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Day 3
History:
Beijing no. 35 international school: as we arrived, we were welcomed by a very warm message written on the school's digital notice board. The teachers were very nice and fun, they conducted the lessons well. We also got to see  very modernised and developed architecture, for example the foldable computers that can be hidden underneath the tables at the library, the gyms that are filled with all the equipment you need and many more. The students there all have the university they want to go to, mostly those overseas, and this school helps them get there.
Siheyuan: we painted the face masks there. Siheyuan is built right in the middle of beijing and although beijing is a very busy city, in the middle of it, life is quite slow-paced and the architecture is kept at its traditional form. The trishaw rides and the face mask painting are part of cultural preseveration and in the siheyuan itself, there are actually different compartments (north, south, east, west) for different people, different genderd to live in. The occupants said that the houses that made up siheyuan is actually more than 100 years old.
Teahouse: we get to enjoy the numerous types of entertainment that the chinese have enjoyed since ancient times. Examples are of singing, 相声, magic shows and etc. There is also the amazing tea ceremony performance which shocked and amazed us all.
Differences: the amount of compulsory studies between Singapore and China is quite different. Not only that, Singapore does not really have much teahouses that have this kind of Chinese entertainment (or maybe i've just been missing out) or maybe its just not so well known as compared to in China.
What i've learnt:From todays trip to the school and siheyuan
I saw two different sides of technology; one of technology and advancement and one of preserving our chinese culture. At the school, we saw a lot of cool things like the foldable computers etc. Made for convenience and adaptability.
And in siheyuan, we saw the slower-paced lifes of locals that live right in the middle of beijing that tries to preserve the Chinese traditional culture, which i think is quite a contrast from the school offers.
Also, i've learnt that preserving our culture is very important as it is a part of keeping our History alive, so that we can pass down our cultural knowledge to our descandants and the future.

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To start of the day we visited the great wall of china and to say that it was huge is an understatement. The wall is up to 40 000km long and while most parts are blocked out by the government,there is still an incredible length of the wall open to the public and tourists. The great wall was connevted QinShiHuang who people usually call the first emperor of China as he unified the country. It is to keep enemies out and protect the country at that time. To think that we are able to see such a massive historical infrastructure is beyond comprehension.
Next, we visited the summer palace(颐和园）. Puyi, Cixi, Jiaqing and gwangxu have resided there. With Cixi,(who is a female) it is the only place where you can see a phoniex  inside while dragon is outside. The summer palace is really cooling with many trees planted and a river(昆明湖）which is dug by hand with the soil forming a mountain which is in a shape of a bat. Compared to forbidden where there were no trees in the exterior as the emperor is afraid of assasins hiding in the trees. But in summer palace it used to be in a suburb area where there isn't any people.
Lastly we went to the Bird's nest(yang)and water cube(yin) which is basically the olympic park. We didn't get to go in but the building is huge and majestic  and is shaped like a bird nest and therefore the name bird nest. (and it is the national stadium too)
-Cherish

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Day 4:
History: Great Wall: originally built to keep enemies out like the minor ethnic geoups in China, the wall did not really served its purpose well. The wall actually was built with the help of millions of man power and actually during the process of making it, many people died. It is known as the biggest cemetery in the world. The stairs and steep and irregular, and it was very difficult for the people to hike up there.
Summer palace: there's the famous long corridor, with every panel there is a beautiful drawing with an interesting story. The Empress Cixi lived there for relaxation as she grew older. It was known as a modern suburb in the ancient times. Different chambers were for different people to live in. There was also a royal that was kept in the Summer palace and was not allowed to go out. Summe palace has a man made lake dug out and the soil dug out for the man made lake was made into a man made hill.
Differences:
Between forbidden city and summer palace:
The amount of trees:
Forbidden city- no trees. Trees were the perfect spots to let assasins hide up there, hence, there were no trees in the forbidden city to protect the lifes of the royals.
Summer palace- since it was a modern suburb, people didn't really have to worry about assasinations and all, so there were trees planted in between the palace. The trees were the type that could keep mosquitoes out.
What i've learnt:
Perseverance- it took alot of perseverance for us to climb up the Great Wall; it was no easy feat. It also took the ancient people even more perseverance to built all these amazing architecture even without the modern technology we have today. They were intelligent, thinking of many ways and many different materials that could be use into building the ideal architecture. It was definitely no easy feat for them to build and create a lake and a hill with only their bare hands, not to mention the Great wall as well. With the technology today, we can't even build the things that the ancient people have built back then.

