China Studio 2007

The University of Washington College of Architecture and Urban Planning and Department of Urban Design & Planning present the second interdisciplinary studio on community engagement for neighborhood revitalization and historic preservation in rapidly urbanizing China, in the city of Quanzhou (pronounced like "Chwen-Jo"), Fujian Province.

Goals and Methods of the Studio

The 2007 UW Community Planning and Urban Design Field Studio brings students to China to deal directly with issues in urban design, planning and management that are common in many developing countries. Studio members will use socio-spatial inquiry and design to explore how neighborhood upgrading and historic preservation can become more inclusive of community. The course has places for 14 students in urban planning, landscape architecture, architecture, and related fields such as China Studies, Geography and Anthropology. Students admitted to the studio are required to enroll in a preparatory 2-credit independent study course during the Spring Quarter on the UW campus, or, if they are enrolling in the studio from outside Seattle as non-matriculated students, they may participate in the preparatory course via the Internet.

Studio activities will include:

a 1-2 day initial rendezvous and orientation in Beijing, China's capital city;
participation in the 6th Pacific Rim Community Design Network Conference in Quanzhou, June 18-21;
3 weeks of survey, design and planning work in a neighborhood facing redevelopment, and public presentation of the studio results.

Issues and tasks to be addressed in the neighborhood include: assessing the historic value of the buildings and spaces and the economic and housing conditions of the local businesses and residents; proposing housing and/or public space designs that both meet residents' aspirations for "modern" lifestyles and improved business conditions and also maintain identity-of-place and improve ecological sustainability; and exploring strategies to use the neighborhood's cultural resources as possible means to economic revitalization.

Students will form teams to work with these different sets of problems, by conducting surveys and proposing design and development strategies in collaboration with local residents, authorities, scholars, professionals, and fellow planning and design students from universities elsewhere in China and Taiwan. The ultimate goal is to assist the local planning authority in its effort to establish a public discussion on appropriate development goals for the city's communities.

Products of the previous UW studio in Quanzhou, in 2004, are available at http://courses.washington.edu/quanzhou/2004

Faculty of the Studio

UW faculty Dan Abramson (Assistant Professor of Urban Design and Planning) and Manish Chalana (Lecturer in Urban Design and Planning) will lead the studio group.

Prof. Abramson has conducted research, design and planning work in Quanzhou since July 1993. He has a doctorate in urban planning from Tsinghua University in Beijing, speaks Mandarin Chinese, and has led or participated in eight collaborative studios and workshops in Quanzhou and has advised seven students in their thesis field work in that city. He specializes in cross-cultural issues and methods in community planning, urban design and historic preservation.

Dr. Chalana is a specialist in urban and landscape history, historic preservation planning, and urban design. He has taught international studios in India and Japan, including the Kobe Charrette with Prof. Abramson and faculty and students of Kobe University, Kobe, Japan, in March 2006.

Jim Diers was the founding director of the City of Seattle's Department of Neighborhoods and is an internationally known leader in community development. He teaches community-based development in the UW Department of Architecture and School of Social Work, and is the author of Neighbor Power: Building Community the Seattle Way. He will join the studio for its first week, starting in Beijing and remaining with the group for the duration of the Pacific Rim Community Design Network conference in Quanzhou, June 18-21.

The faculty will be assisted by two UW doctoral students in the Built Environment, Mr. Huang Kuang-ting and Ms. Liao Kuei-hsien, who speak Mandarin and are experienced in community-based historic preservation and sustainable landscape design in mainland China and Taiwan. Students in the studio will also be mentored by masters students Ms. Katie Idziorek and Mr. Lee Roberts, veterans of the 2004 studio who are currently conducting thesis research on Quanzhou. Ms. Zhang Xiaowei, undergraduate exchange student at UW from Sichuan University, will provide linguistic and logisitical support as well as participate in design work.

Studio Participants

A number of students, faculty and professionals from other institutions may join UW in this activity, including:

the Overseas Chinese University Department of Architecture (Prof. Liu Gong and students), Quanzhou, China
the Southeast University Department of Architecture (Prof. Dong Wei and students), Nanjing, China
Peking University Department of Urban and Regional Planning (Prof. Zhang Tianxin and students), Beijing, China
the Peking University Department of Anthropology (Prof. Wang Mingming and students), Beijing, China
WuHe (Werkhart) International planning and design firm, Beijing, China
Kinmen (Taiwan) Institute of Technology (Prof. Chiang Bo-wei and students)
National Taiwan University Building and Planning Research Foundation (Profs. John K.C. Liu and Yu Chaoching and students)

The studio's official host will be Mr. Huang Shiqing, Vice Director of the Quanzhou Municipal Urban and Rural Planning Bureau.

