Nankai University: Reflections by Group 1

2 Days, 2 Nationalities, 2 Streets.

1 Long & Everlasting love, 1 Unforgettable Nankai Experience.

南开大学 Day 1

Our Nankai Journey begins

On the first day to Nankai, we were received by 金萧 and he gave us a brief guided tour of the school grounds. The school has an illustrious history with strong grounding in the economic and life sciences field. Its School of Business and Economics is one of the earliest schools of its kind to be set up in China and one of the top of its kind in the country.

The president of the university, Mr Rao Zihe, gave us an outlook on the university’s future plans and expressed regret that the period of exchange was short and fleeting, and hoped for future programmes to have a longer period of interaction between the students of our two countries i.e. semester long student exchange programmes.

文以治国，理以强国，商以富国

This quotation that was shown in the school introductory video and also seen on a banner during the school tour left an impression on us as it was a highly concise and precise statement that was not only sensible, but full of wisdom. Simply put: Nankai’s multidisciplinary approach in the 3 important functional areas would result in the production of future leaders that will rule, strengthen, and create wealth for the country.

This is the only picture of the exhibition as taking of photographs are regrettably strictly prohibited.

After lunch, we visited the Tianjin Planning Exhibition Hall. The visit was an eye-opener as we were able to see the future economic potential of Tianjin. The city hopes to contribute to the China economy by undertaking 3 major roles: to be a port hub (sounds familiar); an important administrative centre (hub) for the Northern part of China; and also a sustainable eco-city(hub).

The exhibition hall had numerous architectural model displays on the various planned developments and what was especially interesting to the Singapore contingent was the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City project. It would be the 2^nd significant bilateral project that China and Singapore are participating in after the success of the Singapore-Suzhou Industrial Park. If successful, the eco-city will be an example that other Chinese cities can emulate in order to promote sustainable development, which has lately become a chief global concern due to the fact that climate change is becoming a very prevalent and pertinent issue. It is going to be hard to balance the pace versus sustainability of development for a rapidly developing nation like China, and this collaboration is the first step in the right direction to attempt to address the problem.

After visiting the exhibition hall many of us were in a deeply contemplative mood. What we saw was that many of the industries and economic activities that Tianjin is pursuing are somewhat similar to Singapore’s, albeit at a larger scale due to the abundance of land space and resources. Being the future leaders of Singapore, the visit to the exhibition hall gave us a stern reminder that Singapore’s current economic position cannot be taken for granted and for us to stay competitive, we have to keep innovating and work hard to stay ahead.

We then proceeded to tour 意式风情街, or Italian Street. This tourist spot has a rich Italian flavour and many couples can be seen taking their wedding pictures there, making use of the unique surroundings that stands out in the city.

Marco Polo Square

For those interested in history, and feel like you will be shortchanged should you not be given a brief introduction of the street, because you are bewildered why there are European-styled buildings found in China, here is a brief introduction of the origins of the street in Chinese.

天津意式风情街-风情街的由来

公元20世纪初的天津，曾经有8个国家在此设立了租界。洋人们在这里建造了不少欧式风格的建筑，供自己办公和居住。其中意大利的租界的地点就位于现在北安桥和天津火车站之间。1902年，意大利任命一个叫费洛梯(filete)的海军陆战队的中尉做项目经理，负责意租界的规化和建设，这就么一个机会，一个普通的意大利人永远地载入了天津的历史。在租界建设过程中，以马可波罗广场为中心建造了完整的道路网及完备的公用设施，建造房屋要求以意大利花园别墅为主，并严格规定沿街建筑不许雷同。意大利风情区的开发建设，充分利用这个地区独特的历史文化资源，以体现浓郁的意大利风情为宗旨，将风情区建设成为集旅游、商贸、休闲、娱乐和文博为一体的综合性多功能区。

Source: http://www.hudong.com/wiki/天津意式风情街

Bonus feature: Nice flower spotted on Italian Street

南开大学 Day 2

On the second day of the Nankai programme, we had the opportunity to attend a highly insightful macroeconomics lecture on the economic status of China and its growth plans for the future.

We were extremely lucky to be able to watch and listen to a Chinese Ochestra performance in which all the members consisted of professional instrument instructors who are currently teaching Nankai students. It was tremendously enjoyable and the most memorable song was 十面埋伏，a pipa solo by one of the teachers. Below is his picture, the first few strums of the song was full of force and flavour, it was nothing short of orgasmic (for lack of a better word to describe the mind-blowing nature of the song).

Thereafter, the Nankai students brought us to 古文化街, an Ancient Cultural street in Tianjin’s Nankai District. This street existed since the Ming Dynasty, but has since been restored and converted to a tourist destination.

One of the centerpieces of the restored cultural street is 天后宫, which now also showcases various aspects of Tianjin’s customs and traditions.

Just outside 天后宫

古文化街 truly gave us a peek into Tianjin’s rich heritage: from the architecture to the quaint stalls selling unique musical instruments, the artists and calligraphers promoting their paintings at their booths, and the array of street food available and the smells they emitted; these allowed us to step back in time and envision how life in Tianjin used to be.

Artistic impression of the cultural street with flower in focus and the background blurred but still distinguishable

Indeed Tianjin has developed much since then, and will undoubtedly continue to develop even more rapidly in the years to come. In light of this, our trip to 古文化街 was even more meaningful because we were able to visit a part of China that, though commercialised, still captured a whiff of the China that once was.

Sadly, it was at 古文化街 that we bid farewell to our Nankai friends. 所谓天下无不散之筵席，终于到了离别的时候。It is with much regret that the programme with Nankai only lasted for a span of 2 short days. Somehow there is a feeling of extreme emptiness, like a part of your heart is being ripped out. These are wonderful friends that we have just made over the 2 legs of the programme, and we might have the chance of never seeing them again. There is just so much more to do, so much more to say. We can only tell our treasured friends: 保重，后会有期。

We are also very much touched by their hospitality and sacrifice, being awesome hosts while in the midst of their exams preparation, which was really very close (equivalent to our reading week period). The fact that they spent their time in the cold night waiting outside our hotel on our day of arrival to make us feel at home warmed our hearts. It was a really fruitful trip to Nankai, and it provided the first glimpse of the famous Chinese hospitality that made us look forward to the rest of the subsequent visits to the other universities. The Nankai journey, was definitely one to be remembered.