Today, we listened to an Associate Professor and Dean Assistant on foreign affairs in the School of Environmental Science and Engineering give a lecture titled, “Environmental Issues of Shanghai, and It’s Sustainable Development” at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Here is a sample of some of the things I learned:

–          Shanghai’s environmental issues include water, air, solid waste, and noise (I hadn’t really thought about how noise could be an environmental issue before).

–          With its increase in GDP, Shanghai has increased its investment in environmental protection.

–          Shanghai’s hottest months are July and August, and its coldest are January and February.

–          At the national level, the Special Project on Water Pollution has a Three Year Environmental Action Plan it’s implementing.

–          The professor defined sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

–          The professor said she feels that the topic of the environment is accurately represented in the media, and that people are generally aware of the environment (it’s issues).

Before I came to Shanghai, I was expecting lots of visible pollution in the sky. I wasn’t expecting a nice light blue sky. Granted, this is just one week out of the year, but I would not have believed there not being visible pollution in the sky had I not come to Shanghai and seen it for myself. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to come here and see, listen, and learn.

Jie Wang, the Dean of the School of Humanities, gave the second lecture. Here is a sample of some of the things I learned from his lecture:

–          There are three ways SJTU recruits students: by the national exam score, through active recruitment, and if the student has a special talent, such as athletics or music.

–          Every year, SJTU admits 3,500 undergraduates and about 3,500 graduate students.

–          SJTU has several colleges, two of which cooperate with international schools (one with the University of Michigan and the other with the University of Paris, in technology and engineering, respectively).

–          The idea that the country had to be saved by STEM fields has been around for a long time (after the Sino-Japanese war, the government wanted to strengthen China in these fields).

–          There are three types of scholarships – central government scholarships, university scholarships, and corporate scholarships. It costs about $500 a year to attend SJTU, and the dean said that there isn’t really a financial burden on families to pay the cost.

–          SJTU’s goal is to develop students in an economic, ability, and moral sense.

Before I listened to the dean speak, I had thought that extracurriculars were not heavily emphasized in China, because I had given a tour to a group of English-Language teachers from northern China before the trip, and one of the teachers I spoke to said she always had her head in the books, and did not do any extracurriculars.

–          A prime example of generalizing being a bad idea.

The dean said that China’s trend is focusing more on extracurriculars, not the opposite. The dean said that the university actually invests money and funds students to compete in competitions, and the students can get credit for extracurriculars too. Going to Shanghai got rid of that perception for me.

Also, SJTU’s School of Media and Design is ranked 10^th in China.

Later, we visited the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center, which gave an amazing glimpse into future plans for the city.