Schedule (Tentative)

June 13 (Wednesday): arrive in Beijing

June 14 (Thursday): tour of the Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden City, historic city-center neighborhoods (hutong) and new housing settlements in Beijing

June 15 (Friday): fly to Quanzhou

June 16-17 (Saturday-Sunday): orientation and general tour of the old city of Quanzhou

June 18-21 (Monday-Thursday): 6th Pacific Rim Community Design Network Conference, in Quanzhou, with excursions to the city of Xiamen and/or the earthen Hakka houses of mountainous Fujian.

June 22-23 (Friday-Saturday): form teams; neighborhood surveying

June 24 (Sunday): rest

June 25-30 (Friday-Saturday): developing proposals, phase I

July 1 (Sunday): expand teams (Taiwan students join)

July 2-6 (Monday-Friday): developing proposals, phase II

July 7 (Saturday): stakeholder feedback

July 8 (Sunday): rest

July 9-12 (Monday-Friday): refinement of stakeholder visions and production of final products

July 13 (Friday): presentation of studio results

July 14 (Saturday): studio debrief

July 15 (Sunday): depart

Travel Arrangements

Getting There: Each student must have a valid passport that will not expire until after all travel outside the U.S. is complete. Travel arrangements to and from China are the responsibility of each student. The instructors will arrange a rendez-vous with students in Beijing on Wednesday, June 13, which will be followed by a one-day orientation in that city. Air travel from Beijing to Quanzhou on Friday, June 15, will be arranged in advance by the instructors, and will require a deposit. It is not mandatory that all students gather first in Beijing, but it is highly recommended for any students who have not been to China before. Students who wish to arrive in Quanzhou on their own must notify the faculty in advance and they will be responsible for making their own travel arrangements. The address and contact information of the hotel where the studio group will stay, and directions to reach the hotel in Beijing from the Beijing Airport, are at this link: http://courses.washington.edu/quanzhou/2007/beijing_directions.pdf.
Directions to get to the hotel in Quanzhou directly are at this link: http://courses.washington.edu/quanzhou/2007/qz-directmap-s.jpg.
Getting Around: Local transportation in Quanzhou is ideally arranged by renting bicycles, or by taking taxis. Taxi fare within the city rarely exceeds US$1.00 each way). Large group transportation will be arranged by bus in coordination with local planning authorities.
Side Trips: The Pacific Rim Community Design Conference will include an overnight excursion to sights outside of Quanzhou, including, for possible examples, the mountainous counties of inland Quanzhou, Zhangzhou or Longyan prefectures with their tea plantations and Hakka clan roundhouses. Weekend day-trip possibilities include the bustling port city of Xiamen (known in Treaty Port times as Amoy), or the walled fishing village of Chongwu and its nice beach.
Getting Out: The studio will be completed on Monday July 19. Students will be responsible for arranging their travel out of Quanzhou after that date. The faculty will purchase only one-way tickets to Quanzhou for the students. Round-trip airfare in China costs exactly twice the one-way airfare, so there is no saving by purchasing round-trip tickets (indeed, there are often discounts on tickets leaving Quanzhou that cannot be obtained by purchasing them in Beijing). Moreover, students are likely to have varying travel plans after the completion of the studio. Flights are rarely full, so there will be enough time while in Quanzhou to arrange travel onwards.

Accommodations

Accommodations will be arranged by the faculty for both Beijing and Quanzhou. The likely place to stay in Beijing is the Youhao Binguan (Friendly Guesthouse), a quiet, courtyard-and-villa-style hotel (formerly the Beijing residence of Chiang Kai-shek) in the middle of one of Beijing's best-preserved historic neighbourhoods of hutongs (lanes) and siheyuan (courtyard houses). Shared double (twin beds) rooms with air-conditioning, refrigerator and private bath are about US$30/night per person.

The Youhao Binguan in Beijing

Directions from the airport and contact information for this hotel are at this link: http://courses.washington.edu/quanzhou/2007/beijing_directions.pdf.

In Quanzhou there are two hotels that offer the most suitable accommodations, both at about half the price of the Youhao Binguan in Beijing for the same standard of rooms, and both quite modern and located in the very center of the city:

Students will be expected to do much of their work in their hotel rooms. Depending on the size of the group (determined not only by the number of UW students but also Chinese, Hong Kong, and Taiwanese students), it may become economical to rent a small conference room in the hotel for extra work space. Also, the Planning Bureau or community government office may have a room available for the studio, but its hours of access will be limited.

