Leong Hao Ming's reflections

I felt that this trip was a immensely enriching one. Not only was it educational but this also bonded our class as a whole. 

In this trip, we went to many historical sites of China that held much significance to the Chinese. We went to 李宏章故居 and we realised how well preserved it was. The fact that the Chinese bothered to preserve his residence shows just how adored he was amongst the Chinese. Even though there was rapid development in the surroundings, the Chinese bothered to preserve his residence. China shows how development and preserving of culture can happen simultaneously. Although China has developed rapidly over the years, they still preserved important cultures. 

For the iFlytek, I learnt how advanced technology in China was. This changed my original impression if China. We also went to 三河古镇 and I understood how Chinese used to live in the past and how their lives were. Subsequently, we went to the majestic 黄山. We scaled over 8 km and what really touched me was how we encouraged each other when we where out of breath and how we never gave up and persevered to the end. The school immersion was also immensely enriching as it made me really reflect on how we as students can improve lessons. 

I also learnt about the many differences of China and Singapore. For example cultural differences, guests were allowed to smoke in corridors and rooms in the hotel while in Singapore we have a designated smoking area. For transport, Singapore has ERP, a gantry similar to the toll gates in China. In the classrooms, the Chinese students were very enthusiastic. Their classrooms were really small and has as much as 50 students in ine classroom. 

All in all, this trip was not only a throughly enriching one but bonded our class as a whole. This trip made me learn how to appreciate Chinese culture and understand China much better. 

Brian's reflection : China's economic development

During my oelp trip to hefei, anhui, I have saw the economic development of china. On the first few days we went to Meiling 工厂 and their exhibition hall. At the exhibition hall, I saw the types of fridges that they have made through the years. From the primitive to the current touch-screen model, I think it is a good representative of how china has grown. Similarly, china in its early years felt a lot of setbacks, like corruption in its government and the high rates of poverty among people. This is mirrored with the imperfect design of the fridges. However, when I made it to the recent few(according to years)(there are a lot of fridges), I can see the slated growth, which is yet again mimicked by China's recent economic advancement.

China has always been regarded as a less economically developed country. i personally have also been having the impression that China would be unkempt and not developed with many old buildings. However, after this trip I have learnt that china is actually very developed. They are able to come up with their own version of Samsung, iFlytek. They also have made a new translation app that is very accurate and could even be better than Siri.

Though, China still has many rural areas, I feel that the economic growth has certainly hasten in the recent years. They have made many breakthroughs in technology and science, and by using the copycat+improving method they are so well known for, they have made the world's market centralised in their country. Even apple products are made there, this is a recognition of their growth.

The chinese economy has really been better compared to the backwards society china was in the past. i am impressed that china, starting out as a country so ridden with corruption that nothing was accomplished greatly, however, the country after the various wars and revolutions, the chinese were able to catch up with the world and even exceed the benchmark set by many countries.

This is my reflection on china's economy. :) magnificent

Rachel Tan's reflections

In general, I really enjoyed this OELP trip. Through this trip, I gained many experiences that I would have never gained in a classroom. I learnt many things about the culture and heritage of China. I am very thankful towards RVHS for providing me with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go overseas with my class. Not only has this trip bonded my class, it has also provided us with a wonderful learning experience.

