. In order to save manpower, many of  the steps are mechanized. China is a really big market for cars as in china, Volkswagen is a trusted brand of car in china and many people in china drives Volkswagen. In china, there is large land that could be bought at a lower price compared to a same sized land in other countries like Singapore and America. By establishing the car factory in china it not only save costs, it would also be easier to to hire workers as the population in china is much higher compared to other countries like Singapore. Hence the pay of the workers are also much lower than the pay compared to other countries. Instead of competing with many other car brand which is already established in that specific country, like in Singapore, there are already many car brands which is established like toyata, Mercedes and Honda. After so, we went to a temple, with a really really high pagoda, which is rarely seen in Singapore. Most of the chinese in china is Buddhist and they strongly believe that god do exist and they would help them. Hence normally before exams, parents would bring their children to temple to pray for good marks.

Day 7

Last and final day in China, we took the maglev train from Yangzhou back to shanghai as we are flying back t Singapore from shanghai’s airport. The maglev train is similar to the MRT in Singapore. However, food and drinks are allowed in trains. Despite that, the train is very clean and the seats are quite spacious and comfortable. They also do sell food on the trains. They would push a pushcart down the path and ask if the passengers if they wanted to buy some snacks.