Reflections by Wei Quan

Our journey for Sino-Singapore kicked off with a meeting in the Shaw Foundation House when all of us were still strangers to one another. However, the meeting turned out to be a fruitful one and we decided that the theme of the NUS leg was to be about Singapore’s sustainable development.

I would say that although the theme was decided rather late, we sprang into action immediately and the different groups came up with distinctively Singaporean programmes, which aimed to be both exciting and engaging. I am proud that the NUS team was able to do this and I am indeed honoured to be part of this team. With sheer determination and hard work, we managed to pull off a decent programme for the Chinese delegates, which we hoped would thrill and excite them.

The day finally arrived when the Chinese delegates touched down on our shores. Our NUS contingent was the only force present at the Airport, shouting “欢迎” loudly which indeed left a deep impression in the minds of many Chinese delegates. This was the start of the NUS’ hospitality and many Chinese students immediately felt our kind gesture.

Following up was a memorable trip to the Sentosa. To be honest, even we as Singaporeans had a whale of time at Sentosa as we were amazed by the rapid development and the mushrooming of new facilities. This was also our first encounter with the Chinese students, who were friendly and we hit it off rather easily. Of course, nobody would forget the birthday celebration that became like a mini press conference, where all of us took out our cameras and started snapping photos of the birthday boys and girls.

The NUS participants were honoured to host the Chinese students for two days, where we brought them around NUS to enjoy the scenery and the good food (I hope so!!) in our campus. The highlight of our programme was the heritage cum sustainability tour around Singapore, during which my group brought them to the National Library and Kampong Glam. At the National Library, we learnt more about the energy efficiency of the building and marveled at how the tweaking of simple designs actually helped save the earth. Of course, the happiest thing was that we had the privilege of enjoying the city’s panorama from the top floor of the National Library which is normally closed to the public.

Our visit to the Sultan Mosque was also full of surprises. Our speaker, who introduced Islam to us at the Mosque, was surprisingly a Chinese Muslim! Only after our conversation with the staff of the mosque did we discover that the mosque actually put in effort to find a Chinese to speak to our Chinese delegates so that they could understand Islam better. The Chinese were also delighted at the fact that they were able to don on the traditional Malay costume. What was an interactive way for them to know more about Islam.

The Singapore leg of the programme ended off with our sending off of the Chinese delegates at the Airport. There were no tears, but smiles, hugs and also the overweight luggage of our Chinese friends. Friendships were forged, not only among the NUS students in this programme, but also with other local universities and not forgetting our Chinese friends. Everyone is looking forward to the second leg in China where we will once again be reunited.