Get It in Writing

It was a sunny, but chilly, Friday morning in January when we met at the Urban Planning Exhibition Hall in Renmin Square. Sophie, Anna, and Robert, former students, came from different parts of the city traveling by bus and subway. Being a weekday and cold kept the touring masses away giving us plenty of room to roam.
View image

The Urban Planning Exhibition Hall, with its signature roof leitmotif, is high on the list of sights to visit in Shanghai. The city mothers and fathers want the world to see how Shanghai has grown from a small fishing town to a teeming metropolis and what is in store for the future.
View image View image

The first floor is dominated by a central sculpture of a cluster of skyscrapers. Escalators whisk viewers up and down the five story building. The second and floor is devoted to photographs, maps, and multi-media displays that chronicle the history of the city. Many of the photos show landmarks in years past and in modern times. The third floor housed galleries of oil and pastel paintings, which although interesting did not seem to relate to the theme of urban planning. View image

The exhibition hightlights, however, were on the fourth floor, a large open central space in which lay a scale rendition of the city, river, buildings, houses, roads, streets. At timed-intervals the display lights went out and night lights in the city went on, all with a dramatic effect. An elevated steel walkway enables visitors to circle the model and see the city from different perspectives.
View image View image View image View image

In an adjoining room on the fourth floor visitors are treated to a virtual tour of Shanghai. The room is circular and on its wraparound screen a 360 degree view of the city unfolds. The viewer senses travel by plane overtop the city, swooping up and down along elevated highways and under overpasses. Looking forward gives views of what lies ahead; looking back gives rear views of the passing cityscape. It is an exhilarating and dizzying experience.

The next stop was lunch, and for that what better than some street food on a popular two-block pedestrian street lined with small stalls from which emanated wonderful aromas. The fried dumpling (shengjian) stand was very popular and required a short queuing to pay for then pick up the tasty morsels. The dumplings, about the size of a small tomato, enclosed a small pork meatball, very much like the small meatballs in Italian wedding soup, and the juice from the cooked meat. While the locals easily walked and ate, the visitor had problems eating with chopsticks while walking through a crowded street.

After lunch came a visit to the nearby Shanghai Art Museum, housed in an art deco building that sits on what was formerly the grandstand for the Shanghai Race Track. The four floors of the museum afforded pleasing galleries with displays of photographs, paintings, and sculptures.
View image

Later, at Renmin Square, the tired museum goers, separated, each going their own way home on mass transit. A seat on a warm bus brought some quick winks to the tired tourist.

Posted by Ron Corio at 9:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Ron Corio at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hangzhou, in Zhenjiang Province, is a city of over six million people. It is located in the southeast corner of China and is a two-hour train ride from Shanghai. The Chinese say “In heaven there is paradise, on earth Suzhou and Hangzhou. Having visited Suzhou, it is fitting that Hangzhou would be the next city to visit from Shanghai. View Image View image View image

Hangzhou is one of China’s top tourist destinations. The city is noted for its greenery and parks, but the star attraction is scenic West Lake, which has inspired poets and painters for centuries (China Lonely Planet 2005). View image View image View image

You might wonder what could be so special about a lake. It is what is around and on the lake that charms visitors. The shores of the lake and the islands on it are garden-like parks that show nature at its best. View image View image View image View image

Traveling companion, Ryan, who represents several North Carolina universities interested in developing student and faculty exchanges with Fudan University, is studying the Chinese language. His fluency made many Chinese friends and helped us negotiate our two-day tour of several sites in and around the city.

After a pleasant train ride that began in the ultra-modern South Shanghai Railway Station and finding a hotel the first order of business was lunch. “Is that an Indian restaurant over there? Yes. All right! Touring began with a stroll along the south bank of the lake. A cold drizzle cut that short and sent us off in search of a bus to the Lingyin Temple, another of Hangzhou’s major attractions. Images:

Lingyin Temple was built in 326 A.D. The temple complex consists of numerous buildings, most of which house Buddha shrines, statues, and scrolls. The grounds are encircled within a wall and nestled at the foot of a mountain. The climb from building to building leading up the mountain provides ample exercise and is a metaphor for the journey toward nirvana. The misty cold was attenuated by the natural beauty, the chanting of monks, and the reverent worshippers who offered burning incense to Buddha.

A long day with a lot of walking led to an early dinner and early bedtime. Day two began with hotel breakfast, a traditional Chinese breakfast for rice porridge, soy milk, rice, noodles, and pickled vegetables. Over food the plan for day two materialized: Gu Shan Island, the largest island on West Lake, and the Dragon Well Tea Village. Finding the right bus was much easier today, and soon we were walking across the bridge that leads to Gu Shan Island.

