Review

Chiang kai shek memorial hall.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

Greeted by a huge traditional chinese styled gate, we've finally arrived at Chiang kai shek memorial hall also known as 中正紀念堂。It was a great place to snap picture for remembrance, with a towering traditional styled building painted with colours representing taiwan flag and two accompanying buildings.

  Climbing up the 88 steps that represented chiang's age when he passed away, we were exhausted, panting heavily. We were greeted by a huge bronze statue of chiang, much of a reminiscent of the lincoln memorial and all of us were clearly in awe. However, there was another attractive point- the soldiers guarding the statue.

  I was clearly intrique by the patriotism of these soldiers willing to remain in the same position, not even twitching an eyelid. They have put in much efforts, displaying their respect to one of the country's most important figure, from them, i also learnt that we should always peservere to the end since there are people that are able to complete this rather impossible feat. Sadly, we did not catch the changing guard ceremony, but here i've attached a video which we luckily managed to take at the sun yet sen memorial earlier on.

  Saving good things for the last, now i will go into the hightlight of this interesting place! Descending down the steps, we gradually arrived at an air conditioned museum which actually housed numerous personal artefacts of chiang kai shek during his presidency, most notably his two fully armoured sedans. It was really heart warming to see such amount of respect given to their most notable leader building such a magnificent structure bringing people all over the world one step higher to experience chiang's life.

  Through this visit, we can really go in depth into chiang's personal and political life as well as the legacy he had left behind. He really played a great part in the formation of modern Taiwan. Well, if one is interested to dwell more into taiwan's most notable leader, stop reading from the internet, go down there and check it out if you've got the chance. It is really informative and insightful, more importantly less boring than just reading plain words of books or internet. Occasionally, there are even special exhibitions, which i had the chance to visit a special art exhibition when i went there.

  Hope you've enjoyed my review

Ferrary hotel ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

It was our last night in Taiwan and we were all gathered for our debrief. We were in the middle of thanking a person that had helped us in one way or another. Then out of the blue, some of the girls started crying and everyone were confused. The girls said that they had heard weird noises in their hotel rooms even though there were no one on that floor with them. Both the boys and girls living on the 11th floor had all heard different noises in their respective rooms. Some of them heard glass shattering in the toilet, people talking in the corridor and shuffling feet. Some even heard funeral music and saw their bed shaking itself. All of us that we're not crying we're either comforting our friends or just standing there trying to decide whether this is true or not. Our friends Tiffany and Charmaine were going to move into our room to sleep together for the last night and everyone else were so scared that they all moved to their friends rooms for safety except for the boys. In that one night almost half of the girls moved to other rooms and it was chaotic, I was surprised that no neighbors came out to complain. I thought that we were quite noisy especially the mad dash on the 11th floor. After all the fuss, we were all bathed and settled down in bed watching television at 1o'clock not daring to sleep just yet. Then our teachers came for a room check and said that we were too loud because we were trying to help Charmaine and Tiffany forget what just happened. Then I think we slept at about 2 in the morning. That night was the most eventful and scary time in Taiwan. I do not think that I would want to go back there again. 

Fengjia nightmarket-⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It is overall fun, with many taiwan's delicacies sold there. The stall owners are very friendly, although the foods are very cheap, they will still give you discount sometime. Despite the fact that the nightmarket is always crowded with people, you can rarely see any rubbish lying on the floor. It shows how serious the Taiwanese treat recycling. The only place that need to improve is the k-pop musics that were blasting out from the speakers in the new section of the nightmarket as it doesn't suit the atmosphere. There is also a significantly decrease in food stalls, which are replaced by shops selling accessories. The way it present itself is modern and fashionable, defying the original meaning of nightmarket 

Shi Fen

The whole class went to the Shi fen train station to write wishes on the lantern and let it out into the sky. First, the tour guide allowed us one hour to walk around the shops and look at the souvenirs selling inside the shops. Not did we only get to walk on the railway where the train is still active, we also got to go on suspended bridge where we saw the little sticks with wishes wrote on it. The sticks were hanging on the railings and there were still people writing wishes to hang on the railings.

After the one hour free time, the tour guide gathered us and gave us lanterns. Each group got a purple lantern and each of us wrote on one side of the lanterns. Purple lantern signified 'studies'. After watching the  other people letting lanterns into the sky, it was finally our turn. We saw what each other write and it was mostly about getting good results and hope that our family members are healthy. Each group took turns to let the lanterns into the sky and each group had someone helping them to take photos, each side of the lanterns, we took two photos. The person in charge told us to take hold of each corner of the lantern and took one last photo as the lantern floated into the sky. We were quite disappointed when we found out that the lantern will be recycled after it loses it's fire and falls to the ground.

After that, we saw each other had bought a lot of souvenirs like keychains etc. that day was indeed a day worth remembering.

OELP reflection( yung lung)

General Reflections.

 

 On the 25th of May 2014, we began our long awaited trip to Taiwan for a week’s long OELP trip. Over these days we had a lot of new experience together as a class, learning a lot about Taiwan and gaining many new insights. Although we got reprimanded severely for not putting our best behavior, we tried our best but still could not do so since it was the first overseas trip we went together as a class. During this week, we explored museums, sitting in classes at local school and even get a chance to tour a local night market.

 Firstly, I was intrigue by their education system. I used to have the mindset where whatever we learn in Singapore is very tough and difficult but when I went there I realized I was totally wrong. I did not really understand more than 50 percent of what the teachers are teaching. They have higher standards in my point of view. During our school visit, I noticed some other points that is worth noting.

1.

Great effort put in to recycling and minimizing waste.

2.

Carefree lifestyle the students have.

3.

Culture preservation can be observed.

 Yes, I may agree that Singapore schools have put in efforts to educate students about the importance of minimizing waste and recycling, urging them to do so. But I observed that not much students comply to that as there are still students who decide to buy what they couldn’t finish creating waste food, I have seen students throwing away plastic bottles and papers. Whereas I see students in Taiwan school eagerly doing so with separate bins only in their classrooms and they take initiative to separate recyclables from non-recyclables. It’s something we should all learn since we must protect earth’s environment. Next, I noticed students’ carefree lifestyle in school. They can do whatever they want in classes- eating, drinking, chatting, sleeping etc. but yet they can produce quality work when their teacher asked for them, displaying the fact that the students DO put in effort in studies. However, in Singapore it’s always a race against time in school, exerting a lot of pressure on us thus dampening our interest to gain more knowledge. We are often scolded for being late at our next venue despite rushing over straight after lessons and teachers of certain subjects have to rush through topics. Maybe we can adopt that Taiwanese local school system so it can nurture students’ initiative and also allow students to be eager to learn instead of dreading it. Lastly, they teach in mandarin and use traditional Chinese characters. This displayed the fact that they have placed in effort to preserve the Chinese culture. This can be a good and bad thing. Since it uses traditional language, it promotes interest in later generations to learn their own mother tongue languages, however, they did not know English- the universal language, making them hard to communicate with foreigners who do not know Chinese. In Singapore, it’s the other way round. We are too reliant on English while I have seen Chinese friends disliking Chinese including me, to be honest. That’s very sad, I feel that we should really start to preserve our culture.

