My campus!
So, I thought it might be nice to write a post about my campus, which, while small, is quite lovely in spots and not so lovely in others. Don't worry, I didn't take any pictures of the not-so-lovely areas... I try to steer clear of the dirtier places in all of Beijing, and the Beiyu (short for Beijing Yuyan Daxue, or Bejing Language and Culture University) campus is no exception! The picture at the right is of one of the paths I walk on my way to and from class every morning and afternoon. The sand-colored building just discernable in the background is apparently a building for foreign students, though I've never been in it.
This is a picture I took for my mom, mostly: you can click on it to make it larger (you can actually do this with all the pictures on this page) to make out a field of potted pond plants being watered by a couple of workers on bikes. This is in the parking lot in front of the main classroom building... there's a lot of extra space, so I guess they decided to fill it with aquatic (dare I say... hydroponic? I will so win at Trivial Pursuit next time we play :) vegetation. Very pretty -- I can't wait until all the flowers start to bloom, and I promise to take more pictures when that happens!
This is a different shot of my walk to class. Note the bikes, pretty tile work in the walkway, and intensely bright sunlight. Imagine how bright things would be if there wasn't so much pollution it partially obscures the sun at all times! The day this was taken the average temperature was 103 degrees Fahrenheit. If you're interested in a video of a still different part of campus (also on my way to class... what can I say, it's a pretty walk!), I've tried to post it online here. C'mon, you know you want to! There's an adorable little kid and two old men playing Go involved... how could you possibly turn that down?
This is a photograph of the area in front of the main building. You can see the big overhang and some of the steps leading up to the entrance at the left of the picture. The very pretty circular planted areas are actually almost entirely potted, an interesting phenomenon I haven't seen so much of in the States but have observed all over Beijing: rather than actually planting beds of trees, flowers, or shrubs, the workers simply group potted plants in square, circular, or other arrangements. I still haven't figured out exactly why this is... it might have something to do with Beijing's climate, or maybe with how very rapidly the city has developed -- any thoughts?
This is the view from the East Gate of the university... a ginormous rock (which reads, unsurprisingly, Beijing Yuyan Daxue) with pretty calligraphy, and a bunch more curiously grouped (not planted) flowers and grasses. Perhaps in a city with development as explosive as that of Beijing, the transient nature of impermanent plantings like this is a virtue -- they can be put up and taken down in just hours, rather than the days it would take to dig and plant for real -- but I can't help thinking that, rapid as Beijing's development is at present, they are not building to rip things down immediately again, so ephermality might not be so desirable.
Then again, perhaps Beijing is becoming increasingly cognizant of its own penchant for sprawl, for rapid building, deconstructing, and rebuilding, and is trying to save itself some work by embracing a form of decoration that is itself inherently transitory. Then again, maybe it just makes sense to keep plants in pots due to Beijing's long, humid summers and rainy winters, and I'm reading way more into this method of landscaping than I ought to. At any rate, this is the full view of the main classroom building. Impressive, no? My class is on the fourth floor.
posted by Kelly @ 2:41 下午
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