Cittaslow International reports about our visit to China`s first Slow City

As of July 2012 there are 161 certified Slow Cities worldwide. One of them is Yaxi, China`s first Slow City. When we visited Yaxi in July, we had the opportunity to learn about this region and its approach to creating a livable way of life. Cittaslow International operates a website, which periodically publishes news about the various Slow City activities. Recently the Cittaslow officials in Yaxi reported about our visit and about our suggestions of how to retain Yaxi`s unique character.

Link: http://www.cittaslow.org/article/gouchun-yaxi-chi-students-from-university-of-bern-switzerland-came-to-yaxi

Day 14: The Great Wall, June 30, 2012

Today we made an optional field trip with the group (minus 3 with special agreement) to the biggest fortification system on earth: the Great Wall. The wall has a total length of about 6,300 km. Astronauts tell us this is the only cultural heritage visible from extraterrestrial space, what confirms the outstanding monument built during the over 2,000 years lasting reign of Chinese emperors.

The Great Wall (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Steep climbs (Photo: Heike Mayer)

The part we visited was mainly constructed under the Ming dynasty (about 1350-1650). It is a part of the Great Wall on top of a mountain range closest to the outskirts of Beijing. Today a highway crosses the foothill zone that begins about 100 km north of Beijing. This makes for an easy access for tourists and Chinese people from the surrounding areas of Beijing. And even Mao is cited with the words: “A right Chinese has to stand once in his life on the wall.”

Fortification along the mountain range (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Watch towers ensured security along the Great Wall (Photo: Heike Mayer)

The drive to the wall takes two hours, the walk on top of the wall about three hours depending on your physical condition. The forbidden town, the power center of China, had to be protected against the invasive forces from the Mongolian desert. The mountain range system may have broken the waves of mounted warriors; however, the wall was the line to definitely stop the enemies.

It took us about 3 hours to hike about 6 km (Photo: Heike Mayer)

The hilly zone leading up to the wall is scarcely settled and nowadays reforested to prevent erosion. This peripheral zone north of Beijing stands for Sinocentrism. The periphery has always paid tribute to the heart of the empire and that became clearly visible when we drove back from the impressive wall with all the towers decorating the top of a mountain range and when we reached the ever-booming and powerful metropolis Beijing.

Paul Messerli

Day 13: Beijing, June 29, 2012

6:30 am: Getting up

It’s not Friday the 13th of June but the last and 13th day of our field trip. Looking out of the window, what we will see is not amusing, it’s dark and... Sure our day starts... you can guess with rain! By the way, yes the sky is not blue like always here in China. Some guys told us it’s because of the smog, others whispered it's a mixture of rain, dust, traffic jam and of course 1.2 billion Chinese people crossing the various streets of Beijing to get to their job, to find their space, fill out the gap. Anyway it doesn't matter, the good mood from everyone experiencing another day of great inputs and diverse daily program will clear up the misty, foggy sky. So we jump out of the bed.

07:00 am: Time for breakfast

Same procedure as always we rushed down the street took an oversized water melon, and a big piece of dry bread, we dream it was bread with Nutella, western style. Not to forget the Swiss knife cracking up the melon and putting down the Nutella mmmhhh....

07:32 am: Gonna be time for the first group meeting

07:45 am: Tube pressure

A bit fuzzy, but nevertheless this shot illustrates the masses that are trying to get on the Beijing subway
(Photo: Heike Mayer)

We went down to the alley from the hotel. Seconds later we don't know how it comes... sure, pressing down the tube, going down in the flood of men, pushing us into the tiny, sticky tube and go on... 2-1-10 we are there. Tube, but no horns honking around in the streets, crazy taxi drivers speeding up the streets of Beijing in an awesome manner of driving, we couldn’t copy...!

09:15 am: The OSEC

The OSEC is located near the Swiss embassy. There we got a really good introduction about the Swiss-Chinese business relationships for small and medium-sized enterprises who want to enter the Chinese market. Basically the OSEC is supporting small and medium-sized enterprises to get a foothold in Chinese markets by examining possibilities and leveling the cultural differences between Swiss and Chinese business people.

However, most interesting have been the "geraniums", lovely assorted flower decorations on plates. It was great, they have giving us a feeling of being home and experience true Swiss patriotism.

