Day 1:
The first day, we all gathered in changi airport terminal 3, wearing our blue orientation tees and carrying our big luggages. Before the flight, the teachers gave us some time to spend with our parents before we left and handed us our passports and gave us the instructions for that departure. On the plane, we couldn't change the seats that we were given but that was alright since my seat mate was someone I was comfortable with. We ate our lunch on the plane and before we knew it, we landed in shanghai pudong airport. We collected our luggages and headed on the bus to dinner. The first night's dinner was a bit rushed because the restaurant was already closing but we were still eating and even though we were still eating the owners already turned off some lights which I felt was a bit strange but then I felt that maybe it was because they need to go home. We then went to our hotel and on the way, saw some of the tall buildings in china at night. In the hotel, we had a debrief for the day and went to our allocated rooms to have a rest for the day.
Day 2:
Today was a more relaxing day and thus we were allowed to wake up slightly later. After breakfast, we headed off to Chenhuangmiao. Chenhuangmiao was a temple but turned into a very big tourist area with a lot of Chinese traditional items. For example, they sold some sweets that was the specialty of china and also all the traditional musical instruments were sold there. Even the restaurants were some of the best in Shanghai. However, one interesting point was that there was Starbucks in Chenhuangmiao. A traditional area with a modern coffee chain. The temple was very nicely built and there was a superstition that you must enter the door with you right foot first for good luck. The temple showed a lot of different deities and those that represent the different zodiacs as well. Next we went to Shanghai Book City. It was a seven storey book store with a lot of different types of books. Inside, they even stacked their books into different sculptures, making it more fun looking. Even though I did not buy any books, there was a huge variety of books in there that will appeal to book lovers. We also went to the Bund and the French concession. The Bund had a nice scenery of the business industry of shanghai, with all the tall buildings for commercial purposes.
Day 3:
This is the first day that we went to Shanghai Nanyang High School, and on the first day, we were late by half an hour. We felt very guilty because the teacher in charge of our visit was waiting in the busy road for our bus to arrive. We felt that we gave the school a bad impression by being late since this was the fifth year that RV has visited this school but our batch was late. In the school, we were introduced to our buddies and more about the school's history. A physics teacher came to the room that we were in and represented us with a question that he asked us to build the tallest possible paper tower using a single piece of paper. After building the paper tower, we had to balance a ping pong ball on it and my pair's tower could withstand a golf ball's weight well. After that,we left the school and we went to Haidilao for lunch and their service lived up to whatever review was given of them. Their service was very good and all the waiters greeted us with a smile even though we were students. We went to Wenmiaojie after that and were given free time to shop. Wenmiaojie reminded me of Orchard Road but with some differences. This was a place with more branded shops thus, we could not find anything that we wanted. However, while shopping, there were many people walking around to sell the same things to us, with one price being lower that the other. After that we went to Shanghai urban planning hall for a while because they were closing. We saw a huge model of the entire Shaghai City with every house shown on. So if the people of china wanted to build a house they would go there to find out where to position it.
Day 4:
We went to Shanghai Nanyang High School for the second day and this time, we came on time and maybe even earlier. The students made 香包 for us to keep and we were given a tour around the school. The school was quite big and when we walked past, we saw that the students ate their lunch in the classroom which is not allowed in our schools. After saying goodbye to our buddies, we went to Oriental Dreamworks. We were given a tour around their office and saw some sneak peaks of upcoming cartoon movies. We saw how much effort was needed to draw these objects, even if the object was just a small background display, they took very long an out a lot of detail in it. We then went to Fudan university and a ex senior from RV took us around the school and told us about how studying in Shanghai is like. The chinese students were very hardworking and went to classrooms to study right when they open at around 5am till late at night. Walking around the school compound, I realized that Fudan university had quite old facilities which was not like how I expected a famous university to be like, even the senior said that the toilets were very dirty.
Day 5:
We travelled from Shanghai to Hangzhou by bus and the bus ride took around 3 hours. After we reached, we went to Zhejiang University. Zhejiang university is very big, and we needed to travel through the school by bus. The whole compound that we been to, had a library for each course (e.g medicine or business) and the library is very big. The whole school compound almost looked like a mini town whereby there are traffic lights and there are small shops along the roads. Even though the whole compound was huge, it was not the whole of Zhejiang University; it has altogether 5 compounds to make up the whole Zhejiang university.
Day 6:
That day we went to West Lake, YueFei Mausoleum, Leifeng Pagoda and QingHeFang street. We first went to YueFei mausoleum and the tomb of YueFei was in it. The temple showed many information about YueFei and about the traitors that caused his death. The people that caused his death were made into statues and placed kneeling in front of YueFei for life. YueFei's two assistants were also honored by a smaller temple beside YueFei's. Next, we went to walk around west lake. West lake was very beautiful and the lake surface was glistening in the sun and it showed very pretty parts of Hangzhou while we were on a boat around the lake. The trees by the side of the lake were very beautiful and the whole place was very peaceful feeling, thus it is one of Hangzhou's most famous tourist attraction. We then climbed to the top of the Leifeng Pagoda. The top of the Leifeng Pagoda showed a very clear image of the entire west lake and the forests surrounding it. We could also see the famous buildings within the West Lake. QingHeFang street was an ancient street with a lot of traditional items and food that are specialties in Hangzhou. The streets were clean and it looked quite new but it isn't, it was just refurbished to make it a more appealing tourist attraction.
Day 7:
We travelled back to Shanghai from Hangzhou and on the way back, we went to Qibao ancient street. There were a lot of people in there and the streets were quite narrow so we had to push around to catch up with the rest of the class. There were many cheap things sold there, as well as 臭豆腐 which had a putrid smell as we walked along the street. Next we went to tianzifang. Tianzifang was considered more of an artsy street as when we walked down we saw lot of art galleries and art related things. The items sold there are also quite modern and trendy. There were also quite a few shopping malls around that area. We then left the place and headed to the airport where we boarded the plane and went back to Singapore. Even though the trip was over, all of us enjoyed ourselves and really bonded through the trip. We learnt many things throughout the course of this trip, learning the norms and culture of the Chinese, the trip also instilled in us a sense of responsibility and discipline in taking care of our own wellbeing.
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