During the November and December school holidays I went overseas two times, one of them was the nine days eight night trip to China by the school.The other was the eight days trip to Taiwan with my family.

China is a country rich in culture and I feel lucky to have experience some of it, from the tea plantation, Xi Xi Wetland Park, silk factory and even learning a bit of Tai Chi. The Tai chi lesson at Qi Du sec school was very funny because some of us could not keep up with the teacher’s movements and ended up looking comical. What I remember most is The Silk factory. It was very interesting as I have never been to one before, I learnt about various life-cycle stages of the silkworm. Amazingly the silkworm creates its cocoon out of a single silk thread that is continuous and when rolled out is a very long distance. The cocoons are killed in hot water and a machine will unravel the cocoon into silk thread to be combined to become thicker and dyed.
I noticed that the students in Qidu were very serious during lesson time. Their lessons also ended very late, about evening time. The hostel stay In Qidu was not what I expected as the facilities there were not very good but the students there did not seem to notice. We can learn from them, how well they adapt to problems. From the hostel stay it made me move out of my comfort zone and gave me an appreciation for what I have in Singapore that I took for granted.

The trip to Taiwan combined both fun,food and learning as I learnt more about the history of Taiwan and a bit of geography as I visited as amazing sights of places such as Yehliu,Ami aboriginal cultural village,earthquake museum,pahsien cave and many more... One of my favorite places was Yehliu ,a place with natural rock formations and great scenery,thus, I took many pictures there.I also tried and tasted many of Taiwan's mouthwatering local snacks. The trip to Taiwan helped Borden my perspective even more.I really enjoyed the trip.