00.10 pm: Coffee time

Sit down in the coffee shop was less the problem than to get our food ordered. Actually the guy told us "just wait one minute" ... later we realized it has been about 45 minutes... but the result was awesome - we get a really good 45 minute well done burger...

So enough telling about burgers, we also delivered a short student input presentation about a comparison between innovative and non-innovative enterprises in the Zhongguancun industrial estate park.

03:00 pm: Haidian Science Park

Haidian Science Park is home to numerous universities (Photo: Heike Mayer)

View of Haidian Science Park (Photo: Heike Mayer)

As we reached the industrial park we got a brief introduction about technology-related research and development which takes place in this park. In short, it was dealing with industries and companies coming together, joining to set new standards which later can be spread around in the whole world. This because of the huge market of China.

04:00 pm: Taxi cruise back to the hostel

So we are sitting in the taxi, yes a little bit of honking, which we do need after this long time in China to be satisfied and happy... Dreaming through the city, cars passing by, sure including the obligatory traffic jam we are happy to look forward to the great Korean barbecue dinner and the closing session of our field trip this evening.

Korean BBQ (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Celebrating with Daniel, our great tour guide (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Gambei!

It is our last day together and our last day of a great field trip in China, which will leave awesome memories in all of our minds.

Nicolas Dränert, Mathilde Hofer

Day 12: Beijing, Thursday, June 28, 2012

After yesterday’s first impressions of Beijing by bicycle we were already aware that Beijing is a city of superlatives. In China things are big, but in Beijing everything is bigger. Therefore, our schedule for today was ambitious. First, we visited the Temple of Heaven, in order to discover the historical Beijing, which was followed by a visit of the urban planning exhibition that gave us an impression of the metamorphosis of the old Emperors’ Beijing into the modern metropolis it is today. In the afternoon the group split up and some of us strolled around the largest art gallery in the world, the Factory 798, and the others visited the Lenovo headquarters in the Zhongguancun Industry Park.

Today’s first stop was at the Temple of Heaven, a large complex of religious buildings. It was set up for the emperor of the Ming dynasty – regarded as the son of heaven – for his annual ceremonies of prayer to heaven for good harvest. The Temple of Heaven is a beautiful park, four times the size of the Forbidden City, located within the outer city walls of Beijing. It was constructed in 1420 by the architect of the Forbidden City. Despite the rain we got a good feeling of the large dimensions of the park and its spiritual character. All the elements in the park were carefully chosen, for example the dominating colors are green and blue, representing the Earth and Heaven, respectively. Furthermore, the construction of the temple is based on the heavenly number three and the predominant architectural shapes are squares, standing for the Earth and domes, representing heaven. The worshipping building used to be reserved for the emperor only. In 1970, for the first time commoners were allowed in the park and nowadays it is the many locals exercising, dancing, singing, playing cards and so on that create a nice and cheerful atmosphere.

Locals playing cards in the Temple of Heaven park. (Photo: Bettina Niklaus)

Temple of Heaven with the three Chinese characters meaning pray – year – hall
(Photo: Bettina Niklaus)

Daniel, finally with a real tourist guide’s flag (Photo: Bettina Niklaus)

In the Urban Planning Exhibition Hall the impressive relief of the city of Beijing of 1949 caught our interest of Beijing’s urban development. Comparing it to a very accurate 3D model of today’s Beijing, we could see how the city grew five times bigger since then. Until today the city is developed according to a master plan, arranging all buildings along the central axis from South to North. All important sites are located along this axis, like the Forbidden City, the drum and bell tower and the Olympic stadium, the so-called Bird’s nest.

Lightshow in the Urban Planning Museum demonstrating Beijing’s city structure.
(Photo: Bettina Niklaus)

Visiting one of Beijing’s most modern architectural sights, the CCTV tower in the CBD, we learned that it was designed by Rem Koolhaas according to the nomadic radical structuralism style. The building serves as office space for approximately 10’000 people. Some of us then went on to the Factory 798, the world’s largest art district, located in a deserted industrial area. The creative atmosphere there inspired some of the students to do performing arts themselves.

