Hong Kong

The Study Tour provided a tremendous opportunity to view four universities that are very different than one another, and located in very different areas of China. Each institution has its endearing qualities. In coming days, I hope to provide a summary of my observations. For now, though, I'll post some more pictures of Hong Kong.

Back at the Excelsior Hotel in Hong Kong, we have been joined by another fifty colleagues from around the world to participate in the Global Summit. Our days are structured and facilitated by a professional consultant that was hired to lead us in a process of positive inquiry regarding the future of campus housing.

Enjoy the views of Hong Kong!

Shanghai and Fudan University

Sightseeing in Shanghai was negatively impacted by construction and smog. We were to spend some time on The Bund, the entertainment district with British architecture. But the area is under construction to install new subway lines in preparation for the 2010 Expo, so we went across the river to view The Bund from the other side. Unfortunately, it was too smoggy to see across the river. That left us to go shopping at Shanghai Xin Tian Di, which was great fun. After much haggling, many treasures were had by all!

Fudan University houses 13,000 students in 3-, 4-, and 6-person rooms. They have a student services structure, including student associations, counseling staff, and live-in hall staff (facilitators) who have programming responsibilities. International students live in separate quarters with enhanced amenities, as do graduate students. They also house over 2,000 faculty and staff. They have implemented a residential college, modeled after Cambridge. They rely on a property management company to operate some of their housing. They have a system for custodial services and preventative maintenance. The counseling center is consistent with those at universities in the United States.

The halls are not air conditioned, so the chief student behavior concern is the use of forbidden electrical appliances in an attempt to cool the air. We had good dialogue about how to best meet the needs of international students.

Tsinghua University, Beijing

Tsinghua University is nearly 100 years old. It is a comprehensive university, with an historical emphasis on science and technology. It has been referred to as the "cradle of engineers" and is often compared to MIT in the U.S. It is very much like most large universities in the U.S. The university has over 31,000 students, and is a member of our international housing association, ACUHO-I.

There is a Vice President for Student Affairs who oversees financial aid, career services, counseling, tutoring, and disciplinary management. The Foreign Student Affairs office oversees all aspects of college life for international students. And the Property Management Center oversees the dormitories, canteens, student union, and judicial affairs. In addition to housing the 31,000 students, they house several thousand faculty and staff.

The housing program includes many aspects similar to the U.S. There is a live-in graduate staff member who oversees each dormitory, and student leaders help coordinate matters within the buildings. The room assignment process is on-line. Cultural and sporting activities are provided for students' development, and student satisfaction surveys are conducted regularly. Good attention is given to students' physical well-being; classes stop at 4pm each day and everyone encouraged to participate in physical activity for one hour. The sports fields and courts were very busy during this hour!

The staff told us that universities house all students because its hard to manage student behavior if they're living off campus, and because the local community doesn't have available space. Tsinghua once had eight students living in each room, but have moved away from this to four-person rooms and suites. International students have separate living quarters with a higher level of amenities and a higher cost than the other buildings. The university contracts with property managers to provides some of their student housing. Students pay the equivalent of about $200 per year for their university housing. This income doesn't even pay the interest due on the construction that the Property Management Center oversees; the national government supplements the budget to cover operating costs.

Tsinghua requires that Marxist theory be taught in the classrooms. The student services staff said they do allow for demonstrations on campus, so long as the demonstrating isn't against the national government. Financial aid, career services, and housing are seen as critical aspects of college life, and faculty who want to advance their careers serve in administrative roles within one of these three offices. This leads to a very holistic approach to the development of the student, meaning that the student's body, mind and character are all of great importance.

Beijing sightseeing

We flew from Guiyang to Beijing on Tuesday, January 6th. From the airport we boarded a tour bus to go to the Great Wall. Our guide shared facts and figures regarding Beijing, as well as information about the Great Wall. Beijing has a population of 17 million people. (To put this in perspective, the population of New York City is approximately 10 million people.) Five million people in Beijing are transients. The transients come into the city from the rural villages to find work in construction and other labor roles. They typically only go home once a year to take their earnings back to their family and to celebrate during the two-week period of Spring Festival and the Chinese New Year, which is about to begin right now.

During the 2008 Olympics hosted in Beijing, vehicle traffic was restricted in the city to reduce smog. This worked well, so they have maintained restrictions, and once a week everyone must take public transportation and personal vehicles are not allowed on the road. There is a commitment to keep subway and bus fares low to encourage use of public transportation. Also as a result of Olympic preparations, the city gained three new subway lines.

We went to the Ba Da Ling section of the Great Wall, the best-preserved section. We climbed the stairs to the top this section of the wall. It was a strenuous 50-minute climb. The steps are steep and it was very cold and windy. The views were amazing; the mountains are beautiful! Sections of the wall could be seen in every direction. It was very rewarding to make it to the top of the wall! Its daunting to imagine how backbreaking it must have been to build these walls. The tour guide told us that the walls were built by prisoners. Its called the largest cemetery in the world because so many workers died and were buried there.

So much history is represented by the wall. The first section was built in the 7th century BC. Some sections were built with grasses to simply block the view of the territory. Other sections were built with rocks and boulders to provide self protection. During the Qing Dynasty, over 2000 years ago, various sections of walls were linked together. In total, there are 3,270 miles of wall.

We closed the night with shopping at the Silk Alley. This was an adrenaline rush as we made our way through the hundreds of booths with silk, jade, pearls, and many other products, Merchants work hard to recruit shoppers into their booths, and bartering is rampant and competitive!