Grounding in Shanghai

Apologies for the slow update. Blogspot is blocked on Chinese Internet so opportunities to post are limited.

We made it to Shanghai and were picked up by a graduate student from Shanghai Jiaotong University. They hosted us at a Super 8 Hotel (much nicer than the US version) in Qibao, a suburb of Shanghai. We had dinner with graduate students of Landscape Architecture the first night, then went on the next morning to give a presentation to graduate and undergraduate students of LA at their University. Interesting discussion. Here are a few things I’ve learned:

1.     Chinese LA students study Landscape Architecture for both their undergraduate and graduate studies

2.     They also struggle to balance theory and practice, art and science

3.   There is an emphasis on artistic rendering 

4.     The quality of their work is very detailed & well presented very early into their program

5.     Ecological design is not as popular as aesthetic green-space

6.     The Chinese government is funding the development of lots of garden and architecture projects

7.     Every new development in Shanghai must have 40% green space

We went on to have lunch with the director and sat in on their History of Chinese Architecture class during which I didn’t understand a word, but doodled very impressively. That evening we walked around People’s Park and People’s Square, admiring the plant selection. It seems Shanghai is planted primarily with six species; London Plane Tree, Buxus microphylla, Rhododendron, Pear, Japanese acuba, & Campher. The street trees are almost 100% overly trimmed down Plane Trees with some Campher. I saw many trees commemorated for being 100 years old in the city, an indication of how new many of the planting are.

"Green Roof"

On Friday the 13^th we visited Tongji University, the best architecture school in China. We were showed around the College of Architecture and Urban Planning by a group of LA students. They’ve done some spectacular work.

Morning rush hour in Shanghai is like nothing you’ve ever experienced. At any given point in Shanghai there is a bus, scooter, bike, person or car trying to get where you are. Add that to traffic rules that resemble the way you decide which side to walk on in a hallway when one person is walking at you, and you have some sense of what an organic traffic pattern is like.

Shanghai has a population of 22 million Chinese. Now to give some comparison to work with, New York City has 8-9 million people living in it and the area of Shanghai is approximately the same as the area of NYC. Unlike NYC, there are only 100,000 foreigners.

My short experience with the districts of Shanghai was Qibao, Xintiandi to Tianzifang.

Qibao

Xintiandi

Tianzifang