5 hours journey to Pudong Airport in Shanghai and lunch.Then it's home sweet home!! ETA 10 pm Changi Airport.

Regards,

Mr John Lim

Another day of climbing! We probably covered some 5 km of walking and some trekking at Purple Mountain visiting Sun Yat Sen Mausoleum and museum in the Ming tomb heritage area. Tonight we join the children of Nanjing city to celebrate Children's Day.

Mr John Lim

All is well. We achieved a 30 minutes climb up a hill to visit an observatory this afternoon. The teachers ate the dumplings made by our students!!

Regards,

Mr Lim

It was a very tiring day. We woke up at 7.30 a.m., which was one hour later than the normal time we usually woke up. We had our breakfast and boarded the bus at 8.30 a.m. and headed for school. We were rather late as there was a mini-traffic jam.We reached school at about 9.10 a.m.

We had lessons as usual and were called out of our classes to make dumplings. Some of us were not called out as the teachers could not find them, so they were left in class. Most of us had trouble shaping the dumplings. Finally, the dumplings were made and we had them for lunch! They were scrumptious and most of us enjoyed them.

After school, we went to the Purple Mountain Observatory. We had to climb up the rather steep mountain and it was pretty tiring. We took at least one and a half hour to and fro. The road was full of rocks and many vehicles were going up and down. To keep us going, Mr Lim led in the P5 camp cheers like "Bukit Timah Oi!"

A topless man walked past and Mr Lim wanted us to tease him by shouting "Yo SEXY!" We cheered and sang the "I Live In Singapura" song once we reached the peak. It was very funny as all the boys sang it. After listening to the commentary by Mr Yan, our tour guide, and looking at some astronomical instruments,we all made our way down. Our group was impressed by the scientific knowledge of the ancient Chinese. The Germans were so impressed that they took away these instruments before returning them back to China.

The teachers then took us to a shopping mall to buy gift items. Mr Yan gave us an hour to shop. After that, we had our dinner at KFC. Our two very helpful members, Vanessa and Megan, distributed the food to us. This was the first time we had fast food since arriving in China.

Two more days to go...

Megan, Vanessa, Shanice, Celine, Suen Chi, Suen Hong and Jared (Group 2)

Today, we went to Nanjing Youfu West Street Primary School for lessons such as English, Mathematics, Chinese, Science, PE, Art and Craft, Social Studies, Poetry and IT. After every 45 minutes of lesson, we will have a 10-minute break. Over here, it is a practice to do eye massage after the third period of the day. During the lesson time, we are neither allowed to go to the toilet nor drink water in class.

The English lessons were easy for us to understand. Ms Tay and Ms Thia even conducted an English lesson for the pupils of Primary 6(2) on the different types of sports. The Mathematics topic that was taught was on the area of circles. It was very difficult for us to understand as the lesson was conducted in Mandarin. The Mother Tongue lessons conducted here were of much higher standard than we learnt in Singapore. Our buddies help to enlighten us when the lessons get too difficult for us to understand.

After a delicious lunch, we rehearsed for the Children's Day Celebration that will be held on this coming Friday. We are definitely to experience Children's Day Celebration in China as we were told that this is an important occasion in the country.

The trip to the Nanjing Museum was a meaningful one. I (Adam) learnt that in the past decades, the Chinese like exploring treasures. At the jade section, he was truly amazed by the warrior suit madeof jade. This showed him how the Chinese lived in the past. Jasper observed that China was one of the first countries with an ancient civilisation which started smelting bronze.

Rachel found that the Ming Dynasty City Wall very interesting. It was like a gigantic bridge which protected Nanjing city from invaders in the past. Together with her friends, she took pictures of the beautiful scenery.  

After dinne, we went to Book Mall, which was 4-storeys high. Emilia bought 2 Chinese storybooks - the "Ma Xiao Tiao" series after Joy's recommendation. Emilia was encouraged to read more Chinese books so as to improve her Mandarin. Similarly, Yan Quan bought 2 Chinese storybooks as she felt that they were worth the price. 

As for Xiaoxian, it was her first experience in such a huge bookstore. She was very excited! She bought a pencil box and enjoyed browsing the books that were on display. Xiaoling noticed a variety of books in the store but thought that they were rather expensive. She was also astonished to see so many security guards as there were several entry and exit points.

That's all for today!

Yan Quan, Rachel, Xiaoling, Xiaoxian, Adam and Jasper (Group 3)

Today was a day when we spent almost our whole day on the coach. In the morning, we took a three- hour bus ride to Wuxi. We then went to the Three Kingdoms City to see the ancient relics as well as taking a cruise along Lake Tai., which is equivalent to 3 times of Hong Kong or 500 times of Singapore.

