By Marianne Medenilla
Oh, Shanghai, bustling and teeming with life, you are so beautiful at night.
*These were taken at The Bund!
Capturing Shanghai’s Beauty
These beautiful pictures still doesn’t do Shanghai’s beauty justice. It is surreal when you’re actually there!
Culture Difference
As it was raining often in Shanghai, there were people selling umbrellas in Metro Stations.
The Art of Knots and Calligraphy
By Marianne Medenilla
Today, we got a hand in trying to tie some Chinese knots! These beautiful knots were brought in by the teacher – we could only dream of being able to tie such intricate knots.
We tried our hardest KNOT to give up and in the end, we came up with some pretty adorable knots.
Next, after lunch, we got to try out some Chinese calligraphy. We first learnt a little more on the history before trying a hand in the art.
They also taught us the proper way to hold a brush.
Then, we were off to try out in the traditional Chinese art.
Additional photos by boss1511.
Entrepreneur Forum
Photographs by Violet, Text content by Li En
After the Ctrip & Volkswagen visit, we headed back to Shanghai University for an Entrepreneur’s Forum, with Ms Hazel being the moderator. The four panelists are all Singaporeans who are currently working in China. They shared with us their background, how they ended up working in China, and their real experiences. No sugar coating, this is exactly what we needed to hear to understand the real situation. The forum was really meaningful and we were all very engrossed.
After the forum, there was a Q&A session which four of the students excitedly posed relevant questions to the speakers.
After the Q&A session, our students rushed to the front to meet the four entrepreneurs to further clarify their doubts and network. It shows how impactful the four speakers were, and how our students were compelled to find out more. Luckily, we got to split up into four smaller groups, so we can ask the individual speakers ask even more questions.
A Visit To Volkswagen
Co-author: Gareth Wong Tjun Hoy
While Group A visited Ctrip, Group B paid a visit to Volkswagen!
We saw this banner in Volkswagen. This is Volkswagen’s own unique value proposition.
Besides their value proposition, there were mottos as well.
We rode a buggy to navigate around Volkswagen, which was a really fun experience.
A Trip To Ctrip
By Acosta Andreana Cain, Tan Li En
On the fourth day of the trip, Group A visited Ctrip’s Headquarters while Group B visited Volkswagen.
Since we were in Group A, we got the opportunity to visit Ctrip, which is a one-stop travel services company. We got to understand more about their business model and what they have achieved.
When we reached, we were all in awe as the place looked really futuristic and their area was huge as well.
Afterwards, we were then led to a room where it shows live data of the customer’s locations when booking via Ctrip. Unfortunately, photographs were not allowed inside. It was still a cool experience nevertheless.
We ended our Ctrip visit quite interestingly – They have this application whereby when you upload your picture onto it, a poem will be generated based on the picture you have submitted. The system will roughly know where and when the picture is taken. Our students and teachers had a blast sending many photos – scenic photos we have taken the day before, group photos with friends, and unglamorous photos of their friends sleeping on bus!
Back in Shanghai University, students from Group A did a sharing on their takeaways from the Ctrip visit.
Sightseeing in Shanghai
By Marianne Medenilla
We started our activity-packed day with a visit to the Urban Planning Museum where we got a birds eye view of Shanghai and learn about Shanghai’s development.
Afterwards, we headed to the Oriental Pearl TV Tower! With a height of 468 meters, this building is one of the tallest in the world! It’s even taller than the Eiffel Tower – which is only 324 meters tall.
This is the view from one of the highest floors in the building! It was absolutely breathtaking.
After a hearty lunch, we embarked on the Pujiang Cruise that offered a panoramic view of Shanghai.
In the cruise, we were entertained my magicians who performed tricks that kept us on our toes.
The final stop of our super eventful day was the Chenghuang Temple – a well-known Taoist temple that attracts many with its rich history and shopping corners.
We also got to try the HUGE Xiao Long Baos. Filled with crab and soup, this dumpling was a treat from start to finish.
Our First & Second Day!
On the first day of our arrival (1 September 2019), we were honoured to be treated to a welcome dinner hosted by Shanghai University. All of us enjoyed the generous treat.
On the second day of the trip, we were again, honoured to have received a lecture by a Professor in Shanghai University regarding China’s Cultural and Economic Developments. It was an eye-opening session for all us to understand China, especially since we are here. The information shared were truly valuable and well put together.
In the afternoon, we had lunch with the two lovely students from Shanghai University – Grace (In the purple plaid shirt), and Yang Fan (In the beige plaid dress). They were really friendly and a fun bunch to be with, our entire table were talking non stop throughout the entire lunch.
After lunch, we played some games with Grace and Yang Fan within our class (T02). We taught them how to play Splat, which is a popular game Singaporean students like to play. Both of them also taught us a popular game in China, which starts with one person introducing their names and 3 things about themselves. The next person has to repeat whatever the person infront of him/her had said, plus his/her own introduction, and so on till the last person has to repeat everything everyone had said. We really got to know everyone better through that game!
After playing games with our respective classes, we moved on to the mass games. We played H20, which involved a lot of running and excitement. Everyone had to stand in twos while linking arms, and this definitely broke the ice between all the students!
Our next game was ‘Guessing the lyrics’. The social leaders included both C-POP and E-POP so everyone can participate! For the first song, one of the student from Shanghai University mustered up her courage and sang the correct lyrics!
After all the songs had been guessed, Ms Gertrude sang along with one of our students to JJ Lin’s classic song – Practice Love. This became a karaoke session! Afterwards, some other students also volunteered (or, have been volunteered) to sing solo or as a group. Much memories.
Lastly, the students from Shanghai University ended off our day by singing 朋友! It was surely touching, and all of us turned this into a mini concert.
7Dragon 2019 