Arriving at the school

The first thing I noticed when I got to Nanyang was how modern and clean everything looked. The campus felt really well organized and put together, and you could tell right away that it was a serious environment for learning. It was not what I expected a high school to look like and it made a strong first impression on me.

For the day I was paired with a student who showed me around campus and walked me through what daily life is like there. He was really friendly and easy to talk to, which made it a lot easier to actually learn about what school is like in China. Just from talking with him I could see how structured and academically focused their routines are compared to what I am used to at home. The school day is longer and the expectations are higher in a way that was pretty clear just from our conversations.

The robotics class

The most interesting part of the day was getting to participate in a robotics class. My partner and I actually built an AI powered dog robot from scratch, which was something I had never done before. We physically connected all the wires and components to put it together and then used a computer to program it, so it was both hands on and technical at the same time. It was one of the coolest things I got to do on the whole trip.

What surprised me the most was that we used DeepSeek AI to program it, which was completely new to me. I had never worked with it before and I did not know it was being used in classrooms like that. It made me realize how far ahead Chinese high school students are in STEM, especially when it comes to coding and artificial intelligence. The fact that they are doing things like this in a regular class period says a lot about where their education system is focused.

Lunch and everyday life

I also got to eat lunch with the students in the school cafeteria, which gave me a better sense of what a normal day looks like for them. The meal came in separate containers and had white rice, a stir fried corn and vegetable mix, black fungus noodles, braised tofu cubes, and a glazed fried pork dish that tasted like sweet and sour pork. Everything was really good and it was a lot more food than I expected. It was a small thing but eating the same lunch as the students made the experience feel more real and gave me a genuine look into their everyday routine rather than just the academic side of things.

History and significance

Shanghai Nanyang Model High School was founded in 1901, which makes it one of the oldest and most prestigious high schools in all of Shanghai. It has built a strong reputation over more than a century, especially in science, engineering, and technology. Being there and seeing how the school operates today, it is easy to understand why it has that reputation.

The school is a good reflection of the Chinese education system as a whole, which puts a heavy emphasis on discipline, hard work, and high academic performance. A big part of that is preparing for the Gaokao, which is a highly competitive national exam that plays a major role in determining where students go to college. The pressure around that exam shapes a lot of how students approach their studies and how seriously they take school in general.

In recent years the school has also made a strong push to bring technology and artificial intelligence into the classroom, which lines up with what I experienced in the robotics class. The school represents what China is trying to build when it comes to education, which is a generation of students who are ready to lead in innovation and technology. Visiting gave me a lot of respect for how seriously they take that goal.

Chinese vocabulary

南洋模范 Nányáng mófàn -Nanyang Model (School)

高考 Gāokǎo - National college entrance exam

机器人Jīqìrén - Robot

人工智能 Réngōng zhìnéng - Artificial intelligence

科技 Kējì - Science and technology
午饭 Wǔfàn - Lunch

编程 Biānchéng - Programming / coding

学生生活 Xuéshēng shēnghuó - Student life