25 sept 2010
Visit to the Singapore Pavilion
· The structure is eco-friendly.
· Several tv slow by 2 secs.
· There are four poles representing multi-racial.
· The sky garden representing Singapore garden city and there is one orchid that is specially breeded from Singapore to improve the bilateral relations between Singapore and shanghai.
· The four drums are to be beat together as one symphony.
· F1 prove that Singapore has the potential to host such major event.
· Our four famous Singapore singers that happens to be in a same region and famous in China, sang a song to show the lifestyle, culture of Singapore.
· Treating water as a precious natural resource.
· Lunch – Soft ice cream and the coconut – how the coconut is being cut.
· The World Expo has lots of high technologies such as the coin-making machine and a pre-paid card machine which has a webcam to capture your face.
Singapore Pavilion
Today is the day we got to do our attachment at the Singapore Pavilion.
Basically our team had to do the morning shift , then the another teams had to do the afternoon shift. When we enter the Singapore Pavilion, we are firstly attracted to the music played in it. It happens to be a “water-ballad” dance performance. We enjoyed watching the performance because seeing the performers dance with the water fountain was something delightful for us and probably it was our first time seeing this kind of performance.
They even get to entertain/interact the audience by using the umbrellas and trying to splash them with water. But during the performance, something caught our attention and we were disgusted by it – a young girl urinating on the floor. We were not surprised of such action because we knew the culture behaviour of the China people. Anyway, after watching the delightful performance, we headed to the staff lounge for a briefing by the Singapore Pavilion tour guide.
Our tour guide happens to be from Singapore, studying in Temasek Polytechnic and has come here to work for her internship. We were very satisfied on how she briefed us throughout the whole tour. Firstly, we were brought to the first level to see the structure of Singapore. The structure there was eco-friendly and also on each pillar, there are televisions on it to show that Singapore do look back at their past since it is a country that has a rapid development over the years.
The special thing is that the video played on the television was slowed by 2 seconds from the first pillar to the last pillar. Also, there are four poles that shows the different multi-racial in Singapore and one of it has drums that can played as one symphony. Then, there is also a F1 booth which can let people to give it a try on what’s like to be on a F1 car, similar to the arcade game that we have in Singapore. After that, we headed to the second level which is the theatre part. We watched a 7-minute music video that was specially sang by our four famous Singapore singers – Stefanie Sun, JJ Lin, Ah Du and Tanya Chua. It was a video to show the lifestyle and culture of Singapore. We enjoyed it a lot after watching it. Then, the last part, we went to the third level which is known as the “Hanging Garden/Sky Garden” that is landscape with mysterious flora. It was beautiful. After that, we ended our journey in Singapore Pavilion.
They provided us lunch and it was authentic chicken rice from Singapore! We were all delighted as we really missed the food in Singapore, especially the chicken rice chilli! It was really delicious and what all of us gobbled down our food. However, they also changed the chicken rice of what we have in Singapore to cater to the taste of the locals here in China. For example, they had a side dish of glass noodles and fungus and the chicken is also steamed instead of roasted as that’s what most Chinese likes.
Shopping at Xin Tian Di
After dinner, our group proceeded to the French Concession area – Xin Tian Di. The Xin Tian Di is a preservation of the French history and have managed to maintain the authenticity of the area. Structures such as buildings very much resemble what we can find in Europe and this gives us a whole new experience. The past few days has been a lot about China and its cultures. However, tonight at Xin Tian Di it did not feel like China somehow.
Xin Tian Di is a frequent spot for the foreigners especially the Europeans and are usually for the rich that are less price sensitive. In fact in this area, there are usually more foreigners than locals. As we walked along the streets and malls of Xin Tian Di, we realised that it is like a mixture of Singapore’s Paragon and Clark Quay. Shopping was expensive with retail shops like Miss Sixty, G Star Raw and there were even Rolls Royce and Lamborghini. There were restaurants along the streets and tourists come here for a drink, meal or just to chill out.
At the end of the day, we have reflected on several issues:
1. Singapore Pavilion is showing the world that Singapore is what it is due to the combine effort of the entire citizen in Singapore.
2. Singapore appreciate the close bond they share with Shanghai by actually having the effort to breed a new species of Orchid just to meet such purpose
3. To put an end to the World Expo, we believe that China has done a good job as a host since though the government is losing money from this, they are able to convey the message to the world and their local which is “Better City, Better Life” They have thought us various way of living a green life, To those local that went to the pavilion, they are thought the ways that they can contribute to ensure that they can keep their part to keep their country a leading Eco friendly Country
4. Xin Tian Di we have experience a different side of Shanghai in which is the “Rich” Local hangout. Since our guide mention that at night this place with either foreigner or people with top position jobs.
5. Lastly and Importantly we learn that in China, the motorist does not give way to pedestrian. In other words priority is given to the vehicle which we find rather weird, ^^
Well that’s all for today.
Due stay tune for more.
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