Travel

China / Travel — Comments Off on Begin Studio
20
Jun 08

Begin Studio

Friday, June 20th On Monday we arrived in Beijing, got settled into our hotel, rented bicycles and formed teams. We were introduced to the project with a lecture and had a welcome banquet dinner with the Tsinghua students and faculty.

On Tuesday we woke early and went to the site of the studio investigation. The site is a gigantic and functioning steel mill that will soon be relocated and the site redeveloped in some manner. We toured the plant, site and did a brief site analysis survey and returned to campus by early evening. We then did some work and got organized for more work.

Wednesday, the first day of studio work. A decent working day, interspresed with meals including a visit to Tsinghua’s largest dining hall. Quite large for a 20,000 student undergrad population.

Thursday, the second day of studio work. More intensive working day with shorter, but delicious meals interrupting a study stream of productivity. Incidentally, we have ventured outside the walls of our protective bucolic campus only three times. We must improve that statistic.

Friday, busy work morning preparing for our first formal team presentation. Findings of site analysis and preliminary proposals. It went well. All teams produced a ridiculous amount of work for 2.5 days.

Starting with this blog post, we now have a weekend of a bit of free time. Tonight we’ll all have a relaxing dinner and then do some Beijing touring over the weekend. The next studio assignment goes out tomorrow.

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China / Travel — Comments Off on Beijing
15
Jun 08

Beijing

Happy Father’s Day! I hope my dad and father-in-law had a good day. We made it to Beijing and have been in traffic now for a while. We are driving to Tsinghua University to get settled in. The overnight train from Shanghai was really nice and the sleeper cars were very comfortable. However, apparently the Chinese don’t stow away the top bunks when not in use because no one knew how to get them back down come sleep time. Upon seeing our bunked beds and excellent headroom, one conductor exclaimed: WWHHHAA??!?? Thus indicating difficulty in undoing our proud accomplishment. Today we get settled into Beijing with introductions, bikes and teams.

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China / Travel — Comments Off on Suzhou to Shanghai to Beijing
15
Jun 08

Suzhou to Shanghai to Beijing

June 15 After another garden in Suzhou, we visited the No. 1 Silk Factory(slow link). As in China #1. We saw silk worms and their cocoons, the separating of the silk cocoons, processing of silk, and many silk products. All culminating in a silk fashion show or a duvet cover, the ultimate finale was unclear to me. Now back to Shanghai for an overnight train to Beijing and our home for a few weeks.

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Links added by Jeannette and subject to change

China / Travel — Comments Off on Around Suzhou
14
Jun 08

Around Suzhou

June 14 We left Shanghai to visit the towns of Zhujiajiao and Suzhou.

Zhujiajao was a small well-preserved canal town. We spent the afternoon walking around the canals, small lanes and shops.

Suzhou is a much more substantial and significant city and a historic center of trade and silk. Suzhou is also a city of great private gardens. We visited the Humble Administrator’s Garden, the Lingering Garden and the Keeper of Nets Garden. All very beautiful and spatially choreographed traditional Chinese gardens. We spent the night in Suzhou and go back to Shanghai tomorrow to get the overnight train to Beijing.

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Links added by Jeannette and subject to change

China / Travel — Comments Off on More Shanghai Touring
13
Jun 08

More Shanghai Touring

June 13 Another day of Shanghai touring. Today, we started at the French secession quarter with walking, a museum and some traditional housing. We then made our way to the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum. A surprisingly large 5-story exhibition hall dedicated to, you guessed it, the planning of Shanghai. The profession seems to be more highly revered here. After, we took a stroll down Nanjing Road, a main pedestian shopping boulevard uncomfortable in its large scale and attention to foreigners. By my estimation everyone in Shanghai is selling either rolexes, bags, or shoes and any one of them could approach you at any moment to see if you’re interested in buying some of their replica objects. We had a hot pot for dinner and some drinks. Tomorrow, we leave Shanghai for Zhujiajiao, a so-called water town and the city of Suzhou.

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