And another group picture… this time posing Chinese style in front of the CCTV tower.
(Photo: Annie)

Gierina and Simon performing spontaneous art at the Factory 798 in Beijing.
(Photo: Bettina Niklaus)

In the meantime the others visited the headquarters of Lenovo, a Chinese IT manufacturer in Beijing. Full of energy and motivation after a super delicious street food lunch, we enjoyed a very informative presentation of Koka, a young, dynamic and very talkative marketing associate, elaborating Lenovo’s strategy to become the world’s number one PC supplier. Lenovo’s global strategy is the perfect example for explaining FDI with Dunning’s OLI paradigm. In order to gain an ownership advantage, Lenovo acquired foreign IT firms, like IBM to enter the US market. For the location advantage, Lenovo has diversified its R&D on many parts of the world, to gather up-to-date information and for the internalization advantage, Lenovo produces most of the things itself in China, for purposes of control and quality management. It was also very interesting to hear, that Lenovo chose Beijing as its headquarters location, because the access to superior information of the government is necessary for the company’s success.

“For those who do” – Lenovo’s branding slogan to become world’s number one.
(Photo: Andrea Keller)

GIUB students playing the Chinese version of Hacky Sack with random tourists and Chinese people.
(Photo: Andrea Keller)

The highlight of today’s program was the Olympic Parc with the Bird’s Nest. The “inofficial marketing manager of Herzog and De Meuron”, Professor Zumbühl, provided us with background information about this example for Swiss-Chinese cooperation, as the Bird’s Nest was designed by the Swiss architects Herzog and De Meuron in cooperation with the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Waiting for dusk to experience the illuminated Swim Hall and Bird’s nest by night, we finally had time for some serious souvenir shopping and snatched some cute Panda kites. To fill the time gap, we performed our own Olympic games in the disciplines of silly jumping around.

The Olympic rings… (Photo: Mario Huber)

… and the jumping competition in front of the Bird’s Nest. (Photo: Mario Huber)

Overwhelmed with all the impressions of big and busy Beijing, we all enjoyed dinner in the quiet and very Chinese hutongs near the Hostel.

Step count on our pedometer: 22,547

Bettina Niklaus, Andrea Keller

Day 11: Nanjing-Beijing, Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Today we traveled from Nanjing to our final destination on this field trip: Beijing, the capital city of China. After the journey in a high speed train, we arrived in the small hutong, a traditional Chinese neighborhood. From there we biked to the biggest public place in the world, Tian An Men Square, which was an overwhelming experience.

High speed train to Beijing (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Can you imagine that we travelled about 1,040 km by train in only 4 hours and 5 minutes? In Switzerland, one can travel only from St. Gallen to Geneva, 360 km, in the same time. This is about a third of the distance we travelled today. The Chinese high speed trains reach a maximum speed of over 300 km/h, which is the reason for the short travel time.

Usually on our trip, after a taxi ride from the train station to the hostel, not everybody arrived at the right place. However, for once everybody got to the right location even though some phone calls to the hostel were necessary. Once we got off the taxi most students were insecure whether they were actually close to the hostel. This was due to the fact that the hostel is situated in the middle of a hutong, which is more like a little village with small winding roads than a mega city. We got this impression by the old-looking houses and the narrow streets with little shops. Taking a closer look, however, we realized that there are many public toilets on the street as many of the hutongs still don`t have sanitary facilities.

Courtyard of our hostel in the hutong (Photo: Heike Mayer)

In the afternoon we made a bicycle tour through Beijing! Equipped with Chinese bicycles (featuring weak breaks and of course great sounding bike bells) we biked through the hutong towards the Tian An Men Square. As a group of Europeans on bikes we were quite an attraction. We had fun finally ringing the bicycle bells ourselves. Surprisingly, it was easy to bike in such a big group through the mega city. There are wide bike lanes which seem to count up to four street-size lanes. The width of the road is probably also used in emergency cases…

Ready for our Beijing bike tour (Photo: Heike Mayer)

The National Chinese Museum in Beijing (Photo: Heike Mayer)

The closer we got to the Tian An Men Square, the more security was present. Not only police and military were visible but also cameras (and possibly also some snipers on the roofs). At one point our group was even accompanied by a motorcycle SWAT team. Did we look dangerous? Coming from the small streets of the hutongs the huge space of the Tian An Men Square and its surrounding buildings were just overwhelming. This is the world`s biggest public place. On one side it is surrounded by the entrance to the ancient Forbidden City. On the other side there is a communist style building, the National Chinese Museum.

