When i tried to upload the site, it took a very long time to upload. My question is, do i have to upload all the site folders?

Yes! you have to upload all the site folders and it takes a while cos of internet speeds

If you want to avoid uploading that much, you can install it from your webhost. some webhost
have functions for you to install joomla from your panel. That way, you'll only need to upload
your template, database and change a few configurations.

If you must upload, it might help to disable the timeout limit on filezilla.

Most webservers can unzip. So I recommend zipping your whole site in one zip, maintaining the folders as they are and then unzip with your webserver when uploaded.
In simple steps,
browse and locate your site locally,
from inside the folder 'select all', right click and 'send to' Compressed Zipped folder. That way when you upload and unzip to your root folder, all your site folders will show up and not just one folder containing all the other folders,
Of course upload with filezilla.
Then sit back and enjoy!
Hope this is helpful.