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POLI/ASIA 347: Urban Lab Shanghai
The student blog for Rice University's Urban Lab in Shanghai.
 

Posts Tagged ‘Shanghai’

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Day 3 Reflection – Melissa

March 3rd, 2014 by mrv3

There are two main takeaways from today’s experiences in Shanghai, and they are related to each other.  The first is that going to certain parts of Shanghai feels like stepping into the future.  The second is that urban planning is much more complex and insane and thorough than I assumed it would be.

This morning, we visited the Lujiazui area of Shanghai.  It is the fancy financial district with lots of banking and financial towers, the location of three of the tallest towers in China (including the new Shanghai Tower, which is fabulous and also terrifying!).  We went to the observation deck at the top of the Shanghai World Financial Center, which was impressive but unfortunately not as exciting as I expected it to be, mostly  because there was a glare on the windows and the “glass floor” was very disappointing.  However, the morning was incredible simply because the walk around Lujiazui actually felt like strolling in a futuristic city – the roads are wide but cars are sparse, there are clean and wide pedestrian bridges throughout the entire area, the skyscrapers are numerous and sleek and shiny, and the people are all dressed in fancy business outfits.  It honestly felt like walking around in a movie set in the future.

Our lecture in the afternoon was a perfect compliment to the time-travel-like experience in Lujiazui.  We took a trip to Tongji University’s graduate campus, where we were given a lecture on urban planning inside the super-posh IKEA-esque modern and colorful Sino-Finnish center.  Urban planning is a subject in which I have absolutely no background, but I found the lecture fascinating.  The professor gave an enthusiastic and lengthy talk on general Shanghai urban planning and more specifically on his experience planning the 2010 World Expo (which I attended!  It was really amazing).  Although I didn’t understand the more abstract urban planning concepts and technical economic jargon in his presentation, it was interesting to learn about the immense amount and diversity of consideration that goes into planning cities.  I did not get the chance to ask questions related to my research topic (I wanted to ask about how urban planners accommodate mass amounts of rural-to-urban migration into their plans for housing), but I will send questions later.  I was not at all disappointed in the lecture, because it really fit nicely into the morning experience.  Having attended the lecture, it now makes much more sense why Lujiazui (and comparable areas in Tokyo, Taipei, Seoul, etc.) feel so futuristic – they’re planned with the future in mind.

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Day 1 – The Day of No Sleep

March 2nd, 2014 by mjr8

Day one had to be the craziest of them all. Not only did our flight leave at 12 A.M., but we also were scheduled to be in the air for over 15 hours on a direct flight from Houston to Beijing. In addition to that, we had two more hours to go because our destination is actually Shanghai. All in all we flew for around 17 hours. While it doesn’t sound entirely bad try doing it with constant turbulence, getting elbowed every 5 minutes by the person to your left, and do it when it is probably 50 degrees in the passenger section. This was absolute torture due to the fact that I could not sleep. Every time that I would doze off, thinking to myself that finally I can get some rest, we would hit more turbulent weather thus waking we up from my much needed slumber. At this point I was just anxious to get off and at least move around.

Watching the flight path and destination timer was probably the most reassuring aspect of it all because as the timer went from 15 to 10 to 5 to finally 1 hours till arrival, it finally hit me. We are going to China, a place that is halfway across the world and where most people have never been to. Despite the uncomfortable flight, I feel extremely grateful that I am able to participate in such a class that takes students overseas to do some field study work. During the last hour all this sense of joy and excitement started to pour in as I saw lights of Chinese cities below us, some 30,000 feet below. Before I knew it we touched down and taxied our way to our  terminal.

Stepping out on Chinese land was such a great feeling. I would have to say though, when we finally got to the main part of the airport I was impressed with the infrastructure. Truthfully, I was somewhat jealous because back in the U.S. our infrastructure is degrading, we have old airports, and we just don’t do anything about it. Even more impressive, the place was extremely clean. I swear I could not find trash anywhere on the ground. At this point most of my stereotypes of China has faded away, no longer being influenced by others as I get to see everything for MYSELF. I would admit that I came here a little bit skeptical, but overall I would say that is no longer the case. I now see that China is a great country with some problems, just like the U.S. or any other Western country.