Unfortunately, once we arrived at the bell tower, we realized that again an interesting sight was already closed (it was just after 5 pm). This gave us some time to stroll through a hutong and buy some souvenirs for the loved ones at home or to relax on the lake.

Janina and Mao in front of the entrance to the Forbidden City (Photo: Heike Mayer)

The next stop was the Quanjude Roasted Duck Restaurant. Paul Messerli, the professor emeritus who joined us on this trip, guided a group of 10 of us self-secure to our destination. Unfortunatly, it was the wrong meeting point. In the age of mobile phones, this problem could be solved even in China.

Beijing roasted duck (Photo: Heike Mayer)

A restaurant manager even showed us how to eat the duck (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Thanks to the extensive bike ride we all arrived very hungry at the Beijing duck restaurant. This huge restaurant is famous all over Beijing: Unsurprisingly, duck is served! This speciality is cut up in small pieces and served in a crepe with sweetish sauce and some vegetables. Some people were even brave enough to try the heart or the brain of the duck. Those skills could later on be more practiced on the night market where also snakes, silk worms, scorpions and other strange looking food could be tasted. En Guete!

Step count on our pedometer: 18,208

Kilometers cycled in Beijing: about 20 km

Jenny Grütter, Janina Keller

Day 10: Yaxi-Gaochun, Thursday, June 26, 2012

 

Today we are going to write about the government. The last few days we had the great opportunity to meet several high level representatives of local government agencies like the mayor of the Slow City Yaxi, the mayor of Gaochun, or the town`s planner. This would – as we expected – give us the chance to ask a lot of questions. Unfortunately they were not always interested to answer and because you never say ‘no’ in China, they had their own way to get out of inconvenient situations like answering a seemingly imaginary question or pointing out a fantastic building or scenery we have to see: “Have a look! I’ll show you”. Our lovely guide Cherry was already introduced yesterday. Also today she was with us and because she was very friendly we started to ask her the questions the others didn’t answer and so sometimes we slowly got the information we’d like to have. Through Cherry we got the chance for many meetings, lunches and dinners – a lot of Chinese food and habits like not finishing a dish we like and making Gānbēi.

Dinner with the vice mayor of Gaochun the night before (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Before we said goodbye to her and her colleges she invited us for the most luxurious lunch we had so far – and I guess it will stay the most luxurious one for this journey. Those were the positive effects of being accompanied by the government. The other side is to be – or feel – watched all the time and follow their schedules, no matter if it matches with yours or not. They have their plans and they may not absolutely don’t have to fit with yours. A little example is the workshop witch was mentioned yesterday. We thought it will be a real interaction and learning from each other – because it was called a WORKSHOP – but no, they presented us their plans. Well at least later at the famous dinner they asked about our opinion. If they still know Prof. Mayer’s input after all the Gānbēi is, however, unknown. What we want to point out is in Chinese politics nothing goes straight and direct but everything is implemented; as does the 5-year plan. The local government is free in action but because the representatives are chosen by the central government and they make sure the plan gets followed. You can feel this in every interaction we had. One example illustrates this: After the lunch we mentioned that we visited the Gaochun Incubator Park. So far there is just the main building and an elaborate model (as usual) illustrates what is planned: a park, twice or even triple the size of already existing Gaochun (but always keep in mind; it’s a Chinese plan. You never know what it will be in the end). Second, as we understand an incubator is a park or institution that offers facilities to start-ups or small firms which makes it easier for them to set a foot into the market. Usually after several years they are either too big, too successful or they failed so that they have to leave the park. In Gaochun’s Incubator Park they do select their firms by sector but not by type of business. Most of the eighteen firms in the incubator are linked to the government. Either the government brought them there or at least the firm is working for it like the GIS company we met.

