Random Update: Guangzhou Post and the Video Game Club's 24-Hour Marathon

     Greetings, everyone, and welcome to a random update!  I'll be doing these from time to time when I have a lot to say and not a lot of time to say it in.  So, let's get down to business.

     First of all, allow me to apologize for the month-long plus delay of my final post about China.  Things have just gotten very busy for me now that college is back in full swing.  Compounding this issue is the fact that... well, I really just don't have a lot to say about Guangzhou compared to all of the other places the class visited.  Everything I saw in Guangzhou is just too similar to examples I've already seen before.  If I come up with some new takes on these buildings that I haven't thought of before, then I'll certainly make my Guangzhou post centered around them.  Until then, however, it's going to be on the back-burner for a little while longer.

     On a more uplifting note, I am happy to announce that I will be participating in the annual Penn State Video Game Club's 24-hour Marathon and Survivor Tournament. This is a fundraiser benefiting the Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital at the Hershey Medical Center, a member of the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals.  More details and the ability to support me can be found on my Extra Life page right here.  All proceeds will go to the Children's Hospital and are tax-deductible.  My goal is to raise $200 for this great cause.  With your help, we can do it!

     So that's it for this random update.  I have no idea when I'll be posting about anything else yet, but when I do I'll keep you posted.  Until then, thanks for reading and I hope to see you back again.

Macau & Guangzhou: The Progression of Urbanization in the Kai Ping Area

     Greetings, everyone, and welcome to the next segment on my trip through Macau and Guangzhou.  In this part, I actually won’t be talking about either of these cities, but rather one of the areas the class visited while traveling from Macau to Guangzhou called Kai Ping.  Specifically, I will be talking about two towns in Kai Ping that are at the far ends of the urbanization process: Chikan and Majianlong.

     First, though, is some brief background about the area.  Similar to the Fanling district in Hong Kong, the Kai Ping region used to be primarily farmland.  It is also one of the areas affected by the manufacturing boom in China.  However, Kai Ping is a much larger region than Fanling and the urbanization processis occurring at a comparatively slower rate.  In fact, while traveling through Kai Ping I would look out the window from time to time and witness different stages of development each time I turned my head.  One moment, I would see the vast expanses of farmlands with little villages scattered about the place, and the next I would be going through a fully developed town (both cases shown below).

The farming areas of Kai Ping contain little development
except for the few isolated areas of residential tenements
and the areas where there are signs of planned urbanization.

The urbanized areas of Kai Ping are the result of the rapid
manufacturing boom and the need for surrounding
developed towns. Unfortunately, most of these towns
faded just as quickly as they appeared.

     Moving on, the first town we stopped at was Chikan.  Chikan, like many other towns in China and Hong Kong, used to be a manufacturing hub until the factories moved out.  With its heydays behind it, the town refocused itself on tourism, restoring the waterfront buildings and creating a riverside market (shown right) as one of the main flows of income.  While touring through the town, I found that only the front of the town had been restored while the inner area had been left in a run-down state (shown below).

Furthermore, I also noted several modern buildings adjacent to the old buildings that stood out because their architecture didn’t fit the rustic style of Chikan.  Although they look like every other generic housing complex found in China and Hong Kong, here they stick out because of the rustic architectural nature of the surrounding historic buildings.  A couple of side-by-side comparisons are below:

Again, this is a similar situation to what was observed in Fanling: a loss of architectural identity from neglecting historical buildings and areas while constructing cookie-cutter residential buildings without regard for site context.  If Chikan wants to become a full-fledged tourist destination, then the town planners may want to consider at least re-designing the exteriors of these buildings so that they create a more uniform architectural and cultural identity and give the town some character that will attract visitors.

     At the other end of the spectrum is the village of Majianlong (shown left).  Majianlong is a UNESCO world heritage site, meaning that the buildings in the village are protected historical landmarks and have been left untouched since their construction.  The chief reason for the preservation of Majianlong is its Diaolous.  A diaolou is a guard tower meant to protect the village and its people from bandits and heavy flooding.  These towers, like the one in Majianlong (shown below), have existed since the 16^th century, making some of them nearly 500 years old. [1] Majianlong basically represents what rural China looked like before the urbanization process started.

