I decided to separate my trip experiences and learning points into two different parts so as to let the site be neater and easier to read. Trip experiences would be under the diary where days are divided into 4 different posts while I pen down my learning points in this individual reflection. 

There are many takeaways in this 8 days trip and it is rather hard to put them in words. Although it was merely 8 days, I understood and learnt things that I would not get to learn if I did not sign up for this trip. Sometimes, it is good to step out of your comfort zone and go over the boundaries for some new experiences. 

From education system, the chance to be a spokesperson to speaking with natives, every single part of this trip inspired me, a person as a whole. 

During our visit to Tianjin University, I was pretty astounded by the learning environment of the students there. In my own expectation, I thought an university would not be that bad an environment. However, the stench of urine swept through the whole corridor. There was no proper ventilation at all, the air was trapped inside the building, not to add the dusty floors. The students were also cramped together, making them hard to concentrate. This is definitely not a conductive learning environment. 

This again made me reflect on what we have in our schools in Singapore. Cleaners are always working hard to keep the schools clean, the classrooms are properly ventilated and tables are spread out to allow students to have more space, to feel more comfortable and to concentrate better.

During one of the talks with Min Jun, one of the tour guide, she told us that the mothers of China are trying very hard to even get their child registered into a childcare centre. The demand way surpassed the supply and some would have to head to private childcare centers. This could take up whole of a worker's wages, S$300, similar to a worker in Yakult Company, Tianjin. This let me appreciate the availability of resources in Singapore, at least we do not face these serious problems like China. The competitiveness is way higher in China, imagine the millions of people fighting for just merely childcare seats. 

We also got to know a Caucasian after lunch in the university and got to know why he was in China. He actually came here on his own to study and live on his own too. This highlights to me the beauty of independence. I would not say I am very independent after I saw a person like him. The reason why I am always against the choice of studying aboard is because I cannot accept myself to live alone at a foreign place. But after looking at a real-life example and knowing how well he has coped, it brightened up my thoughts a little, opening my opinions towards studying aboard.  

In the company visit of PowerWaterHouse Coopers Accountancy and Consultancy Company, I got to know more about the politics in China and how the government controls everything in the nation. While we are complaining over the government in Singapore, China does not even have the freedom of speech at all. The media is controlled, information are not widely available. Facebook and Twitter, social platforms are made unavailable too. They are not as well connected to the happenings in the globe and the people as many others. 

Adding on, our tax rate is one of the lowest as compared to China and we are entitled to more reliefs, family reliefs. China only allows personal reliefs. 

The visit to PWC is the best company visit of all, I really understand more about China. I did not know how the government and society was like before I came to China. They really widened my view and knowledge of China now other than those takeaways from the presentation they prepared. 

In the other company visit, Meng Niu Company, I learnt that the entrepreneurs in China are very high in EQ, their social behavior. They do not see others as competitors but friends in the same field and learning from each other. I feel that Singaporeans, whether in school or in work, should adopt the same perspective. This is then the healthy and right mindset towards reacting to competitiveness.

Meng Niu company also holds passion in innovation as they are able to come up with a new product in merely 5 days. This shows their drive in achieving success. Deep down, I am very impressed and inspired to have passion in the future career I will go after.

Adding on the list of takeaways, I find that this trip acted as a platform for me to develop my leadership skills  and presentation skills. On one of the speech, I was loss of words in front of everyone including the speaker which was very embarrassing and disappointing. Despite the fact that it made everyone laughed, but I was representing Ngee Ann Polytechnic. I was quite depressed aftermath but James, the other tour guide shared with me his experience of hosting a 3,000 people wedding dinner and giving me suggestions for me to improve on my public speaking skills.

Besides that, I find myself liking Chinese culture more and aiming to improve on my chinese speaking skills too. Although I scored a distinction in my O levels Chinese, but I was very ashamed by my standard of chinese after speaking with natives there. Afterall, my chinese is not as good as I thought and there are rooms for improvements.

Also, I am grateful for the teachers, Ms Karen Quah & Mr Ong Poh Leng for taking good care of the group throughout the trip and putting us first at all times. Thank you for their patience and planning for this perfect overseas study trip.

I also appreciate Min Jun especially for being so responsible in her work and helping us email and contact the various companies. What touches my heart was the time she helped us look for another investment company in that short period of time when the company cancelled on us. I understand that it is what she should do but I think it is out of the scope as anybody else could have just slot in another activity instead of making the effort to source for another company. This warms my heart. Despite the fact that we were always sleeping in the bus, both of the tour guides would fill us with stories patiently and answer to all our questions and requests.

The other tour guide was very forgiving as well even when we returned to the bus far past the meeting time.

Overall, Beijing/ Tianjin Study Trip 2012 was a platform for me to learn and improve myself in many ways, especially the inner part of me. I am more conscious and aware of the happenings and things around me, it makes me wiser as a whole. I learnt that I should further improve in many ways of me and how to speak well in front of people. I also learnt sharing, bonding, having more initiatives in volunteering. It really made me a better person from inside out.