View from the incubator building in Gaochun (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Model of Goachun`s development plans (Photo: Heike Mayer)

On the other hand we visited the ceramics factory in Gaochun in the morning. As Cherry told us this firm - formerly a TVE (township and village enterprise) - today is independent of the government (so-called listed). They have a sales strategy that covers on the one hand the domestic market and on the other the market abroad (easily recognized by design: totally different styles!! Chinese People obviously love ‘kitsch’ like the wedding dishes and a lot of colors while American companies like Target or Walmart buy dishes that are much larger than their Chinese counterparts). The ceramics company also is engaged in industry-tourism by offering tours through their factory. After we saw how they ‘paint’ the ceramics we knew why we stopped first at the shop with the expensive pieces. After you have seen how they make the patterns you would not pay these prices anymore. A lot of Chinese women glue pre-plotted patterns on the ceramics. A bit of IKEA-feeling came up. But to be fair: the very special pieces like for example the vases are handmade. We got to see one of the artists making one: BREATHTAKING. He was sitting on a little stage with a block of clay and formed a wonderful vase. There was no chance to know what it would look like in the end because every other second the shape was changing. This kind of ceramics are hand-painted and worth its price (> 2’000 CHF). We think the influence of the government in the case of the ceramics company retains to monitoring and promoting this type of business.

Ceramics factory in Gaochun (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Upon leaving Gaochun/Yaxi-Region we left our friendly and very hospitable host Cherry and boarded our 7*-golden-bus. Funny to watch that by now we are conditioned to fall asleep as soon as the engine starts. While napping or playing Jass we drove back to Nanjing for another night before heading to Beijing. This time we checked into a lovely hostel in Nanjing: full of colors, stuff from all over the world, fantastic terrace and after three days finally internet access again J. As we had a lot of Chinese lunches and dinners, once again Pizza Hut and McDonalds were the most favorite places for dinner. With playing Jass, drinking beer and chatting we enjoyed the evening, relaxed and at least tired enough to go to bed a little bit earlier than the other nights, which was good because a ride with the taxis awaited us for 7 am the next morning. And so we’d like to say Gānbēi and good night.

Shopping mall in Nanjing (Photo: Heike Mayer)

"Fast" development in Nanjing (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Step count on our pedometer: 13 700

Gierina Cathomas, Sarah Leuthold

Day 9: Yaxi (China`s first Slow City), Monday, June 25, 2012

After successfully and excessively taking advantage of the free time on the weekend, we spent a night in the wonderful nature resort like hotel in Yaxi, the first place labeled "Slow City" in China. We picked up the field trip program again and had an early morning start with rice soup, eggs and salt for breakfast. Some of us complained about their insomnia because of a supposed snake in their bedroom, but giving the lack of photographic proof we will not discuss this incident any further. As you will notice for yourself, this day will turn out to be fully planned and orchestrated by Cherry, the very warmly welcoming representative of Cittaslow and director of foreign affairs in Gaochun. But let’s start at the beginning. We loaded our luggage into the well air-conditioned luxury bus, which was also organized for us by the government.

Yaxi is China`s first Slow City (Photo: Heike Mayer)

First we drove into Da Shan, one of the model villages of the Slow City area of Yaxi. The air was thick and the sun was burning but we strolled around anyway, enjoying a health certified ice cream in between, but more importantly, speaking to the guides that accompanied us and who gave interesting information in surprisingly good English. We were directed towards the community center in the heart of the village where the village secretary himself proudly introduced the facts about his village as being part of the first Slow City project in China. This seemed a good moment to talk a little bit about the Slow City concept in general. Slow City was introduced as Cittàslow in Italy during the 1990s as a new, alternative and sustainable development strategy for small towns. The original idea meanwhile has turned into an international organization that certifies and monitors cities applying for the label. The goals on their agenda are environmental protection, focus on local products, integration of the community for sustainable social development and awareness for local culture and traditions. Any town that fulfills these policies and feels like they need to resist globalization and all the damages that come with it can apply for the label, as successfully did Yaxi.

Our hotel in Yaxi (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Tea fields are very prominent (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Da Shan Village (Photo: Heike Mayer)

The Yaxi region indeed is a scenic and beautiful region, with a rural and clean landscape with lots of woods and agricultural fields where tea, rice, grapes and many other products are grown. But many of us asked themselves: where is the city? It turned out that the Yaxi region consist of many decentralized small villages, which collaborate together to form the Slow City area. From the village secretary of Da Shan we learned that the number of households in the village is 203, the amount of ponds and lakes in the area 7, the actual number of residents 532 with two little impressive hills surrounding the village. As the political system of China is characterized by a strong top-down and less transparent governance, we could not reveal any information from the village secretary about the achievements, challenges, efforts and problems the village is faced on the journey becoming a Slow City and looking into the future being one now. At the end the presents exchanging ceremony was held and the mandatory group photo was taken.