     So other than the historical aspect of Majianlong and its diaolous, I don’t have anything else to say about the buildings themselves.  However, while touring through the village’s bamboo forest, I came across a very interesting sight; a tree filled with pieces of paper hanging from its branches and the fence at the tree’s base.  The nearby sign said that it was called a “Wishing Tree.”  I had never seen anything like this, so I took a couple photos (shown below) and decided to research it when I got back.

 

My research led me to a place called Lam Tsuen in Hong Kong’s New Territories.  Apparently, Lam Tsuen has the most famous of wishing trees, but the trees themselves can be found throughout China.  The pieces of paper are called “josses” and have various wishes and prayers written on them for things like protection, fortune, and so on.  Once the people had written everything down, they would throw the josses into the tree in the hopes that their wishes and prayers would be heard by the earth god. The higher the josses landed in the tree, the more likely the prayers would be heard. [2][3] I think this is a very unique aspect to spiritual life in China and Hong Kong and I wish that something like this had been included during our class tours (in addition to some of the temples we visited).

     So those are my thoughts on my trip through Kai Ping.  This was a nice change of pace from the modern urban areas to the more historic rural areas. It was also nice since most of the trip was riding on the bus.  I was finally able to catch up on lost sleep due to the late night work sessions for our architecture studio project (at least in my case – I can’t speak for what the others did).  Anyways, my next blog will be on the tour of Guangzhou.  I plan on focusing on a few of the buildings as case studies for what to do and what not to do for construction.  Until then, thanks for reading and I hope to see you back again.

Sources:

1. UNESCO Advisory Board. “Kaiping Diaolou and Villages.” Retrieved August 19, 2014. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1112/
2. Elaine Tai. “Lam Tsuen ‘Tradition’ – The Wishing Tree.” Retrieved August 19, 2014. http://www.com.cuhk.edu.hk/varsity/0003/culture2.htm
3. Hong Kong Tourism Board. “Wishing Trees and Tin Hau Temple at Lam Tsuen.” Retrieved August 19, 2014.  http://www.discoverhongkong.com/us/see-do/culture-heritage/chinese-temples/lam-tsuen-wishing-tree.jsp

Macau & Guangzhou: Repurposed Historical Sites in Macau

     Greetings, everyone, and welcome to the next segment on my trip through Macau and Guanzhou.  In this part, I’ll still be talking about Macau, but it’ll focus on two historical sites in the city that have been repurposed for modern use: the Ruins of St. Paul’s and Mount Fortress.

     The Ruins of St. Paul’s (shown left) was a Catholic cathedral until it burned down in the mid-1800s.  The only thing left standing was the front façade of the building.  For over a century it stood there until the 1990’s, when plans commenced to excavate and restore the ruins as a historical monument.  In order to stabilize the remaining façade of St. Paul’s, steel and concrete reinforcement was used to buttress the wall (shown below).

The museum itself is built upon the existing layout of the old cathedral that had been excavated.  In fact, during the excavations archeologists unearthed a plethora of artifacts.  In order to protect these artifacts, they were left at the site while glass cases were installed above them (shown below) so visitors could observe the artifacts as they were originally found. [1]

Personally, I think this is a great style of adaptive reuse of historical structures.  The new construction is well-integrated into the existing site and amplifies the historical importance of the ruins.

     The other historical site is Mount Fortress (schematic drawing shown right).  Mount Fortress was a military installation built by the Portuguese and remained active until 1966, when it was then decommissioned and redeveloped as an observatory.  Thirty years later, the observatory was repurposed into the Macao Museum (shown below). [1]

While the observatory was renovated, much of the surrounding area was left untouched in order to preserve the fort’s history.  Some of the sights at the fort that remain are the corner towers and cannons (shown below)

While I do appreciate leaving the military items relatively untouched, I don’t like what was done with the museum.  I know that it was repurposed from the existing observatory, but I doubt that the observatory was repurposed from an existing structure.  I would have liked to have seen a central building on top of Mount Fortress, like a barracks or command post, which was then renovated into the observatory if one existed there beforehand.  If not, then I would have liked it if the observatory was built in a style similar the buildings that were built at around the same time as the fort was.