Students will take their meals in the restaurants that abound in the city. Breakfast can be had at most small shops for as little as $0.25.

Cost

Participation in the studio requires payment of a Program Fee of US$2,500, which covers visa fees, accommodations (own bed in a shared hotel room), airfare from Beijing to Quanzhou, local transportation, admissions fees and excursions, group equipment and supplies, faculty salary, and other costs associated with the studio itself. All students must pay a separate Concurrent Enrollment Fee of $200 to the UW International Programs and Exchanges Office (IPE). This fee allow student to obtain academic credit for the studio, and it covers health screening, insurance, emergency travel information, etc. Students in the studio who are not matriculated at the University of Washington must also pay an additional $200 non-matriculated application fee to the International Programs and Exchanges Office. NO OTHER TUITION FEE IS CHARGED.

Other costs associated with the studio that are the student's responsibility include international airfare to China; travel leaving Quanzhou at the end of the studio; daily food and incidentals; personal drafting equipment and supplies.

For information purposes only, the following is an estimate of most studio-related costs in US Dollars. Usual discount airfares to China and within China are likely to reduce the following costs by an additional $300-500. It is each student's responsibility to estimate the costs associated with their own situation with respect to pre- and post-studio travel plans, and enrollment through IPE.

Program Fee $2,500

IPE Concurrent Enrollment Fee $200

IPE Non-Matriculated Application Fee (non-UW students only) ($200)

RT airfare Seattle-Beijing $1,300

One-way airfare Quanzhou-Beijing $150

Meals and daily incidentals in Quanzhou for 30 days $250

ESTIMATED TOTAL per person: $4,400

($4,600 for non-UW students)

Funding Opportunities

Students may seek their own sources of funding, including standard financial aid for summer quarter, but the faculty of the studio will update this section as they become aware of any relevant special opportunities for financial support. UW students may always avail themselves of the UW Grants & Funding Information Services (GFIS) for graduate students.

Eligibility

The studio is open to graduate and upper-level undergraduate students in Urban Planning, Landscape Architecture, Architecture, and other related fields including China Studies, Public Affairs, Geography and Anthropology. However, the studio is limited to 14 students in total, and if there are more than 14 applicants, priority will be given according to seniority (e.g. graduate students before undergraduates, and advanced graduate students before entry-level graduate students), or students with relevant special skills. All other factors being equal, the faculty will strive to seek a mix of students with complementary skills, including -- but not limited to -- architectural, landscape and urban design; community facilitation experience; land use planning, infrastructure and engineering; development policy; fluency in Minnan or Mandarin Chinese; and research, work or study experience in China or other Asian and developing countries.

Prof. Abramson will teach a 2-credit required studio prep course during Spring Quarter. It is required of all students who wish to participate in the summer studio. The course will cover a combination of team-building exercises, topical background readings on Quanzhou and China, methodological readings and exercises relating to facilitation and planning in developing-world contexts, and practical information and "survival language skills (e.g. how to pronounce pin yin romanized Chinese). More details about this course will be posted on the web and linked from this page. Regardless of the class meeting time listed in the UW Time Schedule, this course will meet at a time suitable to all participating students.

Enrollment and Credit Requirements

Students earn credit in the studio through participating in studio-related preparation, tours, conference sessions, and team survey, planning and design work. Each student is also required to keep a journal of observations and impressions of the environment, the issues, and the studio experience as a whole, in text and graphic form (including photographs, sketches and/or maps). Journals must be complete and turned in to the faculty at the end of the studio. If original journals are turned in, the faculty will return the journals at the start of the autumn quarter. If this is not convenient for students, the faculty will accept clearly legible photocopies or electronic copies instead of originals.

UW academic credit is obtained through Concurrent Enrollment with the UW International Programs and Exchanges Office. The studio will first appear on students' transcripts as Foreign Studies (FSTDY), but these credits can be converted to studio credit, independent study or other required or selective credit to suit their own programs, after consultation with the studio faculty. For example, for students in the Urban Design Certificate and/or Master of Urban Planning programs, the course can count as an urban design or historic preservation studio and/or a second-year planning studio (equivalent to UrbDP 508).

Application

Students must first apply to the faculty for admission to the studio before enrolling. As the number of participating students is limited, and to assist faculty tailor and administer the program as well as select participants, students must complete this application form (downloadable here, in Word format) by either:

printing it out, filling it in and submitting it with supporting materials either to the mailbox or fax # of Prof. Abramson (below); OR
filling it in electronically in Word and emailing it with electronic files of supporting materials to abramson@u.washington.edu.