Mario and Silvio exercising at the local restaurant (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Local foods at the "Nong Jia Le", which means happy farmer's house (Photo: Heike Mayer)

We enjoyed lunch at a small agro-tourism restaurant in the village, which was opened just recently by a returning migrant. It was hot as usual and the food was diverse and tasteful. In the afternoon the constantly growing group of officials drove us to a hotel where we were supposed to participate in a workshop and present our thoughts to the heads of the slow city project. They received us in a conference room that, without the moldy carpet, could have been a secret banquet salon for very important affairs with high tech screens, microphones, leather chairs and a lovely banner saying “Welcome students and friends from the University of Bern”. Due to the tight schedule, some of our group work we had done during the workshop time, we were not able to present our ideas and discussion points. Instead, we heard two more presentations from the Mayor of Yaxi and a planner of Gaochun, one on all the benefits and successes of Yaxi Slow City and the other on some projects that are planned for the future, such as wellness centers and other overwhelmingly big buildings and massive infrastructure. It is difficult to say if these new projects fit the concept of the Slow City entirely, but maybe some important points also got lost in translation.

Slow city workshop in Yaxi (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Since our own group discussions were very fruitful, it would be a pity to leave out our questions and conclusions. The group who dedicated their talking to the social sustainability of the Yaxi project concluded that the challenges lie in finding the balance between an endogenous and exogenous development for the community, to show initiative and cope with the pressure from outside. Environmentally speaking, we discussed that attention will have to be paid to the fact that the more successful the model works, the more the original slow attractions will be threatened. Special concern will need to be directed towards the transportation system, the management of waste and water and the integration of green energy. The group discussing the challenges concerning economy related issues included in their findings that on the long run it will be important to have both capital investments from outside and inside and to redistribute the benefits deliberately and also think about how to generate stable turnovers. And the last group stated that for sustainable governance, dependencies and relations to other regions will have to be questioned. Furthermore they will need to focus on the integration of local traditions and knowledge and build up a stable environment for bottom up innovations. In fact this is a very interesting topic but let’s move on.

Another obligatory group picture (Photo: Heike Mayer)

We continued our trip in the bus and they showed us (to the ones who were not napping) all the progress and development that had been made in the region before we arrived in the city center of Gaochun. The old city there actually was slow, slow in a way we had expected it and you could feel a relief somehow. The buildings weren’t new buildings with paintings on the walls to make them look like more ancient houses like it was the case in Da Shan, they were real traditional Chinese buildings. We walked around in the narrow streets taking pictures enjoying ourselves and building up the appetite.

The old city in Gaochun (Photo: Heike Mayer)

We entered a restaurant where another dinner was held and then, Chinese culture had its full impact on us. The four lucky students who were moved to fill the empty seats at the host table of the Mayor of Gaochun together with our professors experienced Chinese hospitality in all its glory. First the Mayor toasted three times to the whole group, thanking everyone for coming, appreciating our efforts and wishing us good luck for the further journey. We thought it’s over now, and we would be able to finish the day without the expectation of a terrible hangover for the next day. It turned out at least two of us were (not?) lucky and were selected by Cherry to toast with the Mayor and Professor Heike Mayer to show we are good students. Well then, “Gānbēi” (it means “dry the glass” and the Chinese take this very literally). They also never heard of the European custom to fill the wine glass only about half for sure. To summarize the evening: Lots of delicious food, lots of toasting and lots of drinking, hence lots of drunk mayors and drunk students, especially one, who’s name shall not be mentioned. It was a great day.

Step count on our pedometer: 8,886

Silvio Bucher, Urezza Caviezel

Day 7: Nanjing, Saturday, June 23, 2012

Today was our resting day and we had the opportunity to explore Nanjing on our own schedule. Some slept until 4 pm in the afternoon while others explored the city and its surrounding. Popular activities included a boat ride on the Xuanwu Lake, a hike in the nearby mountain park, a visit to the Confucius Temple or a meal at one of the Western-style restaurants. It was also a holiday in China with dragon boat races and people taking leisurely strolls through the parks.