     So that’s it for Macau.  Overall, I really enjoyed observing both the old and new almost side by side.  And no, I did not gamble away any of my money.  The only complaint I have is that there is so much light pollution in Macau from all of the lit-up billboards, especially the one right outside my hotel window.  That aside, I’d recommend visiting this place for at least the history. Anyways, the next blog will be on the trip to Guangzhou where we passed through a couple of towns in the Kai Ping area, so that should be up soon.  Until then, thanks for reading and I hope to see you back again.

Source:

1.  Leisure and Cultural Services Department of Hong Kong. “Study of Heritage Conservation in Macau.” Retrieved August 11, 2014. http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/ce/Museum/Monument/en/teachingkit/download/teaching_kit_10.pdf

Macau & Guangzhou: Facilities Management at the Venetian

     Greetings, everyone, and welcome to the next part of my China Study Abroad series!  The next few blogs will be based upon our class trip to Macau and Guangzhou to look at some of the most recent urban development projects in mainland China.

     To start off the trip, we toured the Venetian Macao (shown left), a casino and hotel built in 2007 and based upon the Italian renaissance style of architecture commonly associated with cities like Venice.  While it is modeled after its sister hotel, the Venetian Las Vegas, the Venetian Macao is considerably larger; standing at 980,000 m², the Venetian is the largest casino and seventh-largest building in the world. [1]

     Naturally, it takes a lot of back-of-the-house work to make this place run smoothly, and our class was privileged to get a behind-the-scenes tour of this massive complex.  We went through the luggage sorting center, the kitchens, uniform storage, and the huge mechanical spaces just to name a few of the areas we went through.  I was most impressed by the practices of how the facilities were run, especially considering I spent last summer as an intern in the Facilities Management Office for Penn State’s Office of Physical Plant (the construction and maintenance division of Penn State’s staff).  For this blog, I’ll be talking about how similar these practices are to the practices on a construction site. 

     Firstly, take the luggage sorting center.  This is where visitors’ baggage goes after they drop it off to be put on trolleys and sent to their rooms.  Like at a construction site, this requires planning and coordination to make sure the process runs smoothly.  For example, I found pinned up on the wall the Action Plan for monitoring the system (shown below) similar to a Schedule of Activities for construction work. 

There was even a chart showing the average completion times, lead time and complaints for month and year (shown below) similar to the project time tracker and safety record.

     The second place I noticed similarities was the kitchen.  For both construction and cooking, teamwork is essential.  Both site workers and cooks, like the ones shown at right, need to work together to deliver quality goods.  Furthermore, cooks need to follow recipes, like the one at left, in order to create what the customer wants, just like how construction workers need to follow blueprints to make the building the client                                                             wants. 

     Lastly, there’s th- BACON!!!

Sorry, I got distracted for a bit.  Where was I… ah, yes, of course.  Lastly, there’s the Uniform Storage area.  In the Venetian, there is a strict dress code for dealers working in the casino pits, as shown on the poster at right.  Similarly, construction workers have to follow dress codes for things like safety vests and hard hats, albeit these codes are for safety, not public appearance.  Another similarity is that both casino attendants and construction laborers often store their uniforms in on-site facilities.  However, the facilities at the Venetian (shown below) are certainly much bigger and better maintained than the facilities at a construction job site.

     So that’s my take on the tour of the Venetian.  Later I’ll be talking about the tour through the historic areas of Macau and some of the sites there.  Until then, thanks for reading and I hope to see you back again.

Source:

1. Las Vegas Sands Corp. Press Release for August 27, 2007.  “The Venetian Macao, Asia’s First Las Vegas-Style Integrated Mega-Resort, Opens Its Doors to the World.”  Retrieved August 11, 2014.  http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=185629&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1045227&highlight=

Urban Development in Hong Kong - Part 3: Pok Fu Lam, Waterfall Bay and Lamma Island

     Greetings, and welcome to the final part of my Urban Development in Hong Kong series.  Today I will be talking about our class tour through Pok Fu Lam Village, Waterfall Bay, and Lamma Island.