Despite this, our journey was far from over. We still needed to make a connecting flight to Shanghai’s Pudong airport. This actually wasn’t so bad though because it would only last about 2 hours. So before we knew it we had landed and reached our final destination, yay! The journey was far from over though, due to the fact that we still needed to take a train and taxi to Jiao Tong University. The train that we took is called the Maglev. Little did I know this is actually the fastest passenger train in the world, traveling at speeds of up to 268 mph. To our disappointment we only traveled 300 km/h to our destination, but it is still much faster than anything in Houston that I know! The envy has just grown stronger and stronger at this point. Hey, United States government, you could learn some things from China as much as you probably deny it. Anyways…this train was extremely quick and smooth. It literally took us a few minutes to get to our stop. As soon as we get out and head down to the street level chaos ensued. There were maybe 10 different taxi drivers walking around and asking us if we needed a taxi, probably because we all had cameras, looked like tourists, and looked pretty clueless. Luckily we were accompanied by two Chinese professors so they knew exactly what to do. Finally, we found a competent driver who had agreed to take me, Evan, and CJ to Jiao Tung. I must say this before hand, though, taxi drivers in China are insanely bold. Our driver and another driver almost got into a fight just because our driver waited a minute or two to leave. I thought to myself, “this would never happen in the states,” but then again this isn’t the states. It is a different country with a different culture so I tried my best to understand why these things happen here in China.

As we drove along and got onto one of their highways I couldn’t help but notice that some of these people had very expensive cars. I had seen Porsche, BMWs, and Mercedes Benzs. Everytime you see China on the news or in foreign media it always portrays their citizens driving cars from the 1980s. This was definitely a huge surprise to me nonetheless. What was also a surprise was the pace at which the drivers drove. I swear that they have no regard for traffic signals, rules, or other drivers. We zoomed down the highway and roads at a slightly scary rate, avoiding a few potential collisions and accidents. Some 20 minutes later we finally arrived at Jiao Tung University! To our relief we only had one lecture that day so there was plenty time for rest and sight-seeing. Talking about sight seeing, that following night we traveled on the subway to go to the Bund. If you don’t know what that is, it is one of the most famous places in China and in the East. There are building styles that resemble Europe and Asia all conglomerated next to each other, making it a very unique place unlike many others. This had to have been the height of the day. I have seen many pictures of the Bund and the famous Shanghai skyline, but to actually be able to see it personally is amazing.

After we were done looking around at the many marvels the city has to offer we headed down Nanjing Road which happens to be one of the busiest shopping areas around. There were thousands upon thousands of people strolling down the streets. It was a little overwhelming, but I had gotten used to it, after all, being in a city of 20 million you have to. Ironically we avoided all the shopping and went straight to where the food was at. We had stopped at some little restaurant that professor Fung suggested because of  their tasty, steamed dumplings. I had only tried one, but that one was enough for me to know that they are, in fact, good at making dumplings. The time was maybe 8 o’clock local time when we finished , which would be 14 hours ahead of Houston. Due to this, we all were pretty jet lagged and were ready to call it a night. Shortly after dinner we took a taxi back to Jiao Tung University and slept like we never slept before.

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Day 3 – Yuyuan and City Temple, Shanghai Library, Shanghai Documentary Channel, and Tianzifang – Tina

March 2nd, 2014 by Tina

I felt good and ready to go today! After breakfast at the hotel, we visited Yuyuan, a gorgeous garden for the royal family during the Ming Dynasty.

Then, we went to the City Temple. It was interesting seeing so many people praying there. I guess I wasn’t expecting the Chinese people to be that religious before I came to China, for one reason or another.

Next, we had lunch at the oldest Vegetarian restaurant in Shanghai. Everything was really good, and as Evan mentioned, the vegetable “beef” tasted a lot like real beef.

