Day 1: SONG DYNASTY CITY

This is the day when we leave our parents for eight days to learn more in a unfamiliar land, I was excited and uncertain, not knowing what we would experience and come across for the coming eight days. We took the plane in the morning and reached Hangzhou, China at around mid noon. Following that, we met our local guide from China who would follow and guide us across the places we would be going and letting us learn more about them. 

We then went for dinner and headed to a cultural theme park, Song Dynasty City(宋城). When we first got off the bus, we were welcomed with a catchphrase at the entrance which is 给我一天，还你千年. Initially I did not know what is the meaning of that but when I came out, I understood. Inside the theme park, there is a lot of things that were intentionally made to be like how it is in the Song Dynasty, the clothes of the workers and furniture in there is slightly more traditional and relates to the Song Dynasty, it can be seen that the management wants to let the visitors feel as though they are in the Song Dynasty. This theme park involves two aspects, culture(heritage) and economy. Other than the visual appearance, the trademark of the theme park is the performance that we had watched at the park. The stories covered in the performance are famous stories(like 梁祝 and
happenings from the Song Dynasty. The performers presented what we could learn from textbook in various dances that makes the stories more easy to understand. A theme park is usually a way of earning money and this cultural theme park earns money and also teach people of the history which would make people learn and be conscious of China's culture and promote the heritage. I think that this is a very smart idea to increase economy as foreigners usually come here as it is a tourist spot and also let people know of the rich Chinese culture that China has. Linking it back to Singapore, I think that it is not as feasible as Singapore has a shorter history span and maybe it would be possible in years to come when we have a richer history. However, I believe that there will be people interested in it if it is just a event that is held occasionally as it would be a bit hard to ensure a steady visitor count. The first day had been very fun and cleared up several of my misconceptions of China.

Day 2: WAHAHA + XIEYUDA TEA PLANTATION AND MUSEUM

endorsement, online promotion. It’s unique management method also led it to where it is today, clear, concise and simple. Wahaha being different from the other companies and their keen eye in catching business opportunities allowed them to achieve what they had achieved and led them to be a brand that everyone knows. After that we went to sample the different kinds of drinks Wahaha produced and went to visit their production line and learned more about the beverage company. 


This concludes our itinerary in Hangzhou as we take a long bus rode towards Anhui. When we arrived at Anhui, we went to the Xieyuda tea plantation and museum to learn more about China’s tea culture and the specialty tea Hefei has. Hefei’s specialty tea is a type of green tea, namely, the Maofeng tea.After the explanation of the tea leaves and some of the things in the plantation, we were moved to the tea museum to learn more about the making of tea. We were introduced to the way tea was made in the older days and Hefei owning one of the best tea in China. After that, we sampled the different types of tea available in the place and were told about the advantages of the tea, I believe this has a economy and heritage aspect to it as it has been China’s culture to drink tea, and by letting us, foreigners to buy the tea, there would be economy benefits for the company and China.

Day 3: CHENG DAWEI ABACUS MUSEUM + TUNXI INK FACTORY + TUNXI ANCIENT STREET + HONGCUN AND XIDI ANCIENT VLLAGES

The next morning we headed to the Chen Dawei abacus museum to learn more of Hefei’s abacus history and culture. Cheng Dawei is a very talented mathematician and he found a new way of using the abacus that impacted many people. Other than Cheng Dawei, there was also different kind of abacus used in the past on display, these abacus are very creative, very easy to bring around. Some abacus are slightly more to the culture side where it is not necessary for used. For instance, there is one abacus which was sewed onto a cloth that is used by businessmen as it is compact. There is also the ring abacus that people would buy for their wives for them to manage the family’s finance better(more to the cultural side).
Following that, we went to the Tunxi ink factory where we see how the ink we used in RV Lit for calligraphy was made. The guide from the place showed us the process in which the ink was made and I realized that the ink we used so quickly actually involves so much work like hitting the ink then placing it into a mould, carving words and then finally painting the carvings. This process is very tedious and yet there are not a lot of workers made me wonder why are there not more manpower or machines to help lessen the work load. After thinking about it, I realised if the ink is made with machines to help, the ink quality may not be as good. Both of the places we visited that morning highlights the culture and heritage of China that other countries will lack. Abacus is known to have come from the East and calligraphy is also more popular for the people from the East as well, the both places we visited taught us about the culture of Chinese people and the story unique to them and something they can be proud of. 