Applications are due Friday, March 30, 2007, at 5:00pm. Students will be notified by Monday, April 2, of their acceptance or placement on a wait list. Accepted students must confirm with the faculty by 5:00pm Thursday, April 5, that they will enroll in the studio and submit their deposit by check at that time, or withdraw their application so that applicants on the wait list can be notified.

Equipment

Most standard office and drawing supplies can be purchased at inexpensive prices in Quanzhou. Special drafting equipment should be brought. If students have laptop computers, cameras (film or digital), it is highly advisable to bring these. Once the studio group is determined, we will determine what equipment is available among the group, whether any of it can be shared, and whether the College of Architecture and Urban Planning or participating departments may be able to loan the group any necessary additional equipment.

Background Information Relevant to Quanzhou and Urban China

The following articles by Dan Abramson and collaborators are in draft form, and have been modified significantly for publication. Please refer to the published works for purposes of citation.

Leaf M. and D. Abramson , "Global Networks, Civil Society, and the Transformation of the Urban Core in Quanzhou, China", in Southern California and the world, edited by Eric Heikkila and Rafael Pizarro (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002), pp. 153-178.

Abramson, D. B., M. Leaf, and Y. Tan, "Social Research and the Localization of Chinese Urban Planning Practice: Some Ideas from Quanzhou, Fujian", in The New Chinese City: Globalization and Market Reform, edited by J. R. Logan (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002), pp. 227-245. First presented at the Urban China Research Network- sponsored international conference in Shanghai on the "Future of Chinese Cities," July 1999.

Other research activities by the Urban China Research Network

Miscellaneous Links:

Vernacular Architecture in Quanzhou

Archeology of Quanzhou

By Johan Nilsson and Tan Ying

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a passport and visa?
Visas will be obtained through the program. However, you must have a passport valid for the entire period you expect to be outside the U.S, plus an extra six months beyond that. If you do not have a valid passport already, apply for one immediately, through the U.S. passport office. It can take up to 2 months for a passport to be processed!

Will there be time to be a tourist?
Within the studio period there will be two weekends during which students may take excursions in southern Fujian, plus at least two days of organized touring within Quanzhou and one day of organized (topic-oriented) touring in Beijing. To do more than that, you should make time either before June 13 or after July 15.

What if I want to follow a different itinerary from the one you have arranged?
It is not absolutely necessary to gather in Beijing first, but Quanzhou is a somewhat tricky place to get to, especially if you do not speak Chinese. There are no direct international flights to Quanzhou, and no train. If you want to get to Quanzhou from Xiamen, the nearest railhead, or from other Chinese cities with direct flights from abroad and to Quanzhou (Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, etc.), ask Dan Abramson and he can give you some advice.

Do I need to know the language?
No. We expect to have enough participants in the studio (from UW or from other universities) who speak both Chinese and English in order to share information. However, it would help a great deal even just to learn the basic rules of the standard romanization system used in the People's Republic (hanyu pinyin), since most street signs and maps include it, and to learn how to count and identify essential words (e.g. "cesuo" is "toilet"). Ideally, you could enroll in a basic Mandarin Chinese class during the spring quarter, if not at UW, then at another local college. Quanzhou is a medium-sized city with very few English speakers, so you will be truly immersed.

Is China a safe place? Do I need property insurance?
Given its size, and diversity and density of population, China is a very safe place. This is largely due to China's traditional controls on public order and restrictions on changing one's place of residence. However, as the country's economy opens up, people move more freely from place to place, and the gap between rich and poor grows larger, crime rates have risen. Quanzhou is a wealthy city, and people from poorer regions increasingly come there to beg. Burglary and pickpocketing is also on the rise, but violent crime remains rare. Quanzhou in particular is a lively city with active streets well into the evening. Visitors should nevertheless remain vigilant about their personal belongings when out in crowded public places, and should not leave loose cash in their hotel rooms.

How are Americans viewed there?
Chinese-American relations are complex, but as in most places around the world, people distinguish clearly between citizens and government. Even during the most tense relations, as when the U.S. bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, expressions of resentment against individual Americans was rare. Quanzhou is not prone to political demonstrations of a non-local nature. Most residents have relatives abroad, and it is historically a very open, tolerant city. It is always advisable when traveling not to call undue attention to oneself, by speaking unusually loudly or disrespectfullly, or wearing immodest clothes by local standards.

What are medical conditions like?
Urban hospitals are crowded and spartan, but clean and well-staffed. Foreign visitors always receive a great deal of attention (sometimes embarrassingly so). Chinese hospitals cannot process foreign medical insurance, but charge such low fees that it is usually possible to pay the cash and then be reimbursed at home. For more routine ailments, Chinese pharmacies and clinics offer a fascinating array of both Western and traditional Chinese remedies. It is best to avoid medicines that are a combination of these two traditions, however.