 Secondly, I was taken aback when I learnt about Taiwan’s geography, past and present.  I learnt that Taiwan have a lot of earthquakes both massive and minor when we visited the 921 earthquake site. Since the casualties were numerous, Taiwan has gone to the extent to amend construction laws. They have also preserved the actual site just to educate people about earthquake prevention measures and safety actions in case of earthquake. Maybe since Singapore does not really experience natural disasters, we can also educate people on other safety preventions such as disease outbreak, terrorism, and economic downfall etc. At such, it can minimize negative impact or injuries on the commoners. Taiwanese in the past were also very intelligent in the construction of their houses when they were near water bodies. They built their houses in a way that they could store goods straight away after being transported by boats. Rather than just dull HDBs, maybe we can build housing according to the different business or purposes in a high rise building if space is an issue this thus can speed up economic growth maybe?

 Thirdly, I noticed that Taiwanese although destroyed many historical buildings, they are now trying to preserving and promoting cultural awareness. Places like Shih fen and aboriginal cultural village really allowed us to learn more by attracting more of the 21st century youngsters. Singapore can learn from them too, integrating cultural education into our daily lives, or even organize events at historical sites or museum to attract teenagers to visit those places who at the same time will explore the artefacts there. Lastly, the memorial halls and museums that we visited are really meaningful and fascinating. It gave us a better feel about what was happening when Taiwan founding fathers and notable leaders were molding modern Taiwan as they preserved photos, artefacts and personal belongings of the respecting leaders, providing detailed explanations. I personally feel that every country should built such memorial halls to commemorate the work of past leaders because our present accomplishment will not be available if they were not successful furthermore, it is also due respect to commemorate them. Sadly, Singapore does not have memorial halls for notable leaders who have passed on. At the national museum, I also learnt a lot about the history of china since the artefacts there recorded stories from ancient china.

 After this trip, I personally feel that I am somehow not very proud to be a Singaporean in a student’s point of view. I agree that Singapore is one of the world’s best places to live in but on the other hand, we sacrificed a lot. All we do is study, study and study, hardly time for other things and my parents will be working basically almost every day, increasing to our stress levels, not to mention being happy. But when I was in Taiwan I see people there all quite happy, passionate about school or work even though their environment was not as good as Singaporewhile I see sulky business owners in Singapore and a lot of complains!!!!, also, the Taiwanese treats you with respect and are very polite from what I have experienced and seen. There are also huge efforts to preserve culture there with attractive ways but I cannot deny the fact that Singapore has a lot of plans to do so but the problem is that we seldom display interest in them. I think we are really lacking something.

 Maybe we should start to find ways to feel more relaxed, show more interest in our own culture instead of shunning them, and be more environmentally friendly!

 

General reflection(Xing Jian)

In the 7 days I had spent in Taiwan, the trip had enabled me to think deeper and using others to compare and evaluate myself. Taiwan and Singapore are different in many ways. Since it's my first time to Taiwan, I am amused by the way they live, it was totally different from the Singaporeans' hectic lifestyle. Not only their lifestyle, taiwan's education system are also different from Singapore. The students there had much more freedom than us, both their pressure and stress are much lower than our's as they study at a very relaxing and slow pace. Though it was totally different, I feel that it still have its own advantages. Singapore's education system is not ideal, it is just that we got used to it so we should not be judging the way they study. In order to improve, I think that we should look at the pros of their education system and then combine the two together.

The OELP trip also helped me to understand more of the Taiwan culture and it's history. Throughout the trip, we had gone to many famous tourist attractions, most of them have historical values and a meaning behind them. We did not merely take photos with the monuments and leave like many did. The tour guide is like a encyclopedia, he would give us a detailed background information of it and answer all of our queries. One of the hottest topic was about the aboriginals of Taiwan, I was very enthusiastic to learnt about it because I believe that the aboriginals played a huge role when Taiwan was developing in the 20th century. In order to understand a country, we should alway start by looking at its history and slowly to the present. Taiwan's history is very enriching. In the few hundred years it had gone through many changes and revolutions. Because of its geographical location, it was involved in many incidents and affairs that are happening in china. In this trip, we focused on the two heroes that the Taiwanese respect—chiang Kai Shek and sun yat sun. Both had contributed and played a important role in Taiwan history. In Singapore we studied about the two in our history textbook, however, after visiting the memorial hall of the two, I had a completely new points of view about them. The informations on the textbook can never be compare with the words etched on the walls of the memorial halls, there are so many interesting facts that we don't know can be found in the memorial hall. I feel that the trip had granted me the ability to think deeper and have my own points of view, I no longer believe whatever that is written on the textbook.

As the Chinese saying goes, "It is better to travel ten thousand miles than to read ten thousand books". This proverb envisions a mind continually active in expanding the sphere of its understanding by going beyond pure book-reading. If we do not experience things for ourselves, we would never be able to completely understand certain things just by burying ourselves up in books. As such, the school has organized an immersion trip for the whole level so as to broaden our horizon as they do not wish that we are students with little outlook. By traveling, we would be able to see more, hear more and understand what's awaiting us in the world better, bringing us to greater heights in life. 

Taiwan Trip Reflection Overall

The trip was really fulfilling and fun. I have learnt lots of things from it. The trip helped me to understand more of the Taiwanese culture and it's origins when we went to the aboriginal park. The school we went to was also really different from our school!, the lessons were different, their way of speaking to the teachers was different and their classrooms was also different. They don't even need to wear a uniform to school!i find that their way of life it's just so much relaxing than ours! The teachers don't care about whether they listen in class as long as they get good grades. I think that they are also over familiar to their teachers, the teacher allows them to call herself by her name.

The thing I enjoyed the most about the trip was when we went to the amusement park where everyone gets to go to different places such as the pirate ship, roller coaster, free fore etc. I loved this park because everything was so exciting and fun. The feeling of falling from somewhere high to low was really exhilarating. I really cried after riding the free fore because it was really scary, the seats went above the mountain tops. When it dropped down, I was scared to death. However, after thinking it through, it was really fun. The pirate ship was also really fun. I went on it five to six times. Other than that in the aboriginal park, I found it quite sad that the people in different clans have to build a amusement park to attract people so that the others won't act indifferent to their presence. I hope that there would be more people who will be willing to go to the amusement park. I also learnt a bit of their dance which was really easy but looks difficult.

Another thing I enjoyed was the shopping when we went to ximending and ye shi. It was an eye opener for me as I saw them sell different kinds of food and souvenirs. The ice cream I saw there was really expensive. It costs about 3 dollars in Singapore. But there's another ice cream we bought that only costs 30 dollars, it was really tasty. I really saw different kinds of thing being sold there. There's was clothes, key chains, stuffed toys and even otaku shops for anime lovers! I went to a keychain shop and bought a keychain in which I carved my family members' name on it. I think the shopping was really enjoyable and I bought a lot of things such as a figurine, a keychain, a pencil case etc. What I bought for my mother was a glass figurine which was a cross since she was a Christian. I bought a clothe for my father which was for him to wear it to work. Other than buying things during shopping, I also went around looking at the food they sell in the ye shi. I am glad that it was similar to what they sell in typical China. However, I really dislike the lamb meat as I was not used to eating such things. The people the ye shi and ximending had really different lifestyles from typical Singapore shop owners. They took their time chatting with the neighboring shops while in Singapore, the shop owners doesn't even know who was beside them. The shop owner also welcomes each and everyone warmer and they look as if they really love their job. Their attitude was really was good and they were cheerful. Unlike Singapore shop owners, that only sit at the counter there and play with their phones and wait for customer to buy something.