     Pok Fu Lam Village is a small but densely populated town of low-income workers.  Normally, most people would refer to this place as a slum, but I don’t see it that way.  For starters, usually there is very little distinction or separation between private and public spaces in slums.  However, in Pok Fu Lam Village there are very distinct differences between spaces that are private and those that are public.  The private spaces are very tight and have a sense of a close community.  The public spaces are open and facilitate social and recreational activities.  Examples of each can be seen below.

The public space in the village is open to all of the
surrounding homes

The private sections of the village give off a sense that
if you don't live there, then there's no room for you.

Secondly, slums tend to have a lot of litter and graffiti because no one in the community has a sense of responsibility to where they live.  Here, however, there is very little of that.  In fact, when I saw the concrete wall in the village below the main road, I was surprised at the stylized artwork that had been painted on it (shown right).  This is an excellent example of taking a dead space and turning it into something worthwhile.

     The next stop on the tour was Waterfall Bay (shown left, bottom).  Waterfall Bay used to be a watering station for British ships because of the fresh water that could be collected from the waterfall.  Today, however, it has become nearly abandoned due the fact that the new building developments in the area have virtually cut off access to the bay.  The biggest of these developments is the Bel Air tower (shown left, top), which is situated right above the bay itself.  Personally, I cannot understand why the developers didn’t want to incorporate Waterfall Bay into the landscape design of Bel Air.  If you could provide easy access to the bay, or even integrate into the building’s design, I would assume that would cause the retail value of the development to skyrocket.  Alas, that didn’t happen and I doubt anyone will do anything with this place, which is such a shame.

     The final stop on the tour was Lamma Island, which houses all of the electricity generating facilities for Hong Kong Island proper (there are other facilities for Kowloon and the New Territories).  The main attraction of Lamma Island is the windmill generator (shown right), which stands at about 71m.  It generates about 800 kW of electrical energy.  It also has an exhibition area at the base where tourists can learn about wind energy and the windmill itself.  Also on the island is a small temple nearby (Wikipedia says it’s a Tin Hau temple, so I’ll go with that) that also sees a lot of tourist traffic.  We didn’t see it, so there’s not much I can say about it.  Lastly, there’s Hung Shing Yeh Beach, a spot for relaxing, sun-bathing and swimming in the ocean.  Unfortunately, there’s so much trash in the ocean at this spot that swimming becomes really unpleasant (as well as unhealthy).  Just take a look at the pictures below, I'm not kdding about the shear amount of trash at this place.

This is especially bad considering that there are signs along the beach asking people to keep the area clean.  Overall, I’d say that Lamma Island, as a tourist spot, doesn’t do a good job appealing to the general public.  If you’re into hiking the mountains and checking out an alternative energy site, then you might enjoy this place.  Otherwise, I’d say it isn’t worth it, especially considering the conditions of the beaches.

     So that’s the end of the Urban Development series.  I’ll still continue blogging about this trip (I’ve got trips to Macau, Guangzhou and Shanghai that I’ll be writing about), so stay tuned for those and I’ll try to post them as soon as possible.  Or at least, as soon as the internet decides to cooperate again.  Until then, thanks for reading and I hope to see you back again.

Urban Development in Hong Kong - Part 2: Fanling

     Greetings, and welcome to the next installment of my Urban Development in Hong Kong series.  This time, I will be talking about Fanling, which is an area in the northern part of the New Territories.  Currently, this place is primarily made up of residential buildings for people who work in Hong Kong but either can’t or don’t want to live there.  It’s kind of like people who want to work in New York City but have to commute in from New Jersey, except that in Hong Kong the bridges don’t close down when the local mayor pisses off the governor’s office.

