Reflection One (25/5)
Today we took the High-speed rail from Shanghai to Hefei in the morning. The trip took roughly 4 hours and most us ended up sleeping. During the ride, I noticed some differences between the train station in China and our MRT stations. Firstly, the tracks are on land and this is probably because of the fact that China has a greater land compared to Singapore.
We visited 三河古镇，and learned about the history of the places, and the renowned figures that once lived in the area.
I think it is a very meaningful trip as I learned more about the cultural aspects of the area and also gained knowledge of some of the public figures who contributed greatly to the Chinese history. For example, the first Chinese to win the Nobel Prize, Li Zhen Ning and Sun LiRen, a member of the KMT that contributed greatly to the country.
We spent the entire afternoon touring around 三河古镇 and we got to know the area better and understand the lives of the people living there. After the tour, we went for dinner, and arrived at our hotel. We shared our experience with our classmates in groups during the debrief, played some games and ended the day, returning to our rooms to rest.
Reflection Two (26/5)
On the second day of our trip, we visited 45 Hefei Middle School to observe their lessons. I met my buddy, Diana, and was also introduced to her friend, Vicky. We then went into their class, Class 15, to observe their lessons. As we had arrived later, we only took Geography and Physics lesson in the morning, and Politics, Chinese in the afternoon.(which I could not understand at all) After the lessons, we had a weekly meeting, whereby we introduced ourselves and our school, while they introduced their culture to us. After that, I went to my buddy's house.
At my buddy's house, my buddy showed me her room and brought her pets out to show me. My buddy has two corn snakes that are about 6 months old. After that, my buddy and her friend brought me to a shopping mall near her house, and we walked around the streets near her house before going back to the school to assemble. We exchanged contact numbers with each other before bidding farewell.
My buddy's snakes
Through this school immersion, I have observed many differences between the schools in Singapore and those in China. The school was much smaller compared to ours, and it had limited facilities. For example, in River Valley, we have a large field, basketball courts, hall, indoor sports hall, auditorium, seminar rooms and science labs. However, the school in China does not have such facilities, apart from a much smaller auditorium and a basketball court. Facilities like science labs allow us to better visualise experiments that are explained in textbooks, and will help us in learning science, however, I couldn't find a single science lab in the school. Apart from that, the toilets in the school were also quite dirty compared to our school. The classrooms were also quite run down and not as good as the classrooms in our school.
Despite that, there is something that is worth commended and that I feel Singapore students should learn from. The students in China were very active in sharing during lessons, even if they might get the answer wrong. We can almost say that they were fighting to answer. I feel that we should learn from them and be more eager to share during lessons, and not hesitate from answering wrongly. In Singapore, during lesson time, we are very quiet and do not volunteer in class and also quite reluctant to answer questions. Through this experience, I learnt to volunteer more in class, and be more eager in lessons.
After the school immersion, we went for dinner and return to our hotels to rest and prepare for our third day.
5 things I love about RV
1. Toilets
Clean toilets with cubicles (and there are doors too)
2. Classroom
Better desks and chairs, larger classroom
3. Class size
Smaller class size, teacher can pay more attention on each individual
4. Library
Compared to the school in China, we have a library for us to spend our free time in
5. Shorter school hours
We usually end school at 2-3pm, only on CCA days we end at 6pm. However, China students end at 6pm everyday, and I also see students leaving only at
7pm!
Reflection Three (27/5)
Anhui Museum
On the third day, we visited the Anhui Museum and learned more about the architecture of China in the past. We saw many bronze and porcelain exhibits that were common usages in the past. There were also models of Hui-style architectures and other ornaments, weapons and plagues. We also entered an exhibition showing the evolution of paper, brush and ink in China.
Paintings in the Museum
Brushes used in the past
After visiting the Anhui Museum, we visited the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Park. It is one of the significant events that I had experienced. Firstly, we toured around the park, taking pictures of the flowers and gardens. After that, we went to watch the horses and dogs race. While going to the stadium, I saw two chickens in cages, which I didn't know the reason why. After that, I found out that they were going to fight against each other until one dies, right in front of our eyes. After watching it for a few minutes, I felt a little bit uncomfortable, and did not finish watching the chickens. After that, we watch the dogs and horses race, and headed to watch the circus. The first act was by the lions, from what I saw, I think the lions were supposed to stand on metal balls and perform all sorts of tricks. What irked me the most in this act was that the trainers were hitting and forcing the lions to do tricks. I ended up sitting outside and did not watch most of the performances. After entering the theatre again, I saw some acts that did not involve animals. However, the next act made me really uncomfortable. Baby bears were pulled out and forced onto platforms to perform tricks. This resulted in the entire class to leave the theatre, and a few were crying. We ended playing in a field until evening.
Picture taken at the Garden
Looking back at what happened at the park, I realised that cruelty towards animals is a serious issue, not just here in China, but also around the world. Everyday, at any part of the world, cruelty towards animals exists, and it has been present for a very long time. The chickens, lions, bears in the park are being tortured so that the people can make a living. However, we have to also consider the people's lives too. These people are probably not very educated, and have to resort to making chickens fight, making animals perform tricks so as to earn a living. Therefore, I also learned to look at both sides of a story. Though there is little that I can do to stop these actions in China, I can start by showing care and concern towards animals in my neighbourhood, and prevent cruelty towards animals in my society, and also spread the ideas to many others.
CSI
Anhui Museum
Colour: Gold. Gold is a colour of success and prosperity, which I believe best describes China's past glory
From: www.colourcombos.com
Symbol: Stone Lions. They are known to represent China's power and prestige. The exhibits in the museum shows China's grand past, its power and glory in the past. Thus, the lions, which has the same meaning, is the symbol I chose.