The next place that we went to was the Wuxi Huishan clay figurines plant. We each made our own snail and pig figurines. We were allowed to use the remaining clay to make any characters that we wanted to. The clay is black and muddy. When it dries on our palms, it hardens.

I (Xinyi) felt that the ride on the cruise was very cooling. Together with my friends, we went to the deck of the cruise excitedly, and stood there to admire the scenery while the sea breeze brushed across our faces. When I was making the clay figurines, I had to use my imagination and creativity to think of what I wanted to make. I learnt that not many people are very patient nowadays when doing such activities. The number of skilled masters in making clay figurines is dwindling in the modern times.

Lydia felt that the lunch was so sumptious that she ate three bowls of rice with steamed egg, some vegetables and  meat. She found the food very delicious as many dishes were her favourite. The food served in China is almost the same as in Singapore. It reminded her of her home-cooked dishes.

Remus thought that the Three Kingdoms City was very nice, but disappointed as there was nothing much to buy there. He learnt that the Three Kingdoms cities include Wei, Shu and Wu. Their leaders were Cao cao, Liu Bei and Sun Quan repectively.

Chloe felt that Hangzhou in comparison to Nanjing, was a much cleaner environment. The air was fresher there and it was not as warm as in Nanjing. Along the way to Wuxi, we saw a convoy of army. They were sent to Sichuan to help the quake victims. It was a rare sight and we waved at them to show our moral support for them. Some of the soldiers even saluted at us.  

Good night!

Wu Xinyi, Chloe Koh, Lydia Loo and Remus See (Group 5)

This is about our trip in Nanjing and in Hangzhou.

Nanjing is a beautiful place. As I think most parents would be very interested about our homestay experience, I (Joy) shall write about it first. On my part, I think the homestay was fantastic! The families treated us like their own relatives and they were really nice to us. :) Some of us were homesick as we really missed our parents. On the second day of our homestay, our buddies' families took us to some scenic spots like the zoo and the theme park. In fact, we had so much fun that we were all quite reluctant to leave them on the third day.

We took about a three-hour ride to Hangzhou yesterday. We then later went to watch a performance. This performance was based on the old stories of Hangzhou. We really enjoyed it and we were astounded by their dance moves. The coordination between the movement of the props and the dancers was so swift that the audience did not notice!

Today was a busy day.  We visited many places like the tomb of General Yue Fei, the Flying Peak, the Lingyin Temple, the Flowers Harbour, the West Lake(Xi Hu), the Riverside Street, the Six Harmony Pagoda and the Qiantang Bridge. 

I really enjoyed the cruise watching at the West Lake. During the cruise, we actually stopped at the deepest part of the lake and went up to the front and back decks to have some pictures taken. We learnt that even though the West Lake looked very deep, the deepest of the lake was actually 2.88m long! The shallower part of the lake was only 1m - 1.2m long. The scenery was breathtaking, and upon arrival, we witnessed several wedding couples taking wedding pictures by the jetty.

In part of the West Lake area, there were many peacocks. Jia Sen mentioned that the peacocks there wanted to show off to their mates. They would shake the lower part of their bodies to open their beautiful feathers. 
He observed that however hard the males try
to impress the females, the females did not seem to be interested.

En Yi felt that Temple of General Yue Fei was interesting. The clothes of Yue Fei and his son were put in the tomb. Wei Qin thinks that both General Yue Fei and his son, Yue Yun, were courageous and loyal. At Lingyin Temple, Tanya thought that the caves were especially cooling inside. In one of the caves, Anthony and some others went to touch the "Fortune Buddha" as it was rumored to bring wealth to those who touch the Buddha's hand. When we were doing fish watching at the Flowers Harbour, some of us bought fish food to feed the fish.

Mr John Lim noticed that budgetting was a problem for some of us. Even though there are still five more days to go, some of our friends only had 80RMB left!  

So far, we think that this trip is very meaningful and indeed, a good experience for us Singaporeans as we get the opportunities to learn more about China's rich culture and history.

Lots of Love,
Joy, Wei Qin, Tanya, En Yi, Anthony and Jia Sen (Group 4)

We have picked the kids up from the home stay and will be heading off for our three hour journey to Hangzhou.

The kids enjoyed their homestay tremendously. They had lots of stories to tell. They were treated like VIPs by their buddies and  families. The anxious kids who called and messaged Mr Lim the night
before, enjoyed themselves so much that they wanted to extend their homestay! Two of our kids even attended weddings.

Mr John Lim

All is well. Internet connection is still slow. Our pupils will be having their homestay till Sunday afternoon. All are adjusting well.

Regards,

Mr John Lim

All is well except for the slow internet connection. We are still trying to get the Blog going. The pupils will be going for their homestay this evening and we have mentally prepared them for the homestay. We have given the pupils, the school handphone number to call during their period of homestay.

From,

Mr John Lim