The toilets in China may be dirty but it makes me appreciate more of what I have back in Singapore.

I am appreciative of every single thing packed in the schedule as they all brought me different experiences and takeaways that I would never experience in my life again, at least for the next 3 years.

Thank you for making this trip possible and letting me be part of such an awesome trip!

From all the planning and preparations, 8th September 2012 had finally arrived! Ironically, the luggage I have got for this study trip turned out to be really small and it was already full before the trip. I was actually quite worried that I cannot fit in my purchases in China and planned to get another hand-carry bag just for my purchases! I brought along almost the whole drawer of toiletries as I am not fond of changing facial products which caused the outburst of my luggage. Adding on the excitement of going to a foreign country, it was my first Singapore Airline (SIA) flight! Since many years ago, there are many good reviews of the airline & flight experience. Hence, I was anticipating my very first flight experience with SIA.

Furthermore, I prepared many medications especially the one for motion sickness since I have flight/ motion sickness and it was going to be a rather long flight. We had group check-in and managed to sit together in the airplane! We had time to talk about China & understand each other more throughout the flight. Although I am rather close to my classmates, Lee Anne, Nicole & Jeannie, I was as close with the rest of the girls in our groups. I really appreciates the time we had together to bond before the trip so it can run smoothly and be a fruitful trip for all of us. It is always nice to meet new people and make new friends too!

In addition, I am also very gratified that the school arranged an earlier flight for us so we can get our rest after the long flight in Beijing first. Besides that, the flight experience was delectable. We were given pillows and blankets, the food was better than what we expected of plane food, the service of the air crews is commendable too and we were not bored at all! We had the chance to watch up-to-date movies, a variety of songs and I WAS REALLY DELIGHTED TO FIND BIG BANG THEORY latest series!

Min Jun introduced us to a new tour guide, Wang Shi Fu, explaining that a Tianjin tour guide would know the roads better as the roads in Tian Jin is way more complicated than those of Beijing, which are divided into 4 directions, North, South, East and West. The bus journey was really long and tedious as it was all the way from Beijing to Tianjin. It was a total of 1.5 hours ride. 

The first place we were introduced to was the famous Tianjin's famous Culture Street and Food Street. This was where we had our first meal in China too. 

What amazed me was the fact that we were given a fresh new set of utensils in this restaurant. This assured of the cleanliness of the utensils. However, the first meal turned out to be rather salty and the fish had a lot of bones on. So the group did not have much appetite to eat so there were a lot of leftovers. Also, I had to use the toilet urgently but the door could not be locked and the toilet was horribly dirty so Jeannie helped me hold the door in the end. The toilets in China were really bad and we could smell it from a distance away. This made me appreciate our clean city and the efforts of the cleaners to keep the public toilets clean. 

We also managed to try Tian Jin must-try delicacy, Guo Bu Li Bun during our lunch and find it similar to our Chicken Bun in Singapore except that it is not as big and filling.

We truly had a cultural shock over the food in China for the first time as they are much more saltier than Singapore's food and we were not skillful at eating the fish which had bones! That was probably the meal that we had the littlest. 

We were given an hour for some shopping in the Tian Jin Food street and I was really tempted to get the vintage China pouches but there were really overpriced so I spent on food instead.

I brought the Ginger Sweet back for my family, friends and relatives as it was done on the spot which is rather fresh and the way the man handled the sweet seemed to give the sweet a good taste and elasticity.

Other than that, I also brought mobile phone straps and charms for my mother who is in love with Chinese traditional artistic items.

Following the day was a visit to the Ancient Culture Street (Gu Wenhua Jie). I read up about this place on the net beforehand, it is a cultural and tourist area that recreates an ancient Chinese street with many colorful shops and temples.

I am amazed and impressed by the beautiful and delicate structures of this street. Every part of it is filled with China's culture. We went like 'wow' all the time when we walked through the streets. I can imagine how much efforts were put in just for a small of the decorations.

We also got to try the Soft Cake sold in the street which has a rich taste of milk, strawberry and chocolate. It was a rather nice snack and dissolves as we chew on. I also managed to get myself rings and bargained successfully.

Besides that, we visited a store which sells non-authentic designer goods that looked so much like the real ones we ourselves carried. This relates back to China's forte of  manufacturing goods that are almost similar to designer goods.

I also saw two old men displaying their calligraphy skills by painting Chinese quotes on the concrete ground at the streets. 

This made me feel that Chinese are very artistic, in a different way from the Westerners. 

Chinese can be very delicate and exquisite in their art works and creations.

For day 2 of the trip, we had our first company visit to Yakult Company, Tianjin, the factory in Tian Jin. To arrive there, we had to endure a 1-1.5 hours bus ride.