Image: Architecture. This is one of the models of the architectures of China in the past, showing the interior of the architecture and how it looked like as a whole.
CSI
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Park
Colour: Magenta. This colour symbolises universal harmony, a balanced outlook on life and change and transformation, which is suitable in describing what I have learned after visiting the park.
From: www.desidimes.com
Symbol: Exclamation Mark. This is to make people aware of the cruelty to animals that is happening in China.
From: Wikipedia
Image: This is a picture of the chicken, which was going to fight right in front of us.
Reflection Four (28/5)
Huang Shan
Today, we went to climb the renowned Huang Shan. We took various forms of transport to reach the very peak of this mountain. First, we took the bus up the mountain to the cable car station, then boarded the cable car and finally walking up to meet the peak of the mountain. It was a long journey, and it was also tedious and tiring, but it trained us to be determined and continue. After reaching the peak, we enjoyed the breathtaking scenes and took many photos of it(but we encountered many insects and bugs too). We them tried heading back to the hotel we were staying, but we had no clue on the directions we have to take. After asking some of the tourists, we finally found our way back(and it took almost an hour). This experience taught me to be more determined in doing what I want to do, brave through obstacles to achieve successes.
Photos of HuangShan
Reflection Five (29/5)
We woke at 4:30 in the morning today to watch the sun rise. After walking for almost forever, we reached our destination, and I was freezing through the entire journey and regretted not bringing a windbreaker. However the view was quite magnificent, but I did not get to take any photos as I forgotten to bring my camera up.
Around mid-noon, we made our way down the mountain, and went on visiting other places in Anhui. We went to 宏村 and had a look on the Hui-style architecture and buildings. The old buildings of 宏村 were quite well maintained, and some had people living in it. We went around looking at some of the interesting things of these old buildings. All the architectures have a few things in common.
1) They all had 天井. Not just in 宏村, the old buildings in China that we have visited all have it in common. Apparently, it is to allow rainwater and snow to enter the house, which the Chinese in the past felt will bring in wealth and luck. Apart from that, it is probably the only place where light can enter the house.
2)The halls in the house have ancestral tables. A vase, clock and a mirror were placed on the table. In chinese, a vase is called 瓶子（píng zi), a clock is called 钟 (zhōng), and a mirror is called a 镜子 (jìng zi). The reason of putting these items is because of a word play. These items form the words 钟声瓶镜，which has similar pronunciation as 终生平静, which means eternal peace in Chinese. Also, some houses have one or two 帽桶 in the house, for the males of the family to out their hats on, so as to signify that the head of the family(male) is present in the house.
Another thing that is interesting about 宏村 is that it is started out by a family named Wang, thus all children whose surname are Wang are able to study for free.
宏村
Reflection Six(30/5)
Today, we visited 西递, a village that is very similar to 宏村. Most of the infrastructure were similar, but an interesting thing that I have noted is that in 宏村, there were many drains along the roads, so that the people can do their laundry. However, I did not see many in 西递. Through further research, I found out that this was a significant difference, because water is the main feature of 宏村, and it has a good water system that can supply every household with water right in front of their houses. 西递, on the other hand, has streams, which I suppose is where the people collect their water from.
Later at night, we attended a talk by a professor in the hotel. He explained more on 徽州, and were the people came from, the architectures, food, famous people and many more. The people who lived in 徽州 were mostly refugees from wars and rebellions. The food, 徽菜, has strong flavours and is usually cooked with a lot of oil in it(which explains why we see oil floating on the dishes we ate in Anhui). I have learned more on the history of 徽州, and I felt that it was an enriching experience.
Reflection Seven (31/5)
We started out visiting the Tunxi Ancient Street to buy some souveniers for our family. After shopping for about an hour plus, we went to visit some other attractions.
Firstly, we took a boat to travel across 西湖, which took about 20mins. 西湖 was about 1.5m deep, according to the tour guide, and there were three stone "statues" to signify the deeper waters(which was only 1.5m deep by the way). After reaching our destination, we walked for a while to reach the Yue Fei Mausoleum (岳王庙). We saw the tomb of Yue Fei and his son Yue Yun. There were statues that were kneeling before the tomb, which I later found out that these people were the ones who caused Yue Fei to be killed. However, it is also rumoured that the tomb of Yue Fei may not contain Yue Fei's body, and even if there is a body, it may not be Yue Fei's. Despite so, we can see the Chinese's admiration towards Yue Fei, which led them to building a temple and mausoleum to commemorate him.
From: Wikipedia
From: Wikipedia
Yue Fei Temple
Through the seven days of this OELP trip, i have learned a lot about China. While researching on Anhui, I had a huge question in my mind. I saw many terms that I did not understand on the internet, and was confused about the differences between Hui-Zhou, AnHui and YiXian. Through the explanations of the tour guide throughout the trip and the talk we attended, I finally found a link between them. Hui-Zhou was a city located in Southern Anhui. Anhui itself is a province named after two of the cities in the southern part of it, Anqing and Huizhou. In Anhui, there is a HuangShan City, and YiXian(or Yi County) is a region in HuangShan city, and Xidi and HongCun is in YiXian itself. This trip broaden my knowledge of Anhui, China, and the people living there. Apart from that, the class really bonded together throughout the trip, and I find myself knowing some of my classmates better, and most of them are classmates that I rarely communicate with in school. The problems we faced throughout the trip really bonded us together as we try to solve them together, and I could actually see my friends putting effort to know each other better. It is really an interesting and fun trip that I would like to join again.
Chan Ling Han
✋5bonacci
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