After that, we went to the Shanghai Public Library and listened to the librarian; give a lecture titled “Shanghai in the Past Century.” She divided her talk into three sections – “Ancient Shanghai: A Traditional Town in the South of China,” “Modern Shanghai: A Treaty Port City,” and “Contemporary Shanghai: An International Metropolis.” Some interesting tidbits I learned about modern Shanghai (the librarian showed us a wonderful, witty video during her lecture):

–          It is the 8th largest city in the world

–          It has been described as the “Paris of the East”

–          While it is the largest Chinese city, it has the lowest fertility rate in the nation

–          Shanghai is sinking at a rate of 1.5 centimeters per year… yikes

–          Shanghai is the birthplace of Chinese theater

–          Shanghai consumes the most sugar out of all the other places in China

–          Shanghai’s Marriage Market – Google it

Next, we listened to someone from the Shanghai Documentary Channel. She showed us a portion of a documentary she had directed about Ürümqi, China, the place furthest away from an ocean in on the entire Earth. During her talk and the Q&A afterwards, I learned some interesting things about TV media in China:

–          The Chinese government owns TV stations, although the state is not responsible for the TV station profiting

–          Virtually no TV stations are privately owned in China

–          Each channel has a different team working on the corporate content

–          Not all documentaries are for governmental interests (the word used during the Q&A was “propaganda”)

–          Someone looks over the final product (documentary, in this case), but not for checking that a certain message has been sent to the public

–          Nowadays, the government outlines boundaries as to what TV media can’t do, as opposed to saying they need to do “x,y, or z”

–          People in the industry feel that the process of journalism/TV are moving more towards an open avenue

–          According to her, air pollution is not a very prohibited subject, as long as the government does not get the blame for the environmental issues

These points have painted a better picture of so-called press freedom in China than I expected going in, but I still raise my eyebrow at the Chinese government 1. owning all TV stations, and 2. outlining boundaries. This is, even if on minimally invasive level as her implied today, still press censorship. A free media is not obligated to answer to any third party but the public.

One of the most interesting things I learned from her was that when deciding on a topic to make a documentary out of, the documentary team will ask a range of half a pool of experts from various fields for suggestions. One thing Professor Fang mentioned is that even if experts propose things with no apparent third party hovering over them, they probably self-censor. Which brings me to…

At the end of the day, don’t all journalists self-censor? George Orwell put it interestingly – “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.” Writing for the campus newspaper, I don’t come across many stories that warrant me getting information someone else would “not want printed,” as people aren’t generally defensive about the location and details of the upcoming homecoming dance or sexual assault information talks at orientation week. But, I would imagine that covering more controversial stories would require a degree of self-censorship for the sake of getting at least some information to the public – for instance, if I were covering a new famous upcoming product, I would be able to find out details about its release and basic functions, but probably not its name, if the company was waiting for a big reveal. Therefore, the increase my chances of getting the former information, I would either wait until the end to ask about the name, or not ask out all, after feeling out the situation and determining where everyone stands.

On a more obvious level, journalists self-censor all the time because journalistic writing – pure, ethical, journalistic writing – is supposed to be objective. Being unbiased requires self-censorship; it requires holding back your own thoughts and opinions on the subject matter at hand.

Afterwards, we went shopping and sightseeing at Tianzifang, and we had Taiwanese food at a nice little restaurant in the area.

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Day 2 – Arrival, Education Lecture, and The Bund – Tina

March 2nd, 2014 by Tina

My first day in Shanghai was wonderful, but also tiring. We arrived at Pu Dong airport around 10:15 in the morning on Saturday (CST) and checked in at our hotel. Then, we had lunch and listened to a teacher from Shanghai Middle School and someone from the Municipal Education Commission. The points they covered were interesting, such as there being two types of public schools in Shanghai (the first being governed by Shanghai’s municipal government, and the second being governed by Shanghai’s districts), that private schools are considered better for junior high but not for high school, for which public schools are considered better, and that parents pay sky-high private tutoring fees for their children. Interestingly, I learned that high school campus newspaper cannot really criticize the administration, which is true for high school campus newspaper in the United States too, for the most part.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling well and had to excuse myself 20 minutes or so before the lecture ended. I ended up not visiting The Bund – and consequently missed the seeing the beautiful Shanghai skyline – with the group because I basically crawled into bed and collapsed, but I’m visiting on Saturday (our free day) with one of the other group members. I’m super excited about visiting! Everyone said it was amazing, and I can’t wait to go.

On the flight to Beijing, Professor Chen handed me a newspaper (China Daily) with two or three articles on air pollution in it. International flights typically have a free portable stand filled with newspapers before entering the physical plane (in the passageway), with its nation’s major newspapers. My project is on how journalists in Shanghai cover air pollution, and the fact that a major Chinese newspaper had a few articles on air pollution, and that said newspaper was being offered freely in such a public and international setting, was the first clue on the trip that journalists are able to report on air-pollution, and that China is not explicitly attempting to hide anything in regards to air pollution.

