OELP Reflection
The 7-days OELP trip to Shanghai and Yangzhou had left me with many wonderful memories with my classmates. At the same time, I had also learned many things from this experience.
When I first arrived in Shanghai on the first day, the first thing that was processed into my brain was all the tall buildings and skyscrapers. From that, I was able to see that Shanghai is a modern city. The infrastructures at the Bund left me awestruck. On one side of the HuangPu River were all the western-style architectures. I was able to see that some of the buildings actually have different style, but after doing some research on the internet, I found out that the architectures had many different styles such as Roman (10th-mid 12th century), Baroque (1600-1750) and Classical (1750-1820). I was very impressed that all those buildings that have so many different architectural styles can actually exist at the same time and at the same place and still look so beautiful.
On the other side of the HuangPu River are the skyscrapers which are more modern. The Oriental TV Tower as well as several international banks or company buildings were located there. This gives a strong contrast between modern life and the past and I also realised that this was a way that China had used to preserve and promote their history and culture. I think Singapore can also try to learn from China by preserving some of the old architectures in Singapore. But again, Singapore is a small country; there might not be enough land for people to live on if several sites were really preserved.
After spending 1-2 days in Shanghai, we headed to Yangzhou. Compared to Shanghai, Yangzhou was more of a cultural city and the pace of life there is more relaxed. Locals were not in much of a rush and there were fewer vehicles on the road compared to Shanghai.
The most memorable experience I had in Yangzhou was probably the school visit to 扬大附中东部分校初中学部. I had a great time interacting with the students there and I definitely learned more about the culture and education system in China. At the school, we were also given opportunities to go through lessons that are not commonly found in the Singapore education curriculum. We went through several Arts and Crafts sessions, a Chinese Classical Music Appreciation class and the Dumpling-Making Competition! All these lessons were unique and very enjoyable. I felt like I was able to understand a lot more about China’s culture and traditions during the school visit as my buddy would explain very thoroughly about the tourist sites and also the several traditions for the Dragon Boat Festival. Hopefully, I would still get a chance to see them in the future.
Lunch at the school!
Besides the school exchange, I also really liked the industrial visit to Volkswagen and the visit to Geyuan Garden.
At first, I didn’t really know that we would be going to Volkswagen. I thought it was really cool because I was able to witness the procedure of car-making. Moreover, there were many motivational sayings on the banners which hanged from the ceilings, and I remembered one even said “用户就是我们的衣食父母” I was really impressed as this shows how important the customers are to them and how they really put in their best effort to satisfy the customers’ needs.
Pictures time while touring Volkswagen!
I thought that the Geyuan Garden was absolutely beautiful. There were many different types of bamboo there and what I liked the most about the garden was the Four Seasons Rocks. Even though I did not examine the rocks very carefully, I feel that there’s something different among the four different sets of rocks. That really amazed me because I never knew that rocks could be very different from one another.
Another thing that I really enjoyed from this OELP was the bullet train from Zhenjiang back to Shanghai. It moved at an insanely fast speed; when I looked out the windows, I see the buildings just whizzing by. It was only then did I understand that the bullet train was moving at a super fast speed. That reminded me of the time when I took the Eurostar with my family from Paris to London. The train ride only took 2 hours and it also moved at a flying speed. On the bullet train, it was not very noisy and I was able to get some rest and take some time to think about the trip in general. As I was on the bullet train, I could not believe that in just a matter of hours, I would be back in Singapore. It felt like it had just been yesterday that I arrived in Shanghai. Time flew by really fast and this trip made me appreciate Singapore and everything I have back home. Even though it felt great to have some independence on the trip, I had definitely missed my parents. I was sad to leave so soon, but I was also glad because I would finally be heading back to Singapore, my home. I left for OELP thinking that I would be learning about China’s traditions, culture and history, but what I was surprised about, was the fact that I was also given a lesson on Appreciation. After the trip, I started to appreciate my family, my classmates and friends, and lastly Singapore. Although I had a fun time in China, there were several facilities and things that were better in Singapore.
In conclusion, this OELP trip to Shanghai and Yangzhou with class 2G’14 definitely taught me a lot of things.
Clarissa Neo (8)
Surprize motherfucker!
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