Lastly, I really enjoyed the lantern part. Where we went to the railway and got to walk on a railway where the train is still active. It really feels as if I was walking in a deserted world where everyone was not there. There, I bought a few some lantern keychains and a 风铃. The shop owner was really nice as well and carefully took care of what we bought. I think that the most exciting part was where all of us got to write our wishes on one lantern and let it into the sky. I think that part was really exciting until I heard that they were going to be collected back for recycling which disappointed me very much. I really thought that the lanterns might continue floating to the other side of the earth and someone else will see it. It was really too bad.

In conclusion. I think that this trip was really a meaningful and fun one. We got to go to each other's room at night to talk to each other. It was too bad that the last night we were there, there were people who heard noises and got scared. I hope we, as a class, would be able to go overseas together again, or maybe turn back time and redo the trip. The food there was extremely tasty and it was a miracle that I didn't grow fat. I hope to have this kind of trip again sometime, seriously.

OELP reflection (weichen)

This OELP trip has enabled me to learn about Taiwan's culture and the many differences between Taiwan and Singapore. It most definitely has increased my knowledge of Taiwan and China even though I learnt the most about Taiwan. The schools in Taiwan has a more relaxed educational system which focuses more on self discipline and self study this is also the case in China. For example, wearing home clothes to school, playing a fool in class while still being able to catch what the teacher is saying. This gives me an impression that if the students produces good results, them it's alright to let them do as they please in class. I disagree with that because to them grades are first while attitude is second. Compared to Taiwan and China, Singapore focuses more on an all- rounded teaching that drills into our brain saying that attitude is the most important. However, Taiwan's teaching methods enable the students to be more independent by letting them achieve good grades thorough their hard work and effort. 
The most interesting of all is the aborigines. At first I thought all aborigines were people with markings on their face and being very anti-social. However, that was not the case. Out of 16 different official groups of aborigines we were able to see aborigines from the Ami group. My first impression was that they look like us and they speak like Taiwanese so I did not believe that they were real aborigines. But their way of getting married and their daily lifestyles were really different from us, them living in houses so low that they are shorter than me. It was really an eye opener for me as I learn about them. Singapore do not have any aborigines in the country maybe because there is not enough land. 
I'm addition, what struck me the most was the lack of rubbish bins on the streets. That came as a unpleasant surprise as it would cause me to limit the things I buy for example food, as I would have to throw rubbish along the way. I learnt that this is because Taiwanese are very Eco-friendly and they recycle everything possible. I experienced this first hand when I went to Macdonald's to buy a drink. After drinking, I could not find the usual bin that allows me to throw away my paper cup. I saw that I have to separate the cup, ice, straw and all to recycle them by throwing them into different categories. This influenced me to recycle more at home in Singapore so that I can produce less waste. Even though Singapore is known to be clean and green, I believe that is not the case as you can see rubbish everywhere you go. There are many differences between Taiwan and Singapore. 
Lastly, I am proud to be a Singaporean where it is a natural disaster free and that it has rubbish bins everywhere. I am proud to be a Singaporean because Singapore is where my home is.

Xing Jian's reflections

Day 1

Today is the first day of our trip to Taiwan :)!!!! Though I felt excited about the trip, I felt restless when I was on the plane. I think that the flight is too long and I felt that it was boring because the available movies were very limited. However, once we arrived at Taoyuan international airport, we were very excited because there is a minimart at the exit. I had bought a cup of 关公煮 and it sure taste good! I was craving for more!

   First food i eat in Taiwan!!!😝

We take the bullet train to xinzhu right after the flight, it was much more enjoyable because we get to see the scenery outside and it's speed is 273km/hour! So fast! Our tour guide told us that although it's a 10minutes trip for us, the bus needs an hour to reach xinzhu. I personally felt that bullet train is much more efficient than MRT and it can be a possible solution to solve the peak hours issue.

We have our dinners at a meatball restaurant, the meatballs and the bee hoon there are so good that hong yang and I had 4 plates of bee hoon and many meatballs. Taiwan is famous for its meatball and bee hoon because it's weather is suitable to make good qualities of bee hoon. My favorite is the giant pork meatballs, they are made from fresh meat hand-ground and pounded with a mallet until it attains a doughy texture. They can be as big as a baby’s fist. Their size, as well as the air holes pumped in the meatballs during the pounding, locks in an amazing amount of juice and flavor. Pork balls are sometimes mixed with ingredients such as Chinese mushrooms and cuttlefish to enrich texture and add flavor.

Behavior:

I feel that our behavior was horrible. Both girls and boys were chatting on the bus while our tour guide, 曾志俊先生, was trying to tell us about interested facts about Taiwan. I am ashamed of myself because we are disgracing our school.

Day 2

Today we are going to NEHS to interact with the students their and learn their way of studying. I was really excited because in RVHS, I only see people coming to our school from countries like china and japan. It was finally my turn to go to others' school! Yay! The vice principal and the Heads of departments were very kind to us. To make us feel comfortable, they found a air-conditioned room for us to rest and used English to communicated with us. They even showed us a detailed video to help us to understand their school better, I really appreciates their efforts.

When I went into my appointed classroom, we were greeted warmly by the students. I was so so touched!!! In Chinese class, though they are rowdy and hyperactive, they are attentively participating when the teacher was asking question and always give model answers that the teacher wants.💯

After we left the school, we went to the industrial park where we saw many hi-tech electronic applicants made by the Taiwanese. We gets to see so many inventions that we did not even heard or see it in our normal daily life. I was really fascinated because not only it shows us the usefulness of the inventions, it also shows that as technology advanced, our life was slowly becoming more and more convenience. The Taiwanese were very smart because in order to prevent competition between the manufacturing companies, they collaborate and earn much more profits. Win-win situation!

Behaviour:

It was much more better than day 1 but still has the room to improve.👍

Day 3: 

Today is our second and the last day enjoying ourselves in NEHS. We had our last few hours spend with a different group of students from NBHS. unlike most of the school where Chinese is used in lesson, IBHS uses English instead. This is because the they have international students, I feel that their English lesson was really fun, because the teacher did not teach them skills or tips when writing reader response but to let them play educational games to increase their vocabulary. Afterwards, we also perform some dances and songs to them to show our appreciation, not only us, but our teacher also sang a song as a part of our performance. And before we left, we also give them some souvenirs that we had brought from Singapore. 

