Reflection-Leonard

From 25th may to 31 may this year,we went to Shanghai and Hangzhou for our OELP programme.It was an eye-opener and enabled me to benefit and learn from the trip.

I learnt that Chinese students are competitive and eager to learn,as to pursue a better life and help their country,China to prosper.

Secondly,China has done a good job of diversifying modern culture and traditional heritage.This can be seen from well-preserved Chinese buildings cum Tourist attractions such as Cheng Huang Miao.This is to let the younger generation gain a better understanding of China's history and to appreciate the hardwork of forefathers at the same time progressing forward as a country.

Another example of China preserving its culture is the Qinghefang Ancient Street in Hangzhou. It is 1800 meters long and has been the Ming and Qing Dynasty. This street is the only well-preserved part of the ancient city and is the best place to embody the historical values.

In conclusion,I believe it is essential to preserve a country's historical treasures and at the same time progress forward economically and socially.

There is a major flaw in Singapore's education system.In recent years the system has come under fire for putting children under high level of stress. A UNICEF survey in 2001 revealed that exam anxiety was one of the main causes of unhappiness among children in Singapore.

The stress originates from a highly-competitive and rigid environment in which grades are priority, a mindset percolated not only by educators but by society as well. In a performative classroom culture, there is constant parental and peer pressure for students to do well.

I think the educational system should place more emphasis on the likes of creativity and IQ. Too many children these days are spending their time memorizing things from the textbooks. In this sense, most subjects are dead and therefore contradictory to their very purpose. This is not a test of their intellectual capability, but a test of their memory. It is therefore for society to place judgement on a particular individual based on certificates derived from his memory.

OELP Trip Reflection Evelyn (2)

·         After a refreshing OELP trip to Shanghai and Hangzhou, I had gained lots of knowledge and experiences from this trip. Firstly, I learned from my school immersion buddy that China has a whooping population of 1.3 billion, which is around 19 percent of the entire world population. Living in a country like Singapore which only has a population of 5.3 million, I really can’t imagine what is it like to live in such a populated country.

Secondly, I learned that you can’t call a woman or a girl 小姐 as that two words means the same as the word ‘prostitute’, thus, calling a lady小姐 is offensive and from this trip I learned that we should not call a lady that. Same thing goes for hotels. While ‘hotel’ in Chinese do mean 酒店, in China, however, 酒店 means a bar where alcohol is served. If you want to say ‘hotel’ in China, you have to it refer to it as 饭店. Looks like the local language is more complicated than we think.

Lastly, I learned that Facebook, twitter some other social media sites that we love to use are actually blocked in China. This is because China does not its country using social media sites from the USA. Thus, it has a huge firewall all around China to prevent its citizens from using foreign websites. So does this means that people living in China does not use social media at all? Of course not! China has its own version of social media, such as ‘Renrenwang’ which is a convincing version of Facebook, ‘Youku’ which provides videos just like the good old Youtube. Instead of searching information on Google, also known as ‘googling’, people in China uses an equally popular search engine ‘Baidu’. Most people in China loves to use ‘QQ’ and ‘Weixin’ which is similar to Facebook and Whatsapp in many ways. In conclusion, this trip is definitely an eye-opener for me.

·         China loves its rich culture as we can definitely feel it when we went there. So how does China actually preserves and promotes its culture? Firstly, besides the modern shopping malls, high rise buildings and skyscrapers you see around the bustling city, you would find that some of the popular tourist’s sites include old or preserved places that are rich in China’s culture. For example, some of the places we went to were historical buildings, old streets or famous temples. Such as 城隍庙，杜家嘴，文庙街 and 西湖. These places were either untouched from many years ago or were built to resemble the ancient image of China. Singapore should also do so by preserving old historical buildings or by building something that resembles Singapore in the old times. By doing this tourists that visit might feel like they are being taken back in time as standing in an old preserved building makes one feel as if they are being taken back in time. This would allow tourists to really ‘have a feel’ of a country’s culture and history. Another way that China likes to promote its culture is through performances. When we went to Hangzhou, which was famous for its rich culture, we had the privilege of watching a performance in a theatre. It was an acrobatics show by the name “西湖之夜”. From the stunning, amazing and incredible acrobatics moves, the show was actually a story telling the audience the culture of Hangzhou. Singapore could also have a theatre performance telling tourist how the island was found and how we got our famous country icon, the Merlion. It is much better than flipping through books or searching online about a country’s culture when you can watch a performance that explains everything to you.