     However, Fanling wasn't always a residential hub.  At first, Fanling used to be comprised of small villages that oversaw vast farmlands, like those shown at right.  Families would live in the small houses and work together to harvest the crops every year.  Then in the 1980’s, the local government decided to redefine Fanling as a primarily industrial area when the manufacturing boom hit.  Urbanization rapidly took hold replacing the quaint farms with factories, massive housing complexes and other types of public projects.  However, the manufacturing boom died down just as quickly as it started and area was stuck with a multitude of empty factories and an over-abundance of out-of-work residents.  As a result, the government decided to re-redefine Fanling as a residential place for commuter workers.

    During this time, developers were able to buy up most of the land and re-purpose them as apartment buildings.  Most of the land bought was either farmland or private lots given to young men through something called the Small House Policy.  This policy stems from a village tradition that when a man reaches the age of 18, he is entitled to a volume of land measuring about 30’ x 40’ x 25’ upon which to build his home.  The premise behind the policy was to have the young man live independently (and eventually with his own family) in his house while allowing him to stay with the village to help cultivate the fields.  However, once the manufacturing boom occurred, residential developers sought these plots of land to build lots and lots of apartment buildings for the influx of workers.  Of course, the enticement of money easily swayed the 18-year-old guys to sell.  This led to the mass construction of these apartment buildings, called ding houses (shown below). 

     When analyzing this, I noticed three problems that this rapid urbanization led to.  The first one is simple: lost lands to farm for food.  With massive amounts of land being bought for urban development, this left very little for farming.  Currently, Hong Kong has to import almost all of its food, so cutting down on farmable land is not conducive to feeding its growing population.  Given that there are also several buildings devoid of tenants, perhaps city planners ought to focus on filling buildings rather that building them.

     The second problem is the loss of the next generation of farm workers.  When the developers pay the 18-year-old guys for their land, the newly rich kids move out of the village to go to the cities or other countries.  This leaves a generational gap in farm workers that will ultimately lead to a massive shortage of people able to properly work the fields.  So the question is what’s worse; no land to grow foods on or no people to plant and harvest them?

     The third problem is a little more subdued than the others: the loss of cultural identity.  To illustrate this point, look at the following pictures of newly constructed ding houses:

Despite being located in Hong Kong, these houses look like they could belong at any residential development in the world.  In fact, many of the old buildings in these villages were torn down in order to accommodate these new buildings.  These old buildings may have been unpleasant but they were also distinct.  Take for example this old temple shown at right.  It is small and surrounded by the new ding houses, yet it still stands out because it looks like it belongs there.  If developers were just a little historically aware, they might be able to take the old architecture and incorporate it into their designs to make a Twenty-First century style of rural village.  An iconic look that also serves the needs of the public is something that I very much appreciate in architecture and construction.  Unfortunately, the only thing most developers are concerned with is their bottom line, so it looks like the cheapest solution is the only one locals will be getting.  That is unless the public does something about it, but I digress.

So those are my thoughts on the rapid urbanization of Fanling.  Next time, I’ll be talking about my trip to Pok Fu Lam village and Waterfall Bay.  Thanks for reading and I hope to see you soon.

Urban Development in Hong Kong - Part 1: Kowloon

     Greetings, and welcome to the first part of my Urban Development in Hong Kong series.  Last week, I went with my class on a tour of the Kowloon Peninsula.  Kowloon is one of the districts that make up the whole city Hong Kong.  It used to house the Kowloon Walled City and the Kai Tak Airport, but since these landmarks no longer exist, the government is redeveloping Kowloon as a central business district, or CBD.  Basically, the Kowloon government wants to rebrand itself as a commercial hotspot.  So today, I will be talking about a couple of the places in Kowloon that best showcase Kowloon's efforts.

Fig. 1 - The Energizing  Kowloon East Office

Fig. 2 - Atrium inside EKEO.  Despite being under a
highway overpass and next to some of the busiest
streets, this area manages to maintain an air of
peace and quiet.