 

 

 

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Day 2 Reflection – Melissa

March 2nd, 2014 by mrv3

Today was a day of shopping, walking, and LOTS of picture-taking.  Oh, and food, of course.  We started off the morning with a beautiful walk through the Yuyuan Garden – it was actually perfect, because the weather was cool and clear and sunny, and it was not very crowded within the Garden itself.  We got split into two groups because my group wanted to take 5000 pictures at every spot (definitely worth it – we got so many fantastic photos out of the experience), and I think we spent more time at the Garden than we originally planned…but, like I said, completely worthwhile.  I went to the Yuyuan Garden last time I came to Shanghai, but this time around it was much more fun because the weather was too hot last time and there were too many other tourists.  After the Garden, we ate a delicious lunch of vegetarian cuisine and then walked around and shopped at the nearby market before heading over to the Shanghai Library for a lecture on Shanghai history and documentaries.  I really enjoyed the portion about documentaries, because I had previously never really thought about the time, work, and planning that goes into making documentaries.  It seems like a wonderful thing to be a part of – but also lots of stress.  We concluded the day with what should have been my favorite part (jetlag killed a bit of my fun today, so I was quite tired by the end), Tianzifang.  This area is absolutely perfect – Wikipedia describes it as an “arts and crafts enclave,” and I agree with this assessment, but it’s so much more.  There were stores selling arts and crafts, yes, but there were also themed restaurants, mini bars protruding into the narrow alleyways, fantastic and funny original t-shirt designs, teahouses with enticing aromas – I could go on and on, but it was fabulous.  I definitely plan on going back sometime!  But now it is time to sleep.  Peace.

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Day 2 Reflection – Evan

March 2nd, 2014 by efd1

Our first full day in Shanghai began with a short walk around Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where we are staying. The university is almost exactly as old as Rice, but around ten times as large in population. The university is a mix of old mid-rise buildings and new high rise buildings, some of which are simply rented out to businesses to earn the university money. The university is located near two subway stops and so makes for a staging area for our trips into the city.

The first trip today was to the Yuyuan Gardens, a part of Shanghai which features traditional Chinese architecture. We first passed through several markets, where all kinds of trinkets were being sold. The entrance to the gardens was actually a bridge which zig-zagged across a large pond. The gardens were filled with buildings on stilts, bronze statues, and antique carvings. When we finished walking through the gardens (our journey slowed by a substantial amount of pictures…) we continued to a vegetarian restaurant in the market. Though the restaurant only served vegetarian food, most of the food looked exactly like meat. The “steak” in particular was deliciously uncanny.

After lunch we traveled to Shanghai library (which, like most of Shanghai’s buildings, was much taller than I expected) to meet a historian and a documentary director. The lecture on the history of Shanghai was especially interesting in the context of just having visited the Bund and seen many buildings dating back to the era of the foreign concession.  The documentary director gave us interesting insights into the role which the central government plays in media creation in China. Two principles stood out. The first was that in general no research is prevented from being carried out by censorship – censorship only applies to the release of certain material to the public. The second is that the central government does not typically encourage production of certain media in order to achieve political goals, rather it acts by restricting the topics which can be broadcasted, with the intent of preventing civil unrest.

After the lectures we got back on the subway to go to another market, this one more upscale than the one we visited in the morning. I drank some delicious boba tea, and we ate a delicious Taiwanese dinner in a restaurant above the market.

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March 1, 2014 | Day 1 in Shanghai

March 2nd, 2014 by hb10

We left Rice at 9pm on Thursday night and arrived in Shanghai after a about 17 hours of plane travel and a layover in Beijing on Saturday, March 1st. But even though we were tired, the first day in Shanghai did not disappoint.

We started the day by heading to our hotel at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. We settled into our rooms before having lunch at the hotel restaurant. The meal was great- lots of delicious vegetarian options. After lunch, we headed to the bank to exchange some money and then made our way to Starbucks. After connecting to some wifi and grabbing a coffee, we headed back to the hotel to have our first lecture of the trip.