We then went to Tunxi ancient street to see the trades they have there and also buy some souvenirs special to Anhui. The things people sell there is consistent with many shops selling the 4 treasures of calligraphy, food local to the people there. I found one of the trades at the street extremely eye-catching for me, it is the fan painting business. I noticed that there was only one of such stalls in the entire street, making it extremely rare, but despite that fact, it is pretty quiet and not many people were attracted. I had never seen stalls like this in Singapore before, even though I had seen some people doing it(not for business purpose). This reminds me of the ice cream uncles we have in Singapore, they are also facing competition against bigger ice cream chains in Singapore. I think like the fan business, without the support of people to preserve them, one by one, these businesses would disappear and there goes the culture and history of the business. I do not want this businesses to diminish so I believe we should support them so that we can preserve them. After all, Tunxi Ancient Street is a street where they sell of more cultural items and there are also cultural items being combined with new trends to keep the business going. 
Following that, we went to Xidi and Hongcun ancient village, the two village are pretty similar, they used the people’s houses for exhibition, which means the privacy they have would be lessened as they are mainly opening their doors for everyone to enter and they can even take picture in it. I thought that I might dislike this idea even though the parts opened might be not very big in space as I cannot imagine different kind of people entering and leaving my house just to look at exhibitions. However I understand the mind of the people, if I used another perspective, the reason why the people opened up their houses for people to exhibit is actually to allow the visitors learn about how life in the ancient villages like and also to preserve their culture and heritage by getting them known by many people in the world. The two ancient villages are very beautiful as well(especially Hongcun), I hope that these two places will continue to be preserved properly for more people to  learn about things there. This concludes our third day as we head to bed early for Huangshan tomorrow!

Day 4: HUANGSHAN

Huangshan has been said to be very beautiful, a very scenic place, I was very excited to be able to have a chance on Huangshan as I wanted to see the special stones and trees Huangshan has. That day, we first took a bus up to the middle of the mountain, then we went to take a 8 people cable car up to the higher parts of Huangshan. The weather up in the mountain was cooling with many people moving about and many guides talking loudly to their groups. Huangshan is one of the most popular tourist spot in Hefei and so I am not surprised with the number of people there. The air there was very foggy and we could not really see much of the scenery present there as the fogginess did not allow us to see beyond 50 meters. We came to many different places but we could not see anything as the fog was really heavy, and to be honest I felt a little disappointed. We were pretty unlucky to go Huangshan on such a day as we could not see what makes Huangshan so beautiful before our eyes even though we are already there. There were many very cool things we had seen within the 50 metres range though, we saw trees that look special (pine trees that has the branches on one side and empty on the other side) and rocks. I believe Huangshan is not gonna be destroyed by tourism but instead become greater as they will get more people to learn about it. This will then preserve its own heritage and agriculture aspects for Anhui as well as China. I think that going Huangshan is a valuable experience and I will treasure all that I had learn there.

