Going to ALP was one of the goals I wanted to pursue during my freshmore year. Having been enrolled into the ALP programme, I had always wanted to head around with my friends to any places in China and spend times exploring with them. One month ago, in early June, my friends and I had plans to head to Shanghai. However, we rescheduled our trip owing to a few of my friends’ hectic project schedules. Finally, a month long of wait for all of us was over when my friends finished their first project just last week. We all headed to Shanghai eagerly, celebrating the end of my friends first milestone.
Having read on Shanghai’s food and also the wide spread of international delicacies they offer, trying their food there made my mouth water. Our first meal was at a famous dumpling shop in Shanghai, which my roommate recommended. We ordered their famous meat 小笼包(Xiao Long Bao), their 麻酱面(Peanut sauce noodles), beef brisket noodles and soup dumplings. The sight of food was so pleasing I could not wait to take a bite to the spread of food in front of me! Thumbs up to the 小笼包 too, the soup inside the dumpling just exploded within my mouth, making me appreciate the taste. The meat had a soft and chewy texture, which I savoured. After lunch, we headed to a shop selling famous Japanese icecream, which the flavour was cream cheese! Once again, its flavor melted in my mouth, the cheese and cream just complemented one another well, and it was only for the price of 4 yuan!
Later in the evening, my friends and I headed to the CBD area of Shanghai. We admired the city skyline of Shanghai from The Bund, taking in every moment of it. I also had the opportunity to try the famous cheese tarts in one of the shops in the CBD. Then, my friends and I headed to Cloud 9, a bar on the 87th floor of the Jin Mao tower. We changed lifts 3 times, one heading up to the Grand Hyatt Hotel Shanghai on the 54th floor, then to a mezzanine floor on the 85th floor, and finally up to our bar on the 87th floor. The scenery up there was breathtaking, and we could see Shanghai from afar. We enjoyed the time up there to a serving of whisky or cocktails, and dug into good tiramisu and icecream. The experience was really worth it!
The next day was the day everyone looked forward to; it was Disneyland day! As it was the school holidays, long queues flooded the entrance into the park. Nonetheless, we queued patiently, waiting for our turn to enter the park. Once inside, we had a wild time trying the different rides the theme park had to offer. I would say the best ride of the day goes to the Tron Lightcycle Power Run, which everyone screamed their hearts out for a full 2 minutes and had a good thrill. We queued for only 15 minutes using the Fastpass option, where a non-fastpass option was 105 minutes. Worth the effort! The day ended with a spectacular firework display at the Disneyland castle, and everyone left Disneyland, tired but contented.
Our last day was visiting around Shanghai. We headed to Yuyuan garden to admire the plants around the garden. Being a nature person, taking time to admire plants made me feel relaxed and I enjoyed the experience. Then, we headed to Shanghai natural History Museum where we got the opportunity to understand the evolution of the animals around us and how humans evolved to suit the surroundings around them.
Walking along the old street in Shanghai
At Yuyuan Garden:
Visiting the Natural History Museum:
And that was our trip to Shanghai! We all couldn’t bear to leave
Well, all trips must end off with a momento to remember the experience, likewise I got a little something for my first trip to Shanghai with my friends.
This week, our subteam, resin table also tried out different methods on making resin art. Unlike the previous weeks where we explored resin through pouring them into moulds and making the art inside the mould, this week we explored pouring resin onto surfaces and making art on surfaces. Also, our subteam decides to pursue the making of a resin table with a weather forecasting system, where we needed to come up with sketches for our proposed designs for our resin table.
This week, I also headed to 龙井八景, a nature park in Hangzhou. I won’t say much for this nature park, but let you be immersed in the pictures I took.
A good week ends off with good food. To satisfy my craving for Japanese food and good ice-cream, I headed to a Japanese restaurant in Houjie and had egg cutlet strawberry icecream.
What a great week it has been!