Our first lecture was with two local area educators and covered the education system in Shanghai. We learned about the various school types in the city and how competitive it is for students to get through school here. Students have to place into competitive middle schools in order to get to the best high schools so that they can apply to the top schools in China and abroad. It was interesting to hear that much like the U.S., family income and background plays a significant role in determining a students chances of making it into the top schools.

After our lecture on education we headed to Nanjing Lu, Shanghai’s famous shopping street, for some dumplings and to check our Shanghai’s famous skyline. This was my favorite part of the day. The skyline is breathtaking and all of the shopping off of Nanjing Lu easily confirmed that I will be returning to this part of town during our free day this week. I can’t wait to see what’s in store these upcoming days because the first day was incredible!

 

 

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Day 1 Reflection – Evan

March 1st, 2014 by efd1

The first day of our trip felt much longer than 24 hours. Our flight left Houston around 11:00 PM Thursday night, and we flew with in the darkness all the way to Beijing, more than a 15 hour flight. We arrived in Beijing at around 4:00 AM in the morning (local time) on Saturday, after crossing the international dateline. I personally didn’t manage to get much sleep on the flight, so I figured I was only going to be half awake the whole day. I was wrong; after a short domestic flight, we finally arrived in Shanghai and excitement counteracted sleep deprivation. To get to the city from the airport we took the maglev train which transported us at a speed greater than 180 mph! We had a delicious lunch in the faculty club of the university we are staying at. After lunch we took a quick walk in the area immediately around the campus. The streets were chaotic and packed with cars.  The area nearby the university was filled with tall residential buildings. We barely made it back to the university in time for our afternoon lecture.

 

The lecture was with a high school teacher from one of the most selective  public high schools in Shanghai. The education system in Shanghai sounded much different from my experience in the United States. In Shanghai the high schools are evaluated based on how many students get into top universities. The high school is actually split into two divisions, the “foreign” division which is made up of students with at least one parent with a foreign passport, and the “domestic” division. Students from the foreign division typically study abroad, while students from the domestic division mostly go to domestic Chinese universities. Because the students typically go to different kinds of universities, the curriculum is necessarily different between the two divisions. Chinese universities base their admission decisions almost entirely on the results of a standardized national examination, and so most of the work is based on preparing the students for the examinations.

 

After the lecture we traveled to the Bund using the subway. The Bund is the historic waterfront of the city, and from it you can see the new Pudong area where most of the skyscrapers have been been built. We had a delicious meal of steamed dumplings in the shopping area nearby. Finally we returned to the university to get some sleep.

 

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Day 1 Reflection – Melissa

March 1st, 2014 by mrv3

Our first day was a day of travel and rain.  The majority of us did not sleep very long or at all on the long flight over to China, so we were all a bit exhausted by the time we reached Shanghai.  However, for the most part we were alert and awake because being in Shanghai is so exciting!  I’ve been to this city before, but apparently I remembered it all wrong, because it’s surprising me at every turn.  I didn’t remember all of the excessive lights – on bridges, buildings, trees, poles – that make the city light up  beautifully after dark.  I didn’t remember the streets lined with trees that are now bare in the winter but make the city look magical.  Most of all, I didn’t remember the dazzling scenery at the Bund, where we visited in the rainy nighttime, shortly before we all finally crashed at dinner.  Xiaolongbao (steamed dumplings with soup inside them) are perhaps my favorite Chinese dish, but even I was only half as excited as I should’ve been about the food because I was fighting exhaustion at that point in the day.  I am glad that it only kicked in at dinner time, because the lecture on education in Shanghai that we had in the afternoon was very interesting, for two reasons: firstly because I am interested in education in Shanghai, and secondly because I was able to understand most of what they were saying and practice my Chinese skills.  I hope that the rest of our days in this city will be equally as eye-opening, engaging, and fun!

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Introduction_CJ Chen

February 27th, 2014 by CJ

Instructor: CJ Chen(Chen Jing，陈静) is a postdoctoral fellow of Chao Center for Asian Studies, who received her Ph.D. from Nanjing University (2009) and spent one year at Duke University as a visiting scholar from 2007-2008. Her research focuses on Cultural and New Media studies, especially on the influence of the New Media and the Internet on writing and modern literature. Before she joined Chao Center in the summer of 2012, she worked at the Institute of Arts and Humanities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University as an Assistant Researcher since 2009.

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