On the fifth day of our trip we went to a different Jiao Tong campus, a much larger one I might add. Here we met our first lecturer of the day. This person gave us some insight into the environmental problems that plague Shanghai and how the government has acted to reverse these effects. Surprisingly, the data was not as bad as many of us expected. As I said in another blog post, we often hear of China and its pollution problems and how the government isn’t doing anything to correct them. This is a false misconception most likely brought upon by the media and other’s uninformed opinions. In fact, the government has forced some factories to move outside of the city so their pollution and waste won’t directly affect the health of millions of people in one concentrated area. In addition, starting around 2010, the amount of industrial discharge of waste water has actually been decreasing. Most people wouldn’t know this information because we tend to look for scrutiny more than we do facts.

What we were told by the Environmental Engineer was that the government was taking extreme measures to curtail the devastating and rapid effects of air, water, noise, and solid waste pollution that has been affecting the city for years. Not only does pollution affect people’s health, but  we were informed that pollution reduces GDP growth by 3-5% . It is no wonder the government has been proactive in investing in green energy as well as creating policies that limit the amount of pollution a factory can produce in city limits. I get the indication that although they do have economic interests in mind, they have been listening to the public more on this matter too. They could easily ignore this problem, maybe even suffer from a marginally lower GDP growth rate that won’t effect their already fast growth, but ultimately they have taken action to ebb the public’s dissent and to make their country a cleaner one.

Ways that the government have stemmed pollution in Shanghai is by increasing clean energies such as solar and wind, creating more automobile exhaust standards, and by adjusting the city’s layout. As of now, around ninety percent of the energy used in China originates from fossil fuels while the amount of renewable energy usage exists at less than 1 percent. While the number is staggeringly low, China has slowly been increasing their investment in creating sustainable development and energy. The percentage of the country’s GDP that goes towards this stands at around 3 percent, almost half of the percentage of what the US spends.

Our second lecturer discussed Jiao Tong University and the general college admissions process in the country. It was interesting to see that it paralleled ours in many ways. First and foremost, they all have to take college entrance exams and based off of what score a student makes, they will then be placed in a university that is proportional to their scores. Each year at Jiao Tong, for example, there are more than 3500 undergraduates who are admitted to the school. These people who were admitted usually scored very high on their entrance exams because Jiao Tong’s admissions scores average in the top 3 in the country. This is similar to our elite schools because usually students who are admitted to these schools are students who have scored much higher than the rest of the country. However, they do conduct interviews that differ from the pre-admission interviews that are often held here in the states. At Jiao Tong, you are either interviewed by 4 faculty members or you are interviewed with 7 other kids. It is interesting because when they interview you with 7 other students they have you debate currents events. They do this to observe how students react, argue, and show leadership skills. Just like here in the states, certain groups also have different ways of getting admitted into a school. They admit some people based off of artistic and athletic talent. Though they still need to take the standardized exam for college entry, the requirements for them tend to be lower.

One of the biggest problems that their schools are facing is the supposed lack of creativity. It was after the Japanese-Sino War where this started to be the case. Much emphasis was put on science and technology, while arts and other humanities were ignored. This is but one problem. Another problem that they aim to tackle is the lack of quality students in graduate schools. Since most of the best students immediately leave after obtaining their undergraduate degree because of getting a great job, most of the “least desirable” students are left to go to graduate school. From the looks of it, faculty members and officials are well aware of these problems which also means that they are taking measures to fix them.

It was definitely interesting to be able to see the actual data on the environmental problems in Shanghai and China. Most of the time we just listen to news reports about the smog in China and form some misconception about the country as a whole. Little do most people know, China is actually taking steps to reduce pollution problems because it not only affects their economy, but it also affects the people as well. As for Jiao Tong, it isn’t that much different than many of our elite schools here in the United States. After all, both schools have similar requirements for entrance exams and both schools look for an all-around student. It seems that both China and the United States aren’t that much different!