Next, we went to the Hsinchu City Glass Museum which features Tsai Sung-ping's exhibition of glass works. We saw many of his masterpiece displaced in the gallery. There is no doubt that a great emotional attachment must have been established while persisting in doing one particular thing for fifty years. Tsai Sung-ping's learning of techniques in creating glass crafts started in 1966. Since then, his emotional attachment to glass has lasted for almost half a century. Throughout this attachment, he has been focusing on creation and promotion of glass art. The experiences in these fifty years had been shown through glass works in this glass exhibition and it is going to be a glorious moment for artwork. In his early twenties, Tsai started working at the Hsinchu Glass Works, Inc. and he conducted glass screen paintings and blowing vases in kilns. During these years, he established his interest in manual glass blowing in furnaces and dedicated himself into learning the technique-both built a firm foundation for his creations and his advanced craft skills in the future. In 1971, a glass factory in Japan came to Taiwan to seek development. That was the moment Tsai was discovered by the factory, and it transformed Tsai,'s life. In the same year, Tsai founded a glass craft company and started on his way to running a business on his own. I was really amused because I never thought that glass could be made into such amusing structures.

For dinner, we ate the beef noodle at inoodle. like the giant pork balls, the beef noodle is also one of the most popular food in Taiwan. Some of the restaurants that serve you the best beef noodle are Lin Dong Fang (林東芳) in Jhongshan District, Taipei city. We also celebrated Gladys's birthday there. Happy birthday, Gladys.

Behavior

Our behavior is improving steadily! Hope we can keep it up :D

However, I think that our performance was disappointing, our dance transitions are poor, and there is too much last-minute changes D:

Day 4:

Today was the best day I had in Taiwan! We went to the national museum of Taiwan, fengjia nightmaket and amusement park(aboriginal culture village). However, because we need to travel from Taipei to Taichung, so 30% of the time we spent was on the bus. All we can do on the bus was either listening to uncle Jeff's explanation of the history of aboriginal or sleeping.

At the national museum, I find that some of the exhibit were too abstract for me. I was not able to appreciate their artistic sense. Like this guy who sculpted human organs and implanted them on eggs, what is he trying to show? It makes no sense. However, not all are like that, some are interesting and have deep meanings in it. For example, there is a bed that shows what human are thinking when they cannot sleep at night.

Afterward, we went back to the bus and travelled for a very very long time, I did not know that we were going to a amusement park to have fun until we reach there. Uncle Jeff said that we are really lucky because they had a power failure that morning and it just rained, so there were not too many people. He said that in his 7 years of experience as a tour guide, it was the first time he saw that there were so few people in the aboriginal culture park. We really had a lot of fun there so I will skip the playing part. When we were about to leave, they reached us their traditional dance, they even gave us this small hand-made ball of their as a farewell gift. When I went back to the hotel, I dismantled the ball and it took me 3hours to fold it back, it was so hard, I wondered how did they make so many of it without getting bored or tired.

Finally, the highlight of the day, also of the trip, we have our last few hours of the day spent at 🎉FENGJIA NIGHTMARKET🎊! Yes! After waiting for 4days, I finally arrived at the nightmarket, ready to try out taiwan's famous dishes and have my last meal of the day there. There is a great variety of food, ranging from boiled egg to chicken cutlet. Money was the only factor that restrain me from buying more food. My only regret was that I did not try their 懒人蟹.

Behavior

Overall it was good, however, we should be more aware of the time because some of us, including the IC, was late when we gather after visiting the nightmarket.

Day 5:

Today we went to the 921 earthquake site. To be honest, I was quite confused at first, people usually preserve things that are meaningful, nobody would want to preserve something that people have a fond memory of. So why did the government make the remains of a catastrophe that was a nightmare to the Taiwanese into a tourist attraction? The earthquake took more than 2000 lives and 10000 houses, so the government hopes that it can educate the next generation to be expect the unexpected and be prepared. It was really cool, we learnt many interesting fact from there, for example, the difference between 6.4 and 7.4 level is 34nuclear bombs, so basically it's like 49 nuclear bombs dropped onto Taiwan on that night! holy sheets! The vertical displacement was 2m, can you imagine in the middle of the night, you just flew upward 2meters?! You might even smash into the ceiling!

Next we went to this old streets called lugang. Since Taiwanese don't like to preserve old buildings, so this random old streets become a heritage as it was the most well preserved old streets in Taiwan. The people who once lived there were really smart, they build their house long and thin to keep their shop small so that they can pay less tax as they are taxed base on the size of the shop.

Lastly, we went to the ximending to do shopping. It was similar to nightmarket but the most of the things they sell are clothes and accessories. I bought two shirts for myself and one cute green rabbit for my sister. Yay😆

   So cute!😝 Don't you agree?

Day 6&7

Since the two days were all about history, so I as we'll reflect both together.

To start off the day, we first went to this place where we can walk on the rail track when trains are still functioning and have sky lanterns. Behold- Shih Fen!!! It is a very famous place where singles wish to find themselves a partner, families hopes to have good health. The souvenir shop sells many small sky lanterns with blessings written on it. I bought 3 for my family and 1 for myself. Next up, we write our well wishes on the real sky lantern in our CID group before setting it up the sky. Yay, so fun! It is my first time to set a sky lantern up the sky!

CID group photo...YAY

Lantern flying!! Wooho! But will drop down eventually......😞😭

After that, we went to sun yat sun memorial hall, national palace museum and chiang kai Shek memorial hall the next day. All three buildings are old Chinese style, there are magnificent carvings everywhere on the walls, the Taiwan government must have invested a huge sum of money in it. Of course, not only because they are important people in the Taiwanese's eyes, it was expensive as the buildings must be earthquakes-prove, so that when earthquakes come the buildings will not collapse and sun yat sun still can smile while sitting in his seat safely. The buildings not only display the leaders' handsome statues, behind every statues, there are a hall or gallery to showcase the leaders' achievements and taiwan's history. In addition, some of designs of the buildings were based on some interesting facts of the leader. For example, the chiang kai Shek memorial hall has 89 steps because that's the age of chiang Kai Shek before he died, so there is a purpose behind every design of the buildings.

Taiwan 101... Look so tall in the mist

Two guards standing for 1hour, they can't even blink?!佩服佩服

Sun yat sun sitting in his chair while the guard standing😈爽！

Afterwards we went to the airport......NNnnoooooooooo! I always think that time passes so fast during learning, but these 7 days passes so quickly! We are going back to Singapore! We need to say goodbye to our dear uncle Jeff while shedding tears. I should quickly conclude this trip (with tears in my eyes). We really have learnt a lot of things in this trips which we cannot just from reading textbook in Singapore, and I really enjoyed spending time with the student in NEHS and IBHS. Lastly, I would like to show my appreciation to uncle Jeff, thank you for the time and efforts you put in to tell us more about the Taiwanese, even though some of us did not pay attention to you, you ignored them and continues to share with us some interesting facts of Taiwan that cannot be found on the internet. Thank you so much!😁😁😁

Yung Lung Reflections

25/5/14: Taiwan Trip Day 1:






Woohoo! Finally the day has come! We all boarded the flight to Taiwan but sadly there was a delay:( Wow on the plane i was actually sitting with a very kind lady maybe Taiwanese? The flight was extremely boring though even with the movie entertainment..... Food was pretty good though with that little bit of rice and a few strands of vegetable, a slice of cake and pieces of fruit. There's even a bread! After about four hours, we finally reach Taiwan, looking out the window, i immediately recognized the large Taiwanese flag outside.