From the wonderful plane ride to Shanghai to the flight back to Singapore, the entire overseas trip was an amazing experience. When we landed in China, I was expecting to see run-down houses accompanied with poor facilities. However, I was taken aback by the highly advanced technology in the airport. Not only did the building look fairly new, but it also had up-to-date facilities for us to use. Some more examples of the highly advanced technology in China can be seen on the high speed rail and through our industrial visits to iFlytech and Meiling. On the high-speed rail from Shanghai to Hefei, we enjoyed a very smooth ride and learnt about the advanced technology that China has. The train travelled at a mind-blowing speed of more than 200km/h, while a normal car only travels at an average of 100km/h. The ride was very comfortable, with almost no bumps on the track. We all managed to sleep soundly throughout the whole ride.Through our industrial visits to Meiling and iFlytech, we also learn about how China has developed as a country in terms of technology. At iFlytech, we got to fully experience a Samsung application in which we got to do many different things. That application was basically a Chinese version of Siri. Through the application, we got to translate from Chinese to English, or vice versa, accurately (which is rare). We can also make calls and text messages simply through speaking to the phone. The best part is, this application is free! There is also another version of this application, which can be used in a car. This is extremely convenient as through the application, we can get directions through simple voice controls. We had an amazing time in there. We also got to try a karaoke game, which was very fun. In Hefei, we learnt many things about the culture of China, such as 李鸿章's and 包公's contributions to the development of China. I learnt how they affected the future of China, through their unbiased, and innovative attitude. After walking through 三河古镇, I got an experience of how the Chinese lived in the past, and I truly experienced the rich heritage of China. The scenery was beautiful there, and I was amazed by how the residents of that area still chose to stay in there although the place was slightly old and run-down. The souvenir shops there sold  cute souvenirs for insanely cheap prices. For example, a hat there would only cost 10-15RMB ($2-$3). I bought many souvenirs from there. In 黄山, we hiked more than 8km up and down many flights of stairs. Although all of us were very exhausted and our thighs ached, we still managed to climb to the peak and get a look at the beautiful, picturesque scenery of the mountains.The air on the mountain was fresh and smelt pollution-free, unlike the air in the cities of China. To me, that was the highlight of the whole trip to Anhui. The mutual encouragement among our classmates and the photo taking bonded us as a class. I thought that the place was also relatively clean and free of litter. That was amazing considering the fact that Huangshan is, after all, a tourist attraction. We also visited various cultural sites, which were very well-preserved and told a lot about China's history. One of my favourite cultural sites in Huangshan would have to be the Tunxi Ancient Street. There were countless numbers of rows of shops, selling various knick-knacks ranging from massagers to chinese bamboo flutes, or the 笛子。Another highlight of the trip would have to be the school immersion. Before the immersion, my impression of Chinese students was that they were boring, studious and would not be fun to hang out with. In fact, I was entirely dreading the school immersion due to the fact that there would definitely be an awkward language barrier between my buddy and I. Another reason behind me dreading the school immersion was that I would have to attend the classes in their school. However, when I entered the school, I was surprised by their warm and friendly welcome. All the buddies stood at the school gate and waved to us as we entered. All of them had welcoming smiles on their visages, and they treated us kindly and politely. My buddy, Yi Zhen, welcomed me with a warm smile and introduced herself to me. Although it was still a bit awkward between the two of us, she was nothing like I expected her to be. She was fun, outgoing, and to my surprise, talkative. The massive class size of 54 made the classroom really squeezy. Including us, there was a total of 60+ people in one tiny room. I'm honestly thankful that the competition amongst students in Singapore is not as bad of that in China. Otherwise, I would have 20 more classmates, which is unimaginable. The technology in the school was really advanced. In their school, they used a smartboard, which would allow teachers and students to write on the board. This would easily allow teachers to write down notes. The notes could also easily be deleted with the push of a button. This clearly facilitated the lessons very well, as it enabled the classes to go by smoothly. The students in China are also very healthy. They run 800m everyday along their school's track. This enables them to get their daily exercise that we all need. They also do eye exercises between a certain period. This will allow their eyes to take a break and relax, in order to reduce myopia and other relative eye problems caused by overuse of our eyes.

This trip in general was a really enjoyable experience. Despite the fact that some of the meals and hotels could be better, we still loved the trip and would love the chance to go overseas with the school again. Through the patient guidance of the teachers, we learnt many new things and had a whale of a time there

Anqi Reflections

From this OELP trip, I learnt that China did not really lag behind Singapore. They are as advanced as Singapore. To me, I do not really feel that China is a developing country. I felt that it is a developed country like Singapore. China keep improving, their technologies, transports and other things. The technologies they used are advanced. In the school in China, they have smart board. This will prevent the students to face the trouble of not being able to pull down the projector screen or the projector screen would not stay pulled down. They also have a computer attach teacher's desk and every teacher teaching that class use the same computer. With this, the AV rep did not need to set up a computer every lesson and saved some time. Sometimes, some teacher's computer have technical error like no sound or the screen changed colour. With the computer in the teacher's desk shared by the teachers will save us from these problems.

  China also had invented a Siri type of software which can scan the voice better than Siri. They also invented car with tablet attach to it and a smart phone brand called xiaomi. The tablet allowed the driver to use the driving plate to control the tablet to search for songs to listen or search for the roads to travel to the place they want. They also had fridge with the tablet attach to it. The tablet take note of the freshness of the vegetables and remind the owner which vegetables are going to 'expire' soon. The tablet also take note of the food and ingredients present In the fridge.

  The transportation in China also became quite convenient. They have this high speed rail to  travel from one city to another. Taking high speed rail is more comfortable than taking cars or bus. The high speed rail also travelled in high speed so that the duration of the trip to be shorter. The price of the high speed rail is also quite reasonable. This will encourage more people to tame high speed rail than cars or buses. Other than transporting people, the high speed rail also transport goods. This will encourage business man to transport their goods from one city to another by high speed rail instead of lorries or trucks. This will result in the decreased of carbon dioxide emission of China. 

  Although China keep improving, they did not forget about their culture and history. They preserved the houses of the famous and rich people and some villages. The heritage places provide us with the informations of the famous people, their life stories, their achievements and their beliefs. Examples of the heritage places we visited are Bao Gong Ci and Li HongZhang 故居. These places showed interesting stories of how they help China. The villages preserved like the San He Gu Zhen showed us how the building are structured in the past and the meaning behind every structures, cravings and couplets. We also see difference between the house of a business man in the past and the house of an official. There are rules behind the renovating the house. For example, no matter how rich a business man is, his house cannot  be more grand or bigger than an official's house. These heritage places allowed the Chinese to know more about their whole race and religions. 

  In conclusion, China improved a lot on their technologies and transportation. At the same time, they did not forget about their culture and history and put in efforts to preserved them.