OELP trip reflection Wen Cong (31)

This is my first time travelling to China, so I was quite nervous at then. I heard that the environment there will be almost the same as Singapore, but I doubted that I would be able to adapt to it. I heard that the water there is not as clean as here in Singapore, so I am worried that I might get sick while staying there. My other concern is that the food in China might not be to my liking. Even with all these concerns, I still wanted to confirm my doubts of steriotypes of China. When I reached China, I found out that most of my worries are for naught. I had fun.
During my stay there, I saw that China's buildings are actually not as old as I thought that they would be. In fact, they are as or more advanced compared to that of Singapore's. Zhejiang University has 5 campus, each being twice as big as one of Singapore's largest universities. It is so big that the students there have to walk for 15minutes from their dormatry to get to their lesson venues. Zhejiang Univesity in fact has 116 years of history, and has always been committed to cultivaiting talent with excellence, advancing science and technology, serving for social development, and promoting culture, with the spirit best manifested in the university motto "Seeking the Truth and Pioneering New Trails". Research there spans 12 academic desciplines, covering philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, art, science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, management and etc.
I also saw that China has been trying to preserve their culture. One example is the Lei Feng Pagoda. It was constructed in 975 at the order of Qian Hongchu, the king of Wuyue kingdom to celebrate the birth of a son by his favourite cocubine, also known as Huangfei. Hence, the pagoda was called Huangfei Pagoda. It was also known as the Brick Pagoda of West Gate due to its location. The town folks also made a popular tale based on this pagoda and it is called "The Legend of the White Snake". The pagoda collapsed later on, and some of the debris was taken away by the people because they wanted to find out if the tale was true. However, some of the debris was still preserved inside the tower. This was later on rebuilt and called Lei Feng Pagoda and became a tourist attraction.

Another example of China preserving its culture is the Qinghefang Ancient Street in Hangzhou. It is 1800 meters long and has been the Ming and Qing Dynasty. This street is the only well-preserved part of the ancient city and is the best place to embody the historical and culture character of Hangzhou. This street used to have lots of shops, restaurants, teahouses and medical centers. When we visited the street, it looks ancient however, the shops had changed and they are mostly souvenirs shops as it slowly become a tourist attraction.
I feel that it would be a very difficult task for Singapore to preserve its culture because of Singapore's very limited land and its very short history. However, I still feel that the government could still try their best to preserve as much culture as possible, especially the wartimes. I choose wartimes over the other cultures is because I think that the future would be very peaceful, but the people should still be reminded of their ancesstors' fight for their future, and will still remain vigilant.

OELP trip Andrew Bae (22)

OELP Overall reflection 

  From 25th May to 31th May 2014, our class went for OELP trip to Shanghai and Hangzhou. It was indeed a wonderful experience for all of us. The food and the hotel were also very impressive.

  I learned that 东方明珠 is located at Pudong in LuJiaZui, Shanghai. Standing at 468meters high, it is the world's third tallest TV and radio tower. It was the tallest building in Shanghai at around 1994 but was soon overtaken by Shanghai world financial center and Shanghai tower. The unique architecture designs was very impressive. 

  Chinese schools has different education system and school environment. The Chinese students here have to go though 6 elementary levels,3 junior secondary levels,3 senior secondary levels and lastly tertiary education.They have to take a 中考 at the end of their junior secondary education and a 大考 at the end of their senior secondary education. Every morning, all the students will gather at the school basketball court to carry out their daily exercise. Furthermore, the students in China come down to the court in a very orderly manner, unlike us who come down in a mess. Hence, I can clearly see the difference in culture between us and China.

  During lessons, the students' desks are always neat and tidy. Their attitudes towards lessons are very serious. Although their pronunciations of English words may still be weak, they still tried their best to say them out. This is something that we should definitely learn from them because so far, some of our classmates' desk and lockers are quite messy. This is not a good idea because it can be very disturbing during lesson time.  