Although we were too groggy to think, I really appreciated how Wang Shi Fu drove us from one place to another, fighting against the time to get to the places and how bubbly he behaved. It is definitely how easy to drive a total of over 40 people on a bus through the kind of traffic in China, having to honk at careless drivers all the time and keeping our safety and the time in mind. 

 On the normal streets of China, I would feel that the environment is very dusty and dirty as there is a lot of dusts and litter around. However, when we arrived at the streets where Yakult Company is, it was really clean and hygienic. This gives me a good impression of hygiene in the drinks' company.

We were introduced to Miss Zhou, the production manager of Yakult, Tian Jin where she did a in-depth introduction on the company's operations and the differences in products in China. 

There are actually other production lines like medicines, yogurts, instant noodles and cosmetics that we did not know of as Singapore only carries Yakult's drinks.

Yakult actually has 70 years of history and was started by Minoru Shirota which came up with the special strain of bacterium, Lactobacillus Casei. In 1 bottle alone, there is 100 billion Lactobacillus Casei to fight off the bacteria in our digestive system.

n China, they adopted a way of only selling the Yakult probiotic drink in places where they have the factories in so as to supply fresh yakult drink to consumers.

Every single step of the production is under tight security and control. There are a total of 11 steps inclusive of destroying bacteria, storage, mixing and molding to get the perfect end product and most effective probiotic drink.

Here are some of the complimentary products Yakult gave to the loyal consumers. 

Some other products Yakult produces that we might not seen before.

After a short tour, we were seated in the conference room and given a booklet on Yakult and a cute Yakult keychain.

We also discovered that Yakult, China only carries 1 favor of Yakult which is the original one and they do not practise the usage of straw which can encourage bacteria growth.

On every bottle, there would be a manufacturing date printed unless Singapore who has the expiry date printed on. The Yakult we got to drink was really fresh, just few days old! 

We were later further introduced via the video on Yakult's background information, current achievements and future goals. We also had a Q & A session where the group asked the production manager and the staff about the operations of Yakult etc.

We got to know that Yakult has their own Yakult Mama to deliver the drinks to homes daily to allow consumers to enjoy fresh drinks and mothers are preferred as it is more dearly and engaging.

We also got to know that the factory is highly machine-operated and has only 70 workers in line. Their wages is around 3,000 RMB which is $600 Singapore dollars. 

Aftermath, we got to tour around the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City since it was not ready yet. It is the 2nd flagship Government-to-Government project between Singapore and China after Suzhou Industrial Park. The project was mooted by then Singapore Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in April 2007, against the backdrop of rapid urbanisation and increasing global attention on the importance of sustainable development. On 18 November 2007, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao signed a Framework Agreement for Singapore and China to jointly develop Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city.

We also passed by many breath-taking structures on our way to the restaurant we were having lunch 

The minute we stepped in, we were amazed by the efforts of the decorations for exhibition. Every corner of the whole exhibition is being taken care of. Mr Zhao was the speaker of the exhibition while Mr Li was the representative. 

The scripture depicts many different sights of the people who trade via sea in the older days. This however shows a group of people protecting their port by using the canon.

We walked further in the exhibition and all the items displayed are of the actual artifacts left over or otherwise, made as similar as the original according to scale like 1:7.

These are the real seashells on the shores.

How a trading ship looks like, 1:7 proportion since the real one would not be able to fit here.

There are many boards with description to explain more in-depth history of every piece of artifacts.

This is a picture of the Tianjin Port as a whole.

In relationship to this ship, Mr Zhao told us that the ship was for illegal immigrants and the owner of the ship will use them as free labor and in return, providing them with a shelter. However, they were purely for labor purposes. When the workers fall sick, they were left to die. And if they do, they were thrown down the sea and new immigrants were nabbed to replace the old ones.

This gives us a deeper knowledge of what was going on in sea trade in the past.

The lines on the map represents different possible routes established for sea trade. Friendship ports would include Spain, Netherlands, South Korea, Japan, France, Australia, USA and Italy. Many transportation like sea routes, internal waterways, rail roads, high ways, airports, pry ports were established.

Equipment used while travelling via sea.

After which, we headed to the actual Tian Jin sea port to take a good look of the actual operations and cargo.

We snapped so much photographs at the port as the place was so beautiful. We really got a good opportunity to visit the place we might never visit, a sea port! 

In the end, we visited the same restaurant for dinner again. The dinner was better than the previous day and we asked for permission to have some fun at the seaside for lantern releasing!

While we were arriving at the restaurant, we noticed the lantern being released by people there and wishes were written down for them to reach the sky and come true.

This was the lantern that we chose with the wishes and names written on it. It was also paid by Mr Ong!

We sat and talked by the beautiful seaside. Tian Jin can be so beautiful aand peaceful at night.

That pretty much summarized the two days stay in Tian Jin.