What about Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)?
The SARS epidemic of the first four months or so of 2003 was very disruptive in China, and caused the cancellation of the original plans for this studio, among many other activities. The University of Washington adopted a policy of forbidding university-sanctioned activities in countries for which the US Centers for Disease Control had issued an advisory or alert (see http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/sars/travel.htm). Updated information about SARS is also available from the World Health Organization at http://www.who.int/csr/sarsarchive/en/.

What are the options for people with dietary restrictions?
China is a vegetarian's heaven for doing one's own shopping and cooking, but restaurants are used to serving meat dishes. No matter where you eat in China, though, the choice of ingredients and dishes is overwhelming. It is easy to say the words for "vegetarian dish" and "I don't want meat" (this and other vocabulary will be covered in the orientation sessions), and waiters will understand. There are also a number of Buddhist temples in Quanzhou and restaurants that cater to them, and their fare is strictly vegetarian. There are also Halal restaurants, and these also might serve as a basic substitute for Kosher cooking.

What is the weather like?
Quanzhou is hot in the summer. It is at about the same latitude and with similar climate as Miami, Florida. Most of China, and especially the south, has a siesta culture of waking early, taking long midday breaks with time to nap, working again until about 6:00pm, and socializing quite late in the evening. Studio participants are advised to adopt this schedule, especially regarding site visits and field surveys. It will be virtually impossible to accomplish any survey work in the neighborhoods between 11:30am and 3:00pm, both because of the heat and because most residents are resting then.

What clothes should I bring?
Quanzhou is a relatively informal city, largely due to its climate. On most days, shortsleeve shirts, short pants or skirts, and sandals will be appropriate and most comfortable. Sunscreen and wide brim hats are useful. Even at official meetings and dinners, locals almost never wear ties or longsleeve shirts in the summer. For such occasions, though, studio participants should wear long pants or long dresses, and men should wear socks. The city has one quite large waterpark, and one of the nearby excursion destinations has a beach, so swimwear would be useful. The end of the studio period overlaps with the beginning of typhoon season, so an umbrella and light rainwear is also useful.

How can I pay for things?
The only cash currency used in China is the Renminbi Yuan (RMB), which is generally not available in banks in the US at advantageous rates. Banks and hotels in China readily change RMB for cash in US$, HK$, Japanese Yen, and major European currencies. Rates have been dropping recently to about US$1.00 = 7.75 YuanRMB. Visa, Mastercard, and American Express credit cards are all accepted in the hotels. There are ATM machines that can disburse RMB with any widely accepted debit card. Travelers checks are accepted in fewer places, but Quanzhou has more than one bank branch that will accept them.

What are communications like? How can I stay in touch?
Hotel rooms in Quanzhou almost always have broadband or standard telephone lines that can be removed from the phone and plugged into a laptop computer, which can be easily configured to dial up to a local phone company-run service provider for about than US$1.50/hour. Hotel long distance phone service is expensive, but IC phone cards are cheap, can be bought at hotel business centers or in nearly any small corner shop, and can be used for both domestic and international calls in all public pay phones, of which there are many in Quanzhou's city center.

What is there to do with leisure time in Quanzhou?
The studio work pace will be intense, but for moments of leisure Quanzhou is a fun city. Local residents lead an active night life. The streets in the city center are busy with open-air restaurants and many traditional opera and ballad-singing clubs giving free public performances almost every evening. Every hotel and most large restaurants have karaoke. There are a few discos, and many small bars, internet cafes, traditional tea houses, good coffee houses, and one hotel has a bowling alley. For quieter times, there are two ancient Buddhist temples with shady grounds in the heart of the old city and a large modern park with award-winning landscape design around a series of lakes at the edge of the city center -- all great places to contemplate and write in your journal during the middle of the day when everyone else is napping. The city is overlooked by Qing Yuan Shan, a nationally protected mountain reserve that is much cited in Chinese literature, and dotted with small shrines, pavilions and paved pathways.

Faculty Contact

All interested students should please provide her/his name, department, year of study, and a brief description of background and interest in the studio via email or fax to:

Dan Abramson
Department of Urban Design and Planning
Box 355740, 410 Gould Hall, Seattle, WA 98195
tel: 206-543-2089, fax: 206-685-9597
email: abramson@u.washington.edu and

Manish Chalana
Department of Urban Design and Planning
Box 355740, 410 Gould Hall, Seattle, WA 98195
email: chalana@u.washington.edu.