Day 5: MEILING COMPANY + SCHOOL EXCHANGE

Now in Hefei, we went to Meiling Company to visit, Meiling company is a company that comes up with different kinds of refrigerators like for house use, laboratory use and commercial use. On our way there, we actually see many factories of many brands that develops in Hefei, I believe they chose Hefei as it is a province that is developing very quickly. Whem we entered the showroom, the amount refrigerators surprised me, it is just like a mini store. The worker there introduced to us the first generation fridge Meiling has created and how Meiling became popular by introducing the first two door fridge. We then were showed the parts of the fridge, like the compressor. Afterwards, we were introduced to Meiling’s newer product which is the CHiQ collection. The fridge is very fresh, it has USB ports, tablet on the door. The tablet can be used to watch videos, look up recipes and also to display data of the cloud image recognition to recognise food stuff placed in the fridge. Meiling has used many innovative ideas to improve on the normal fridge we have now, causing it to be one of the well known brands for refrigerators in China. We then carry on to the production area, we saw many machines and workers, we also see Meiling making fridges with brands of other names like Panasonic and Electrolux as a collaboration. Meiling used many kinds of strategies to earn money and to boost the economy of China since they do do business with more well known foreign brands. This made us learn more about economy and the economy of China. 
Following the visit to the factory, we finally went to our sister school, 寿春中学, for some lessons and to
interact with our buddies. Majority of us contacted our buddy via social networking platforms before we left for China so we were all pretty excited to meet them in real life. When we first entered the school, the students there were pretty curious about us and we can hear a lot of murmuring of questions like if Singapore students can speak Chinese. Afterwards, we were brought to a lecture theatre where some of our buddies are there. In that room, the teachers and students exchanged greetings and I am surprised with how much they prepared for us, they bought snacks and water that are popular in China and let us take as much as we want. I do not remember our school doing such actions when foreign students come so I thought that the school there actually treats this sincerely and makes us feel regarded. Subsequently, we were brought to our respective classrooms for lessons, the students there were very thoughtful and gave each of us a gift that represents China, I was very thankful of them being so nice to us. Next, we went to watch the school annual competition for reciting poems. The students were very talented and what they did on stage were all very good and well prepared and I believe I would not be able to be this good even if I tried, and they are all very confident as well, even though there was some many people watching them, none of the performers got nervous and did a mistake. That was also when we performed in front of them and I was really nervous as I could not really do it properly and was very uncertain. I was glad that our performance did not screw up and we had fun performing as a class, it may be hard for all of us to things together but we managed to do it so I was proud of what we did that day, even if some portions was not as planned. 

Day 6: FULL SCHOOL DAY + SUPERMARKET

We went to Shouchun Middle School for the entire day to have a more in depth experience of being a student in China, also, today would let me learn more about my buddies and how school is like for them. We started that day with a lesson with the students and we had a chance to participate in their practical science lesson, other than the more profound Chinese used by them, the lesson was pretty much the same. We then had a chance to learn how to do 水墨画, even though we lear them in school as well, it was still pretty fresh for me as the technique taught were not taught in class so it was a very fun experience. We are then moved to the staff’s canteen to make rice dumplings as the Dragon Boat festival is coming. Our buddies moved around to teach us how to make dumplings as many of us did not do it before, some of them told us that they had learnt it just before we came so they were not very good with it as well. It was also my first time even though I  have seen my grandmother do it sometimes but I did not learn it. The dumplings they make in China is sweet and different from the salty dumplings we usually find in Singapore. After having our lunch in the school, we went to learn more about food! One of the teachers there shared with us the different food and drink culture China has and I am very fascinated as there are a lot of different kind of cuisine available in China, and their specialties that set them apart. And this reminded me of the change of food taste we had when we moved from Hangzhou(Zhejiang) to Hefei(Anhui). Later on, we went for two lessons with the class, Chinese and physics. The students again helped me a lot with the lesson and make sure I understood what the teacher was saying and engaged me in the group conversations they had, they also helped me to add 汉语拼音to the words that I had trouble pronouncing, I am very thankful for their helpful act. We also learnt how to sing the Chinese 变脸 song and colour the face mask and the significance of the face colours on the mask, like red represents heroism. I had learnt a lot more after the many lessons prepared by the teachers and students there and I would like to thank them for the enthusiastic welcome. I learn much more from them and also the way the students live in there, I hope we would not forget each other and remain as friends with them! We then visited the supermarket in China to compare cost of living in China with Singapore and definitely after our research, Singapore is indeed more costly. The supermarket in China is like the one we have Singapore, it is just the products they sell in China more fascinating. One of the main differences I seen in the supermarket has this area where rice is sold by weight and not in packets, we do not have this ind of stations for rice in Singapore as we all buy packet rice in Singapore.

