This campus is a tropical oasis in the middle of a city of 14 milllion residents and a province that manufactures a large percentage of what the world consumes…
It is, in short, a miraculous place. Just writing this entry makes me realize I have failed miserably in capturing this beautiful scene on my camera. Here’s the first little picture — the gate memorializes some students who took part in some revolutionary activity (maybe they died? sorry; I don’t know the full details):
I have my work cut out for me, to show you the palm trees, the bamboo thickets, the ponds with water lilies, the pagodas…all quite extraordinary. I think I was told that Sun Yat-Sen gave a famous speech in this building:
I like the History building’s 10 statues of revolutionary heros because they define both the impressive entrance to the building as well as the Chinese historical point of view.
Some heroes:
And the history building itself. Note the “open book” in the architecture:
In addition to campus buildings (the most modern and well appointed of which is….the MBA building; as with all campuses everywhere!), there are dormitories and apartment buildings galore. Picture your typical large university…now place housing there for *everyone* who works there; faculty and staff. So, it’s a veritable academic metropolis. As such, we have on campus several “malls” (streets lined with little shops) and an extensive open air market as well. Oh, and cafeterias and restaurants all over the place!
The extensive foliage on campus cools the air — I swear, it is 5 degrees (F) cooler here. (When it’s over 100F, 5 degrees doesn’t make much difference, but oh well.) Birds love this campus, too. A north-south (mainly closed to car traffic) road links the South gate all the way through campus to the North gate at the Pearl River.
Here is the side of the Lingnan building, next to some Rong Shu (Banyan?) trees. You can also see the north-south arterial here:
Near the library is a readerboard with the daily newspaper…(solemn greetings to embattled print journalists everywhere…I love my daily newspaper back home!):
I hardly need to go off campus for anything. Except, when I do, there’s plenty of shops outside the school gates and a subway station as well. The West gate (about 2/3 mile walk) has the subway station (“ZhongDa”, short for “Zhongshan Daxue”, the university’s name). The foreign student and scholar residence (Zi Jingyuan Hotel) is very close to the South gate.
The subway system is brand new and the highest tech I’ve ever seen, with easy to understand instructions in English, everything spotless and pretty, electronic ads to gawk at on the subway itself, etc. To go across town, it costs me 3 to 5 yuan — about 45 to 70 cents, depending on how far I’m going.
My apartment at the Zi Jingyuan Hotel is clean and big. Details about the apartment (for the benefit of future faculty members) are provided in a separate post.
Oh, and by the way…Zhongshan University actually has four campuses. This is the main old one. A newer, just as large campus has been built on an island in East Guangzhou that houses several universities…it is a University Megacenter, according to the street signs. Professors joke that Zhong (middle) Dong (East) campus (shorthand for Zhongshan Daxue East campus) is a good name because the relative lack of mature trees makes that campus very hot, like the Middle East. (hyuck hyuck) I will be teaching my class there in the Middle East, starting Sept 16th.
Anyway, back to the main campus. On the first night I was here, I did some unpacking, then was whisked away to a nice dinner at one of the campus restaurants. I don’t remember which one…I was bleary that night. I didn’t see the campus at all, but knew enough to run North to the Pearl River the next morning.
In the morning, I put my running gear on and set out to run to the river. It was my first look at campus. I thought…”ah, I’m a runner again” and “oh my…I am lucky to be on this campus!”