     The first place is the Energizing Kowloon East Office, or EKEO (Figure 1).  This is one of the branches of the Kowloon government that is focused on the redevelopment of Kowloon into a CBD.  The building itself is constructed out of recycled cargo containers.  The building is split into two halves: the right half is an open presentation space with various displays about the work of the EKEO.  In the back there is seating for when presentations are being given.  Overall, it's a very "stock" type of presentation area that gets the job done but didn't leave much of an impression on me.  The left half, on the other hand, was very impressive.  It comprises of a central lounge area which all of the offices branch off from (Figure 2).  It was surprising to see this type of green space set up for an office because this place actually situated underneath a highway overpass.  Usually you don't see "green space" in the same sentence as "highway overpass" but here it works quite well.  The place biggest surprise, however, was how quiet it was.  Compared to the hustle and bustle of the city that's ten meters away, the area has a very relaxed feel to it.  This is a great space in which to stop and chat, eat lunch or just relax.  Overall, this is the kind of setting that ought to be incorporated into modern office buildings.

     While there, our class attended a presentation about the EKEO and the various projects they're involved in.  The main goals of the EKEO are to further Connectivity, Branding, Design and Diversity within the redeveloped Kowloon, hence their logo of "CBD-squared" (you know, because they're trying to make Kowloon a CBD?... Yeah, that was my reaction too). Anyways, most of the EKEO's work is about "going green" in various public areas that would otherwise be considered dead space and trying to "release development potential" in said areas.

Fig. 3 - The Megabox Mall at Enterprise Square

Fig. 4 - Interior of the Megabox Mall.  Despite having an
open atrium, most of the floors look tight and cut off from
the rest of the space.

     The second place I visited is the Megabox Mall at Enterprise Square (Figure 3).  The Megabox was built in 2007 as part of a commercial and office high-rise development and cost over $2 billion (Hong Kong dollars, which is about $285 million in U.S. currency).  It's like the mega-malls back in the U.S., but instead of spreading out over a large area, the shops are stacked vertically over 18 stories to create a lean but towering complex.  Normally, this would be ill-advised because no one wants to go up to the 18th floor of a mall to shop, but the designers accounted for this by installing parking garages on the 16th and 17th floors.  This way people could drive up the whole way and back if they needed to without needing to use the interior stairs, escalators or elevators.  While I applaud the effort to create an urban shopping center within a limited area, it is not a strategy I would employ for future developments.  The condensed nature of the building gives it a very tight feel for most of the space (see Figure 4).  Usually for malls you want the layout to be as open as possible to allow better traffic flow for people and to allow as many shops to be within eyesight as possible for directional (and advertising) purposes.  I can understand the need for vertically oriented malls in cities, but if given the choice I'd definitely choose to be more spread out and open.

Fig. 5 - The Kowloon Cruise Terminal

Fig. 6 - The rooftop garden and walkways at the Kowloon
Cruise Terminal.  Despite being a place focused on shipping
people in and out, this garden gives them a place to relax
away from the bustle going on down below.

     The third place I visited was the Kowloon Cruise Terminal (Figure 5).  This was one of the key projects that EKEO was working on because they were trying to redevelop the old Kai Tak Airport in Kowloon Bay.  You see, Kai Tak used to house the Hong Kong International Airport until the airport was moved in 1998.  Since then, the Kowloon government has reestablished the area for use as a cruise terminal and rooftop garden and is currently looking to facilitate the redevelopment of the area between the terminal and the main land as a wharf.  The rooftop garden (Figure 6) is very pretty and spacious, and is apparently a popular spot for walks and picnics. This is a much more people-oriented design than the terminals in the U.S.  There, it's all business - just get people from point A to point B and be done with them.  In Kowloon, the terminal is allows people to relax and slow down, something that isn't typically found in transportation-centered buildings.  Personally, I think it's a great idea as long as it's done properly.  It is very easy for problems to develop when passengers who were lounging in the gardens need to get to the boarding area with no quick way to do so.  Unfortunately, most of the cruise terminal was undergoing interior construction, so I cannot judge how well this terminal performs.  From what I've seen so far, though, it looks quite promising.

So that's my thoughts on some of the redevelopment projects in Kowloon.  Tomorrow, I will be touring Fanling Town Centre and the Leung Yeuk Tau Heritage Trail.  On Wednesday, I will be walking through Pok Fu Lam village and Aberdeen.  So that's two more blogs to look forward to.  I hope you enjoyed this post and will return again.

~ J.D.