  I also learned that Yue Fei temple is a temple built in honor of Yue Fei, a general of the Southern Song dynasty who fought against the Jurchen Jin Dynasty during the Jin–Song wars. The temple was first constructed in the during the Song Dynasty in 1221 to commemorate Yue Fei but it was reconstructed several times in later date. The interesting thing I learned is that we cannot walk into the entrance through the middle door. This is because there is a Chinese culture that the middle door is for the god or Yue Fei to walk in. 

What did the Chinese did to preserve and promote their culture? What can Singapore learn from China?

 It is important to preserve old buildings for the old and young because of the characters they bring to a neighborhood or a place. This means they bring a certain charm to the place that new buildings do not. For example, one of the places that we visited, Qibao Ancient Town has preserved the old culture of China. It was originally oldest and most famous water towns. Now, it is a popular shopping area which sells clothes, daily needs and of course all the cheap and convenient finger-food. Hence, when we visited there, I could see old wells, and old bridges from the past. This made it unique and somehow I felt like I was in the old Qibao Ancient Town. This is something that Singapore should really learn from because with all the modern, air-conditioned and well-decorated shopping malls in Singapore, all the tourists will not be able to feel the old and authentic Singapore. By coming up with something that really makes Singapore unique, it will attract more tourists to visit Singapore which will eventually improve our economic status. 

Improvement to Singapore education system

Singapore education system is now very focused on academics. Students are stressed out because of the upcoming tests, masses of homework, and tuition works. This can be beneficial because in the modern days, in order to get a good job, one has to have good academics results. However, the adults did not focus on the true meaning of education that it is to allow the children to balance between academics and other areas such as arts and sports. Yes, it is correct to focus more on academics but they still have to let the children have a less stressed life. Hence, I will give some suggestions on how to allow the children to balance them well.

Firstly, the schools should come up with more assessments in arts or sports which could allow the students to learn practical skills, life skills and moral principles. For example, some sports assessments require teamwork. In other social lives, we will definitely need to know how to work as a team to complete any project. Hence, cultivating teamwork from young can be useful. Secondly, the school should prepare some simple modules such as educating students how to handle stress, leadership or even wealth management. These can go a long way towards helping the child in the future. 

Education should not teach students to pit and compete against one another in an all-out arms race to reach the summit of success but Education encompasses a holistic approach where a child is educated not just in the academics aspect but also in the ethics and moral standards. Some parents apply pressure to the child to urge him to perform well in academics studies. Imposing unwanted negative stress would only cause a strain in parent-child relationship. Therefore, I conclude that balancing academics studies and other areas which are essential to our future lives are the best way to educate students because focusing too much on academics studies may be detrimental to the child.

 

SSAW Hotel (Shanghai)

SSAW Hotel Shanghai and Hangzhou Vina Hotel

Rating 4/5

The hotels in Shanghai was much nicer than the one in Hangzhou.The hotel service of both hotels are average.The room in Hangzhou was a bit cramp and I had to share a bed with my room mate because there weren't any more rooms with double beds.Also,there is wifi at the hotel in Shanghai but there weren't in Hangzhou.I prefer to stay in a hotel like the one we stayed in Shanghai as compared to the hotel we stayed in Hangzhou.

Nanjing Road

Nanjing Road

Rating: 3/5 

Nanjing road is one of the places we visited for shopping. It resembles Orchard Road somehow to me.I had a great time shopping for stuff here.It is a bustling road and people from all walks of life can be found here.This place is recommended for shopping.However,there are too many litters lying around on the floor which makes the place seem quite unpleasant. The prices here are relatively high, suggesting the high cost of living in Shanghai. 

Book city

Rating 3/5 

In this oversea trip, we went to the famous book city. It is of 8 floors high and every floor was full of books, magazines and also CDs. We were allowed to spend a hour of our own exploring the book city.  We first rushed to the top floor where he hoped there would be something special about the 8 levels-high book store. However, to our dismay, it was just another ordinary place for books and magazines? Overall, it was a fresh experience for us to visit the tallest book city in Shanghai.