Day7: HOUSE VISIT + BOOKSHOP + UNIVERSITY OF ART (FENGYANG DRUMS +HUANGMEI OPERA) 

Today is the last full day we would spend in China and we would be visiting our buddy’s house to learn more about the lifestyle they have. When we first met our house buddy, she is very enthusiastic and introduced us to her mother who would bring us around with her. She brought us to the History museum of Three Kingdoms to visit as she said Hefei used to be where the Wei Kingdom train their troops at. She introduced to us many things we saw and she also shared stories of the Three Kingdoms to us as our knowledge is very limited. After that she brought us to a supermarket where she let us buy some food back home and then to their apartment. Their apartment was pretty far from what I expected, I thought people in China would stay in huge houses since land is more available in China, but her house was cozy and like a five room flat in Singapore. Her parents are very friendly to us and shared with us things we were curious about and our buddy taught me to play Chinese games and we watched Chinese shows together. It was a very fun experience as we could know how a typical Chinese living in Hefei and clear up my misconceptions I got from dramas as they usually tend to be slightly different. The family is very welcoming and when we had lunch together, her parents were casual with us so we did not feel that awkward and managed to strike a conversation with us. I feel very glad that it was not very awkward and I thought that their parents are very open and were easy to talk to. Later on, we said goodbye to them and the school and it was somehow a hard farewell as we would not if we could see each other or not. Afterwards, we headed to the bookshop to buy books and some stationaries, I was surprised with the ambience in the huge bookshop as it was like a library and it is so much less noisy compared to the ones in Singapore. I had a lot of fun seeing the books that I read from the net right in front of me so I could not control and bought a few books. We then went to the Anhui University of Arts to learn more about the Fengyang drums and Huangmei opera. The dancers there were all around our age and yet they trained very hard and had to juggle both school and dance at the same time. They train from morning to the evening and it is all because of their dreams to be a dancer, one of the girl there told us that she decided to enrol in dance because her family members does dance too and she wanted to do it as well, I think this is very tough after all as they are still so young but yet they had the courage to do what they wanted. I think their spirit is very incredible and we should learn from them.

 Day 8: HIGH SPEED RAIL + HAIDILAO

Today concludes our eight days in China as a class and as much as I do not want this trip to end, I was happy that I can see my family at night as I had not seen them for so long. We woke up early to catch the high speed rail which will send us back to Hangzhou where we started our trip. I was very curious of the High Speed Rail as I had never take it before even though it appeared tons of times on our science papers due to it's relation to magnets. The High Speed Rail travelled at a very fast speed(205km/hour) and it would only take us two to three hours to reach Hangzhou, where it might take longer if we were to travel by road. It was a very fresh experience as it is my first time and I find the system of getting off the train in two to three minutes or you will miss your stop very cool, because missing your stop on the rail might mean that you have to take train to the next station which can be hours away and then back again. About this, I remembered about Singapore which would be having its own high speed rail connected with Malaysia to make travelling around much faster as the current modes of transport we use are air and road. Having high speed rails connecting Singapore to many parts of Malaysia would make moving around in Malaysia more convenient and also easier for people who do not drive. This would save time and also improve the lives of people who travel in and out of Malaysia frequently.





 Later on, in Hangzhou, we went for our last meal in China which is Haidilao restaurant. I had a very deep impression on this restaurant as it is very well known and has an outlet in Singapore, even though I had never tried the Singapore version, I had seen it on shows on TV to recommend food. As my group was responsible for the pre trip research for Haidilao, I remember Haidilao having good worker management that causes their service to be very good. Indeed, when we reach there, we were greeted very warmly and their service was very thoughtful. For instance, they provided us with spectacles cleaner, bags to put out phone and warm towels before we ate, the waiters and waitresses were very attentive as they constantly came over to check on how we are doing and even helped us made the sauce based on how we would like to enjoy the food, he was very friendly and would even cook and take out the overcooked food and serve it to us. Their service doesn’t seem to be from a hotpot restaurant and made me feel as though I am at a teppanyaki restaurant instead. I think their satisfactory service should be seen everyone and their enthusiasm is definitely something I hope the other waiters at other restaurant would have, they should be the model for all waiters and waitresses and I hope they will continue to serve the customers with the heart they have now and I really hope to go back there again. This last meal in China is definitely a great day to end our eight days in China and I believe the past  eight days was fun for everyone and I would always remember all this memories as it is definitely a highlight of my life in River Valley!