I realised taiwanese convenience stores mostly have the cooked local traditional food eg. Herbal egg, sausage, pig's blood etc. We don't see it in Singapore right? I am so amazed. After the check in to taiwan, we immediately proceeded to take the high speed train to hsinchu.

This is the first time i've ever been to Taiwan and i'm extremely excited to take the high speed train. It feels like taking an MRT in Singapore but i later knew that it travels at more than 300km per hour, whoa!!! The seats are also more comfy than our MRT hmmm how i wish we have such trains in Singapore , even if its just the interior only...

Time flies and we've arrived in Hsinchu and the first thing we did was to EAT!!!!!!!!! As the Chinese saying goes, 民以食为主, the long awaited first meal in Taiwan has arrived. It's the famous bee hoon and meatballs in Hsinchu as stated by our tour guide. The meatballs were pretty delicious but i did not really like the beehoon. Hmmm maybe it is me , i just don't like any type of beehoon? This meal was pretty delicious.

On bus rides, our tour guide patiently told us some facts about Taiwan and hsinchu even though people at the back were disruptive at the back. I really liked it as i learnt quite a bit from it. Learning Taiwan's geography, history and other facts.

Last item of the day- our rooms! It's pretty much decent and comfy and our day basically ended with a debrief and a mini shopping at a local convenience store. Today, i learnt about being respectful towards others basically like just even a simple act by listening to the tour guide,not talking loudly etc. This sums up my first day, yunglung here signing off now:) good night.




Local food bought at local convenience store.




26/5/14: Day 2 Taiwan Trip




Yawn.... Woke up and went for breakfast groggily. The food was not bad with the egg being the nicest! And soon... We are on the way to national experimental high school! Awww its so touched to see a banner welcoming us when we got there! I'm so looking forward to attending the classes to experience the different environment to expand my insights. The lessons were pretty boring in the end which sort of dampen my spirit; i don't understand more than half of it?! How sad but from what i can see, their studies,chinese and science, are way better and difficult than us, what a waste to not understand them despite studying the same level as them in our school? Pretty pathetic right when they even asked us some questions which we have totally no idea of....

Another interesting thing is that their lessons were entirely taught in mandarin, totally different from us! Furthermore, their Chinese characters are in traditional Chinese characters! Whoa its actually my first time seeing schools using traditional Chinese characters. They are really aesthetically nicer, why don't we adopt it in our school too, doing a part to preserve Chinese culture? Adding a few extra strokes won't hurt right?

The students there too were very friendly and easy going, making friends with us the moment we entered their class, enthusiastically asked questions about us and our studies! Which most of us need to learn- to be sociable. One of them even offered me skittles that he was eating. However they are quite rowdy and noisy thus i couldn't really hear what the teacher was saying. I really wonder how they are going to learn anything when they're not so disruptive! To my surprise they actually have "model answers" when they answered questions! This will never happen to us I suppose? Either being slammed with infinite CMDs and deproving drastically grades! Don't you agree with me?

In School, i learnt quite a lot of different i see in them. Firstly they were allowed to eat in class! The school placed their trust in keeping the classroom clean which they did! Secondly, there is a 10 min break after every lesson which is great for students to refresh up or go for toilet breaks. Thirdly, students do not greet the teachers before class. I think this is alright as it our own duty to respect teachers and some of us may just feel forced to greet teachers. Anyway its the heart that count whether you greet or not furthermore it may eat into class time.

Lunch was pretty good too and we actually ate in the class! We never get to do this in RVHS though:( Mrs look will immediately appear! Haha. The school was also very kind to provide us with passion fruit drink! It taste great!

After school, we explored hsinchu science park office, learning about the science park as the guide went on like a machine gun, telling us about products, history and innovations etc. As if Mr chua had mind reading skills, he actually found out the answer to why companies are not competing each other. I was surprised when each company is in charge of different segments of assembling the certain product! How efficient and cost saving they are so smart! Maybe Singapore industries or other international companies and consider this too in Singapore? This park really brought out the huge change of Taiwan from past to present! Showing their capability at the same time. There were many useful innovations like wireless scanner, wireless speakers, microchips and what most intrigued me is the type writer. I've always wanted one myself but sadly they don't sell them anymore. I think its much safer and useful as whatever we type will not be easily spied on as compared to computers because we can immediately keep documents away. We do not need to go through the hassle of printing too as it 'print as we type'.

Lastly, the dinner was great, much better than the first day as the food suits my taste especially the fish and egg. Feeling bloated, i lethargically dragged my tired body up the bus and back to my hotel room before collapsing onto the bed. Today is truly a fruitful day with new experience and one new step towards adapting in Taiwan, also stepping out of our comfort zone. Yung Lung here,signing off now goodnight:)





A new day at the breakfast buffet^^



Delicious cake entertained to us when we reached there yummy!







One of the many innovations.







27/5/2014: Day 4 Taiwan trip.




Early in the morning, eating our breakfast and we set out for national experimental high school(NEHS). During bus rides, our tour guide aka uncle Jeff told us insightful history about the buildings we see around the streets, being so "unsightly" despite a rich history she had. Its actually the people's mindset to destroy the traces of historical buildings! Wow, we must not practice this, those historical buildings have worthy history behind them either good or bad, we can also learn from them, educating the later generations.

Minutes flew by and we alighted the bus at NEHS. Warmly welcomed by head of department, we went back to the same convention room yesterday. Today, its time for us to interact with the bi-lingual students and i really enjoyed the lessons, trying to solve complex maths problems and playing a game of vocab for english. I was surprised that their english standards are high!

Next, we went to presentation about corals. It was very well described by the students of NEHS, allowing me to gain more knowledge about corals and their interdependent other organism eg. Shrimp and clown fish. The teacher there even allowed us to touch the corals in the tank! Which is never ever going to happen in RV. Life studying there is really easy going.

These two days of observing NEHS really allowed me to envy and shun much! The students were really carefree with most obvious- wearing home clothes! During class, they also have the freedom to control themselves to either listen to the teacher or not, even if they were noisy and rowdy. However, even though they may seem disobedient, they are very eager to answer questions posted by the teacher. This is what we must learn right? yes!!! Initiative and enthusiasm.

I also observed the fact that there was a lack of dustbins. This quite encourage lesser thrash. Also they have designated bins for recyclables, food waste and typical thrash. we should learn from them as they took initiative to be more environmentally friendly.

After school, we headed for the glass museum. The sight there was spectacular. Greeted by a Cinderella coach like sculpture at the entrance area, thought of taking photos immediately floated into our minds. Inside, i saw many exquisite glass sculpture with all sorts of colors and also other glass products for example light bulbs. There, i also learnt about the production of glass by reading the text banners pasted onto walls. This place is highly recommended! Sadly, lady luck was not on our side, we don't get to visit the glass factory:(

Glass glass glass, we can see glass everywhere but we never knew how they are produced. I really learnt about the production of glass. The dinner was pretty delicious today! Pig trotter noodles are pleasant to my taste buds. The day lastly ended with a debrief. Its late now and i will end my reflection now. :)





Library art design displayed in the library.