The Zhongshan Park, located on a hill in the center of the island, is a garden-like forest that served as the grounds for the Qing Dynasty emperor. Climbing up and down a myriad of paths delighted the eyes with, stepped walks, natural stone formations, and winter foliage. The highlight of this stroll was the myriad of birds that provided interesting watching. The foggy mist denied scenic views of the lake and the small islands that dot it.

The second highlight of the trip to the island was a visit to the Zhejiang Provincial Museum with exhibits on the pre-history of the province for which Hangzhou is the capital. The history of the province goes back 5000 years and the exhibit documents it with jade, bronze, textiles, ceramics. and scrolls.

Hangzhou is noted for its cultivation of tea, with the local variety being Longjing. The next stop was to be the Dragon Well Tea Village, but a kindly woman led us to her village where we were treated to samples of the tea and then invited to buy some. The tea bushes that covered the hillsides of this mountain village were neatly organized in rows. At only two to three feet high and gathered into a dense and neat bunch they provided a monochromatic green to the hillsides and evidenced the focus of the local economy.

The bus ride back to Hangzhou provided welcome warmth and a chance to catch a few winks before awaiting the train back to Shanghai.

Posted by Ron Corio at 8:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Losing Internet connection to the United States and Europe as a result of earthquake damage to fiber optic cables was bad enough. Things could not get worse, right? Wrong.

On January 15, computer viruses crippled the laptop computer, bought it to a grinding halt. How could that have happened after years of avoiding such a calamity. The answer came, a few days later at the VCU Technology Web site, which stated that VCU stopped supporting Symantec’s Norton antivirus software on September 27. This meant no updates and unprotected Web-surfing. It was only a matter of time until the virus gremlins gained entry.

The usual cure for getting rid of a computer virus is to reformat the hard drive, wipe it clean and start anew. Regular backing up of files was now about to pay off, right. Well, sort of.

Off to the computer store to find a technician to do this nasty task, but first, find someone who can translate. Fellow teacher, Mei, kindly volunteered and stayed on for several hours while the young computer whiz did the laborious task. When she had to leave, Ye, another teacher colleague came by.

The angst of the computer crisis and the interminable wait to wipe the hard drive clean was enough to depress one. Added to that was the inhalation of cigarette smoke that filled the three-story arcade of computer vendors. The sinuses were quite annoyed after three hours in that environment; one can only imagine how the lungs felt about it.

Back home, with a cleaned hard drive and re-installed operating system, it was time to begin rebuilding. Being on winter break allowed lot of time for this task, another thing to be thankful for. First task, reinstall antivirus software. (It was at this point where the unprotected Web surfing was discovered.)

Oh, no! Downloading antivirus (or any other) software will take forever with the earthquake-impaired Internet connection. Time was not a problem, but the periodic resetting of the Internet connection interrupted (and ended) three attempts to download. Fortunately, early the next morning, when Internet traffic was low, the download worked. Ah . . . antivirus protection again.

Restoring backed up files was another problem, as the software upon which they were created, Windows Live One Care, had to be downloaded from the Internet. Another early morning task. Fortunately, it worked, and happily all the school files, including students’ writing and the iTunes music library are intact and ready to serve. Sadly, all Outlook contacts, an address book developed over years, were not on the backup files, but there is an Excel file to which the contacts were exported some time ago.

Posted by Ron Corio at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On December 26 a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck south of Taiwan and severed fiber optic cables that connect China with North American and European Internet sites. The interruption of Internet connection was painful and a grim reminder of how much we have come to rely upon Internet communication. No email, no Skype calls to family and friends, no reading of U.S. newspapers, no New York Times crosswords, no movie reviews from the Internet Movie Database. Ouch!

Initial reports stated that it would take a couple of weeks to repair the severed cables; now, three weeks later, the repairs are expected to take until the end of January, and that might just be the optimistic outlook. Apparently all Internet communication is not done via satellites.

Fortunately, much of the connection to U.S. and Europe has been partially restored, bringing email and Web browsing back, but oh so slowly. During peak daytime periods downloading files and software is agonizingly slow. Downloading tasks are best scheduled for early morning before Internet traffic becomes busy.

Being halfway around the world from home, the Internet is the connection that makes family and friends feel nearby. When that connection is lost, the feeling of long distance loneliness sets in.

On the bright side, this did not occur during the semester when Internet-based lesson plans, class discussions, blog creation, turning in assignments, and student-teacher email communication are part of the learning environment.

Posted by Ron Corio at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)