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we went to great wall of china and summer palace. Going to great wall, i learnt that the saying 不到长城，非好汉 this saying is actually a portion of one of Chairman Mao's poem saying that if you have not gone to great wall of china, you are not a hero. The walls are originally used to mark territories of the different tribes but they were connected by Emperor Qin during his reign to unite whole China and also extended to keep enemies out. It requires heavy labour and many died in the process but unfortunately does not serve its purpose in the end given by Qing dynasty, China's territories have already extended far beyond the great wall. It shows that walls made to mark territories may not serve its purpose in the end and I couldn't help but thought of president Trump who is thinking of adopting the idea. It would be bloody and both money and time consuming if it were to be carried out and that we should learn from the Qing dynasty that despite speaking different language（满语） from the rest（汉语）instead of forcing others to learn their language, they learnt their instead so they could rule better which shows that adaptability is a crucial life skill for one to face the problems future brings.
Summer palace is built by Qianlong emperor for Ci Xi tai hou. It is said that emperors have gardens as they dislike staying in the forbidden city. It shows that being in the royal family can be overwhelming and their way to cope with it is to have their own safe haven for them to relieve the stress their lifestyle brings. It is said that the nicest imperial garden is 圆明园. Since summer palace is already so nice i couldn't imagine how luxurious old summer palace would look. It shows what having money and authority can do. It reminds me of the backyard which is present in many of the houses in US which is like a small garden which can be used for leisure similar to the summer palace. It is also saids that the summer palace doesn't have walls and uses guards to maintain security. It shows how patriotic guards are even in the past towards their country.

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We went to Great Wall today. I realise how different it is when I see the picture and really stepping on the Great Wall. The Great Wall is a huge infrastructure build by humans they carried the stones without any machine and build it with bare hands it is really great to see this. Although I only manage to climb the first tower, I feel like it is just great trying to climb the wall and I should gym more in order to climb higher. Summer palace is a very beautiful place where by it is meant for emperor to have a place to chill however it kind of become 慈禧太后’s place. The summer palace is preserved very well although the Bulidings were there for years. Just like Singapore having preserved buildings like Kampong Glam. When I’m doing research on summer palace i see that there is a place where there will be lots of lotus flower blooming, however when we visit there all the lotus flowers where gone, I think is due to their renovation and also there were a lot of Buliding that is under maintenance while is a pity that we did not get to see the full view of summer palace. I think the one thing I’m going to share with my Friend is that 慈禧太后actually prisoned 光绪帝 just to take the throne and she kept him in summer palace

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I learnt about the yin and yang from the guide's sharing and they believe a lot in it. At first i thought that the yin and yang stands for a type of martial arts but after listening to his sharing, i learnt that it can apply many cases such as the 鸟巢 and water cube. 鸟巢 is in a round shape and it lights up in red which stand for fire. Water cube is in a square shape and it lights up in blue which stands for water. I learnt that there should always be a balanced between both sides to achieve longevity and immortally. I can apply it to studying and relaxing so i should definitely be a good balance. If i spend a certain amount of time for playing, i should also spend that same amount of time for studying. This will ensure that i have enough time to study for exams and to also take my mind off studying for a while.

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mr pang explaining

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We went to school visit today. Get to know the students better, their way of teaching is quite similar to what we experienced as they also have white board& visualiser the teacher will also stand in front and teach but the thing different is that the teacher is interacting with a smaller group of people about 20 while we have lesson with big classes. We also experienced eating in their canteen, their canteen is very different from us in the sense that their self serve their food while we buy our food from different stores and the store aunty/ uncle will prepare the food for us nicely. We also experienced different kind of thing they do during 端午节 for example we play the improvised dragon boat race as they do not have rivers around they improvised and make dragon boat inflatable and we have to carry it and run. This test on our teamwork and how we work together as one. We also tried out the game the ancient people play when they are drinking u basically have to throw the arrow into a wooden cylinder. It not easy and I’ve never seen one before in Singapore.i learnt that the education system in China is 6year primary, 3 year secondary,3 year Jc like thing and they go to university. For China their compulsory studies are 9 years. The students in the school today also have exchange programs like ya where they get to go to other countries probably once a term. We also learnt about face painting where we learn there are 4 type of faces, male,female, clown and one more. We also cycle around the hutong where we get to see houses the local people live in. I also learnt that siheyuan means all four side of the Buliding have houses. I think one interesting thing to share to my friends are that their culture about are very precise. except for the 4 type of faces, the colour of the faces also have different meaning like blue stand for cunning,yellow stands for brave but have bad temper and etc.