Pig trotters noodle.



Nice display at souvenior shop.




28/5/14 Day 4: Tai Chung

Ahhh, after a refreshing good night's sleep its finally the day we proceed to Taichung. Breakfast as usual, before setting off towards Taichung. During the bus ride, i was relatively sleepy, as usual when i take transports. Even so, i tried very very hard to listen to uncle jeff and only sleep when he is not speaking, yea i'm so respectful! Uncle Jeff spoke about a topic very related to the aboriginal tribes for example their origins and customs like girls presenting areca seeds to males to represent their love in Amis tribe. Soon, i fell into deep slumber after uncle jeff finished speaking.

Snooze snooze snooze Zzz..... After sleeping for a pretty long time we finally reached our first destination- national arts museum. Although i could not really understand what the guide was telling us but i know that there is always a meaning behind each artwork. Most unforgettable artwork is the dino- like creature with its head inside the wall. I feel that it is VERY meaningful. It tells us the importance of using materials effective and not waste them, harming the environment. It is truly applicable to our daily lives because we often buy and throw whenever we want.

After the arts museum, its finally time for the highly anticipated by most of us,* drumrolls*. Its the aboriginal cultural village and the theme park there! Firstly, i enjoyed the performance put up by the amis tribe , allowing me to have an idea of their traditional dance. I tried to video but i realised i didn't press the record button! -.- I then proceeded to take the gold mine ride with mr chua and brian but i underestimated the height,scaring me._. Never judge a book by its cover! The pirate ship was too, freaky even when i sat in the middle. Lastly, after all those rides and carnival games, the amis tribe warmly taught us their dance as a farewell performance and this time i did record hehe... This is truly a fun and memorable experience, as well as a good learning point since the trail to the amusement park has lots of the different type of housing for the aborigines. I think singapore should preserve more historical buildings and introduce attractive points in order to attract more young people to learn about the history and culture. In singapore, there is many museums and historical sites, however they were pretty boring as it only exhibits historical artefacts thus youngsters will find it quite boring and choose no to go to such places. This aboriginal cultural also serve as a source of income for the aborigines too!

Lunch was nice! Especially the soup; finally one with a slightly saltier taste, not like plain water.Dishes was okay in terms of food taste.

Last item of the day is free time at fengjia night market! Although there is a wide variety, i still feel that food wasn't that tasty and i don't really love it, should have went to eat macdonald though.... Personally thats how i feel i do not know whether y'all think so too? Hmm maybe i ain't adapted well enough to the food.

The trip to fengjia night market is not only for. The food and goods though, its about learning about the culture of taiwanese people. For example, the type of food they eat and their way of life there. The shop owners were very friendly-chatting with us, going extra mile serving us etc. even when we did not buy anything they are still willing to help us when we need directions even when we did not purchase anything from them. One kind shop owner even ask another one when she didn't know how! Wow! They are so passionate and friendly. They even gave us discount even when we did not ask for it unlike in singapore night markets where we either have to bargain for a long time or we don't even get to enjoy a discount How i wish singaporeans could be more like them.... For what i've seen though. Maybe i didn't see singaporeans passionate as them?

Fengjia night market not only sells food but also fashionable clothes, bags, shoes and even electronics all these attract youngsters to pact more patronise the night market. Really a good idea to attract more people.

Maybe Singapore can also introduce large scale night markets like fengjia night market in some parts of singapore that sells local delights instead of some mainstream hotdogs or fried nuggets that you can pretty much find in all parts of the world. at such foreigners can get to try out uniquely singapore dishes at lower prices. Fengjia night market really sells quite a lot of local foods.

Its late now, yung lung signing off now. Good night.





National arts museum





Entrance to cultural village







Photo with uncle jeff in cable car.




Day 5 29/4/14: Day 5 Taiwan Trip.




What??!!! I actually overslept! I rushed my breakfast down before the fall in time. We set of to the 921 earthquake site after everything's ready. I just learnt an interesting point when uncle jeff was introducing earthquakes-Taiwanese people so accustomed to earthquake that they didn't really pay attention to it. Eg. Tour guide said that he experienced an earthquake strong enough to wake him from his sleep but when he woke up, he actually went back to sleep as if nothing had happened. This shows that one must always be prepared even though occurrence is frequent.

The 921 earthquake is actually similar to 45-50 atomic bombs what???!!!!! Omg thats very scary. During this trip, i learnt a lot on the effect on earthquake and mitigation and emergency actions is taught to us through videos and visual aid photo. This trip here raised awareness about preparing for natural disasters, even though this is least likely to happen in Singapore, we have also other factors to prepare for, eg. terrorist attacks (seems too far fetched), economic crisis etc. Everything factors have to be considered in case of emergencies lest there will be huge casualties or lost like the 921 earthquake which claimed over 2000 lives and destroyed over 10000 homes. the government preserve this fault and it not only serve as a memorial place to those rescue effort and those who perished, it also serves as a reminder to like i have just mention- prepared for the unprepared. It is really significant!

After the visit to 921 earthquake educational site, we proceeded to Lugang Old Town. Houses were styled long and quite thin and where once were waters now became land which the defeats the purpose of the structure of houses. these houses were once use to store goods transported to them straightaway at the back of their houses. Wow they are smart to build their houses to be more efficient in the business and also to evade tax as the tax is calculated according to the width of their entrance. Maybe we could also do something to be more efficient in our business? Apart from these i am also very glad that taiwan is preserving these heritage buildings as they represented their ancestors way of life. it also serves as historical evidence that can be used to educate later generations about the past. Hmm don't we see historical buildings in singapore too? National Museum, shophouses in chinatown, old ford motor factories and various mansions that were left behind by British and japanese.

Once again we were back on the High speed train and even the MRT- a truly new experience. i was quite surprised by the absence of safety barriers at high speed train stations but it's present at Mrt station. what if a person fall in or try to commit suicide? We took the train to Ximending which i was quite looking forward to. Hmmm this MRT system there is much alike to our own local MRT system but with less routes(according to the one we took). It resembles not only our MRT but also Subways etc. It is also heartwarming to see a lot of reserved seats in the station seatings at the High Speed train Stations.

It was bustling with throngs of people at Ximending, to my disappointment, most shops were selling clothes, bags, caps, shoes which i was not interested in. Ximending is quite similar to our Orchard road in singapore- the shopping paradise for tourist?. The stuff sold there are pretty much catering to the youngsters and the prices there are relatively cheap for tourist maybe singapore could also learn from it and create similar places because Prices in Singapore shopping districts are very high even for our own citizens, not even to mention tourists. It really burns a hole in their wallets if they come to singapore to shop, maybe singapore could open a shopping district with cheap stuff! as the chinese saying goes,薄利多销.This sums up day 5 of our Taiwan OELP trip. Good night.




