By the time you read this, local actress Felicia Chin would have already unpacked her bags and settled into her pad in Shanghai, China, where she will live for the next year.

The 27-year-old former MediaCorp artiste gave her last interview on Tuesday at a press conference for the Channel 8 drama Don't Stop Believin'.

The very next day, she flew off for her internship with a media company in the Chinese city.

Chin left showbiz arguably at the height of her career in 2010 to pursue undergraduate studies at the National University of Singapore's business faculty.

Despite being a full-time student, she managed to squeeze in acting gigs during her term breaks with shows like Love Thy Neighbour.

But for now, it's officially "so long" to the small screen.

In Don't Stop Believin', which premieres on Aug 14 at 9pm, Chin plays a teacher who only sees the good in her students.

Fellow teachers-cum-love interests in the drama are played by Elvin Ng and Romeo Tan, while Ian Fang and Edwin Goh are her students.

Chin said Shanghai-born Fang was "very sweet" and told her recently where to get the yummiest food while she's there, after she "complained" of having nothing but chicken curry during a familiarisation trip to the city a few weeks ago.

"I didn't know what to eat, so I just ate something (for the sake of eating)," she told The New Paper.

But now that Fang has given her tips on where to eat, she said she's better prepared.

"The locals (like Fang) know where to eat the good stuff.

"Still, the chilli in China tastes different from that in Singapore, so I will miss that the most and will probably take some with me."

Chin will stay on her own even though there are 10 others on the attachment programme, a course requirement before they graduate next year.

She said she took up the internship because it was related to the movie industry - she will learn to market Hollywood movies in China.

Admitting she has no concrete plans regarding her future, Chin told TNP she will play it by ear as she still has sometime.

"I haven't thought about going back to MediaCorp full time, but anything is possible," she said.

Apart from her interests in film and acting, Chin is also an avid animal lover, an attachment nurtured from childhood when she used to rescue caterpillars found in the vegetables her mum would bring home from the wet market. She kept them as pets, she said.

When she turned 18, she spent a few months working at the Singapore Zoo, cleaning cages and hosting shows.

She has certainly come a long way since.

"Actually, I never thought I'd end up being an actress when I was working at the zoo.

Cleaning the cages was quite an experience.

"It was only for a few months, but it felt like a few years," she said. "If I didn't start acting, I think I would have been a zookeeper."

And she isn't ruling that out.

But that certainly would not sit well with her quirky view on bathing - something she doesn't enjoy at all.

Said Chin with a laugh: "I don't see the logic behind bathing. How I wish we don't have to spend so much time doing it.

"Whenever I'm in the shower, I take a long time but I feel happy after it because I feel refreshed.

"(But if given a choice) I'd prefer sleeping to bathing!"

There's a reason she dislikes spending time in the bathroom.

When she was younger, she used to let her imagination run wild, pretending she was a pirate or someone else.

Chin said she would climb the pipes in the bathroom and think up scenarios for her "stories" - and that included mixing her shampoo into a "pirate concoction".

That infuriated her mother, who chided her for spending so much time in the bathroom and messing up the soap and shampoo.

So why does she now take less time to shower?

It's because she has fulfilled all her role-playing fantasies on screen, she joked.

This article was first published in The New Paper.