Day 6 30/5/14 Taiwan OELP:

An hour plus ride, we arrived at our first destination - Shih Fen. We were allowed to roam the area and i admired the area very much. The scenery there was worth taking down. there was even a suspension bridges which overlooks a stream flowing hundred metre below it. After

that its time for the main attraction of that location- the Sky lantern. We wrote all our well wishes on it before setting it up to the sky!!!!! Woohoo hopes our dreams come true. This place is full of culture and nature! the sky lantern can be dated back to the warring states how interesting where the inventor, Zhu Ge Liang used sky lanterns to deliver messages which then at a later period times where peasants living in the hills in taiwan used to report their safety and well being as there is a lot of bandits in taiwan in the past. This may the cause of the purpose of sky Lanterns now- well wishes to come true! furthermore, there is a lot of beautiful natural scenery at this place. as such these may attract a lot of people here to wish for their well wishes to come true and enjoy the nature.

Next we are heading to Sun Yat Sen memorial hall. During the bus ride there, uncle jeff shared about Taiwan past. I learnt that Taipei once had a massive earthquake leading to the formation of a huge lake called kangxi lake. Earlier on, taiwan is formed by sediments from China as well as plate tectonics. Well Taiwan is very young! even bus rides is insightful wow.

Ahhh finally we reached Sun Yat Sen memorial Hall. We were greeted by a huge chinese styled building as well as the taipei 101! This memorial hall gave us a very insightful view of Sun's early life as well as his road to revolution leading the fall of imperial rule. inside displayed many replicated photographs and artefacts used by Sun. I really feel that this is significant to the people of Taiwan as he is the founding father of KuoMinTang which was eventually handed to Chiang Kai Shek. It is very respectful for taiwan to commemorate Sun Yat Sen. We don't even see commemoration halls for passed on leaders who did a great part in building Singapore! Furthermore, there is also two guards guarding Sun's bronze statue. Even such small part of everything have something that deserve us to learn from. The guards did not even blink and move a single eyelid, just like a statue as such we learnt- endurance, perseverance and even patriotism! by working so hard to just guard a statue!

Next up, its the national palace museum. It is such a magnificent place housing many many many artefacts from chinese history. There is a lot of bronze artefacts but its not these structures that is worth noting, It is the words that is recorded in them! It tells us a lot about our chinese history some we may be proud of some we may not though! it is really worth to queue up and explore the area. i can basically spend more than a day to fully understand every exhibit. It is highly recommended to visit! Furthermore, there is also some carvings pottery we saw at the museum. they are so exquisite that i believe that no one is able to replicate then nowadays. Some of them includes, lunch box made entirely by carving elephant tusk, necklace carved out of elephant tusk and even a masterpiece crafted out of a oil plive kernel! You may not even believe that the artist carved it out entirely by his naked eye till he went blind! This really shows something about people in the past and now. They are much more dedicated and are willing to put in all their efforts into what they do, also they have a lot of skills than us nowadays rather than people nowadays relying on mass produce seldom do you see very exquisite handicrafts. This also proves that skills are gradually lost throughout the years, we should really do our best to prevent skills of the past disappearing like the wind by learning as much as we could passing down to later generations. Sadly... No pictures on national palace museum...

Next we went to Vigor to buy local delights like pineapple tarts and sun biscuits. Hmmm very smart business idea to establish a company that sells them! This boosts people trust in them since they are well known company!

Ahh these sums up today! it is really a fruitful day learning about cultures and leaders of taiwan. its late now good night!






Guard at sun yat sen memorial.





Phto with charmaine outside sun yat sen memorial





Day 6 31/5/14 Taiwan OELP:


Haish... its the last day already i'm so not prepared to return to Singapore and leave Uncle Jeff... wait! emotions aside reflections first. Firstly, we went to Chiang kai shek Memorial Hall.Firstly we were greeted by a large chinese styled gate called 自由廣場 and next a towering old chinese style building coloured blue and white which represents the taiwan flag while the flower beds on both sides represent the red. With 89 steps,it represents the age when Mr Chiang passed on. Inside was a large bronze statue of Mr Chiang similar to that of Sun yat Sen and the two guard too! Hmmm what may seem like just a huge building on the outside but i was surprised when underneath it was a museum displaying belongings of Mr Chiang! There are even medals, sedan chairs he used and even his bulletproof cadillac fleetwood! The exhibit started from his early life and went down the road to being leader of Kupmintang.Mr Chiang really deserved all this memorial being the founding father of modern Taiwan. He also fought against the Japanese in WWII and after that the communist to protect Kuomintang from being destroyed by the communist, preventing communist from taking over the government. Sadly he lost... but luckily taiwan is still under his rule and what Taiwan is now is really a great accomplishment of his! We should really learn to respect our leaders that contributed to the country no matter the amount!

Time for books after that! i just realise that even their chinese book is written in traditional chinese Wow! They really cared about chinese culture that much! Whats next is really sad.... its time for us to return to singapore. we had the last meal in taiwan together as a group and headed for Tao Yuan airport to board the flight back to singapore. Even uncle Jeff sang a very sad song... i almost cried:( sigh. End of OELP trip back to Singapore.







View from the top





Cadillac fleetwood









Back to singapore


Conclusion:


It is really an honour to go on this OELP trip organised by the school as it allows us to learn more about the chinese culture and Taiwan's culture and history. There is also several points that we can learn.


1. They are very environmentally friendly, recycling bottles, charging plastic bags etc.

2. People are friendly judging from the places we went.

3. Rich cultural recognition eg. cultural parks, museums etc

4.Car drivers are rather patient allowing you to cross before they start to horn if you take too long. While Singaporeans usually get angry and horn immediately.

5.Adaptive. Buildings were built to withstand earthquakes

DanQi's Reflection

DAY 1

       We arrived at Changi Airport at around 8am. We checked in our luggage and toured the Changi Airport when everyone arrived and had taken pictures with our family. The airport was awesome and i haven't been to the airport in about a year already. The things sold at the airport were super expensive but they are all branded items so it's reasonable. I went window-shopping with my bestfriend and were amazed by the scenery in the toilet by the huge glass window😂. Then we got on the plane when it was time to alight.

       The plane ride was quite enjoyable because i slept for almost the entire trip as the tv was not really working. The airplane food was actually quite tasty even though a lot of my friends say it was disgusting. Soon we arrived at Taipei. We got off the plane and collected the luggage and took our tour bus to the Taipei high speed train station. We first met our awesome tour guide Uncle Jeff and he told us that the will buy the train ticket for us and we can buy some food to eat while we wait for him. The first thing I bought was Milk Tea and Bubble Gum. I ate them on the train ride to Hsinchu. The train was moving really fast and i was amazed. Everuone took pictures of either the scenery or some selfie.

       When we arrived at Hsinchu, we went to tour the Hsinchu Science Park Campus. It was really cool but science is really not my cup of tea and i did not take any photos there. After touring that place, we went to eat bee-hoon. Uncle Jeff told us that it was the most famous food at that place. It was really tasty and we ate till we almost burst. After that, we went to our first hotel, Howard Plaza Hotel and had our first debrief. We were apparently super noisy and i agree to that.

       At night my roommate, Min Hui, and i had less than 1.5hrs of sleep because of the commotion caused by some of our guy classmates living ont he same floor. They annoyed us by pressingt he doorbell and knocking on the door in the wee hours of the morning (as in 1-2am in the morning😑).

       But other than that, we had an awesome day in Taiwan.

[Anywayz check out #2legit4taiwan on instagram for more photos☺️💁]

DAY 2

       Today we had a school immersion programme in Hsinchu with on of the top schools i the area. I heard from one of the teachers that the school is a special school where the students are actually children of scientists or people who help Taiwan develop in technology aspects and that the children in this school are specially trained to be like their parents and that their future has been almost fully set for them. Together with my CID group, we joined one of the classes in their lessons for the whole day. I met an awesome buddy who is around my height and is super hyper. Her nickname is LittleFlyingElephant. During the lessons together, i realised that Taiwan uses traditional chinese writing (繁体字) to write and they uses blackboard for lessons. Our first period was science, and they used chinese to teach chemistry. I have no idea what they are teaching. Each period is exactly 50mins long and they have a 10min break in between, their lunchtime is 1hr long and they have a 30min sleeping-break in their lunchbreak. It is really different of that in our school because each lessons have their own timing and each breaktime only 30mins long, and no rest time. Still, i prefer the Singapore educational method😁. We ate lunch together and the principle ordered passionfruit bubble tea for us. Soon the day came to an end and we went back to our hotel.

       That night, we went to a convenience store near our hotel and bought some yummy food to eat as supper.

The present my awesome buddy gave me

DAY 3

       We went back to the same school, but a different part of the school. It is the place where the international /bilingual students are and that they conduct lessons in english. The teacher was really nice and has assigned us buddies already. My buddy was a guy called Andrew, but we are not close because we did not do anything and did not talk much. But different from yesterday, we ate lunch with my school classmates because it's our last day there and we had prepared a tiny performance for them. We also had bubble milk tea like we did yesterday, though it was of a different flavour. I was particularly sad as i had made a good friend there and im not willing to let go of them. Before departing, my awesome buddy gave me a certificate she made and in return, i gave her a Singapore coin.

       After departing, we went to a Glass museum. The glass museum was super cool, but we were not allowed to take any photos, although i took a few pictures secretly.. I bought some phone plugs for my CCA seniors and a jade necklace for my mom.

The photos I secretly took😅

This is the jade necklace that i got for my mom

The glass ducky phone plug i got for my seniors

DAY 4

       Today, we went to Taichung by coach, so that means that we went to another hotel, Talmud Business Hotel. We were only staying at the hotel for 1 night so Min hui and I did not unpack anything.

       First, we went to the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. Next we went to visit the Formosa Aboriginal Culture Village. They had an amusement park in there and a lot of souvenir stores. I went on The Viking and the Free Fall rode in the amusement park. It was scary and fun at the same time. We even joined them in a dance and received a present in exchange.

       At night, we toured the Fengjia Night Market. We went around the night market and ate many delicious food. Taiwan has very little rubbish bins so we have to hold our rubbish in our hands and throw it only when we see one. Today was the best day ever for me.

Us dancing with the Aboriginal People and them giving us a present in return😄

This is the dreamcatcher that i bought there for NTD190. Be jealous😘😏

DAY 5

       We went to Shih-fen Old Street. We got a chance to write our wishes on sky lanterns (天灯) and released them. I bought a glow-in-the-dark sky lantern as a souvenir there. I bought a vanilla flavoured fried icecream there. The fried ice cream, as the name states, is an icecream that has been fried, while maintaining its cold and yummy icecream on the inside. It was the best type of icecream i hav ever tasted and i regret not buying a few more of it.

       We went to visit the 921 Earthquake Educational Park. The site was in a school that has been heavily affected, and that many places have been preserved properly. The park was really cool because we get to experience what the real earthquake is like. We were sent to a small room where only 20+ people were allowed inside. Then we had to sit in beanbags. To me the tremors did not feel like much, but that may be because we were sitting down and the room is a cushioned room. The tour guide also told us that it was a really lucky thing that the earthquake happened in the wee hours of the morning, so no one was hurt. We walked past some devastated classrooms and saw that even though the blackboard is full of dust, one could still make out the words on the board. The buildings were all collapsed because some parts of the 2nd and 3rd floor were on the ground where we walked past.

       After the tour, we took a high speed traint o Taipei. The days past by so quickly.. Too quickly for my liking😭..

       Anyway, we are going to our 3rd hotel, Ferrary Hotel.

DAY 6

       Second last day in Taiwan, how sad... Aftere breakfast, we went to visit The National Palace Museum. Then we went to the National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, where literally everything is about him. The weather was quite cloudy as it has just rained, but we could see Taipei101 from there. There was also a musical fountain where the water danced to the band piece. Inside,we see soldiers standing at the post for 1hr without moving or blinking. After their hour is up, they will have a ceremony in which there is a change in soldiers at the post. The bodyguards by the soldiers also changed too. We were not allowed to take flash photography but it seems that manydon't  understand that and continued taking flash photography. The surrounding people were also squeezing against us and we were all feeling annoyed.

       The most interesting part of the day was when we went to tour Ximending. Ximending is very large and has many items that were pretty and were quite cheap. I bought myself lots of items and made myself really happy. After touring Ximending, we left for dinner. The dinner was really delicious.

       Tomorrow will be the last day in Taiwan. I am sad.

Taipei101 that could only been seen clearly when the clouds☁️ moved away

The music fountain and look at the amount of people here

DAY 7 (Last Day)

       Last day, as i have repeated tons of times, in Taiwan.

       We went to visit the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. There were 89 steps in total because that was the age of Chiang Kai-shek when he passes away. In this memorial hall, everything is about him too. I wemt to a souvenir shop and saw that everything was quite expensive, so i decided not to buy anything. Though i bought a bottle of apple juice.

       Then, we visited the Eslite Bookstore. The bookstore is really huge and sells stuffs other than books such as food, CDs, and earpieces. I did not buy any books but bought myself a earpiece which cost me NTD1,490. Even though it was expensive, it is really worth it because it is thin and tangle-free and has a really high sound quality. I went to buy my last cup of Taiwan milk tea there at a cheap price. Then i ate an icecream just before leaving. It was really tasty, because of the sweet and sour flavour being super compatible with each other. 

       Soon we left to eat our last meal in Taiwan. The food somehow tasted more amazing than ever and we ate till we almost burst. After eating, we got on our tour bus and set off to the airport. We had to say bye to Uncle Jeff, who has been the best tour giude and teacher ever. Some people went to buy stuff at the airport while others waited at the terminal.

       Soon we were on the airplane on our way to Singapore. I did not want to leave and wanted to stay there for another 1 week or more.. I watched 2 movies on the plane ride home because my tv is finally working. When i reached Singapre, i was still moping because i did not want to be back there..

That is the end of my trip in Taiwan. Hope you enjoyed reading our posts!☺️