Also the cats knew it was a resting day (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Taking a nap (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Some of us decided to explore the Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum in the Purple-Gold Mountain area. Sun Yat-Sen (1866-1924) has become the father of the Chinese Revolution. Originally from Nanjing, he began to travel early in his life. At 13, Sun Yat-Sen visited his brother in Hawaii where he also attended an Anglican school. Later he studied medicine in Hong Kong. 1894 he founded the Revolutionary League, a group that promoted nationalist ideas and tried to undermine Qing rule in the late 19^th century. Sun Yat-Sen continued his travels and started to rally support from emigrated Chinese throughout the Pacific Rim and the United States. His travels and exposures to ideas and cultures beyond China made him what some have called a “pan-Asian cosmopolitan”. The Revolutionary League (and its follow up group, the Kuomintang or `Party of the National People`) had several goals: Abolishment of the Manchu leadership (Qing dynasty), restoration of Chinese leadership and the creation of a Republic of China, parliamentary democracy, and ultimately the realization of socialist ideas about ownership and equity. He also authored several important papers and books, among them are his Three Principles of the People (1925, San min zhu yi), which outlined the following goals: a national revolution, abolishment of unequal treaties and freedom from foreign control (including Britain, France, the US and other Western powers); the importance of the nation, which stands above the individual; ownership of land to guarantee food supply. In essence, Sun engaged in a critical discussion with Marxian ideas and rejected its main points, essentially calling for a unique Chinese way. Many Chinese visited the memorial and we had the impression that many are rediscovering him. At least counting by their numbers, the memorial seemed to be a popular spot to visit.

The Sun Yat-Sen Memorial (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Sun Yat-Sen (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Yangtze river (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Bridge over the Yangtze river (Photo: Heike Mayer)

Nanjing is the capital of the Jiangsu province and the area is rich in waterways that lead to the Yangtze river. The city still boasts many intact remnants of the Ming city wall and it has served twice as the nation`s capital (during Ming dynasty 1368-1644 and as the capital of the Republic of China in the early years of the 20<sup>th</sup> century).  The city is also known for the Nanjing massacre when the Japanese occupied Nanjing and killed between 200,000 and 300,000 Chinese civilians. Nanjing`s location on the South-bank of the Yangtze river offers also unique glimpses of this massive waterway. We visited the Yangtze River bridge, which was built in 1968. The 4.5 km long bridge is a double-decker with a 4-lane-road on top and a train line below.

It didn`t matter that a boat got stuck on the leisurely boat ride on the lake or some still had songs in their head from the Karaoke night before, the resting day was a welcome distraction.

Step count on our pedometer: 15,011 

Heinz Zumbühl, Heike Mayer

Day 6: Nanjing, Friday, June 22, 2012

In the early morning, still sleepy but excited for further adventures, we left our hostel in Suzhou to catch the high speed train to Nanjing. We didn’t expect the adventure to catch up with us so quickly by the time we got in the taxi. As Chinese seems to be a difficult language even for Chinese people, half of the taxi drivers drove to the wrong train station, even tough we handed them a detailed description in Mandarin. After detailed study of the departure schedule we realized that our train wouldn’t leave from this place. Not much time left we had to find another taxi driver, who would hopefully drop us at the right place. Due to their driving habits (way too fast, overtaking left and right, continuously blowing their horn, ignoring traffic light, etc.) we were fortunate to reach the right train station not only in time but also alive.

Railway station in Suzhou (Photo: Heike Mayer)

After a calm train ride we were invited for lunch at Nanjing University. This University was founded in 1902 and is one of the oldest and most prestigious in China. To be invited for a meal in China was the next adventure. It is very important to clink glasses with all hosts to introduce one another and to empty the beer glass in one sip. Gānbēi! There are many more rules to follow and we “lost our faces” several times: emptying the beer glass on the skirt of a college student, eating rice after the main course (which means you haven’t had enough) or drinking beer in a normal glass instead of wine glasses (which is obviously the bigger challenge). 

Group picture with representatives from the Department of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences
at Nanjing University (Photo: Heike Mayer)

For the afternoon we were invited by the Department of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences to listen to four very interesting presentations within the scope of a workshop on “Economic and social development in peripheral regions – case studies from China and Switzerland”. The quotation of Mahatma Ghandi: “There is more to life than increasing its speed.” was our thread for the entire afternoon. Professor Zhang Jie spoke about Calligraphy as a slow recreation and slow landscape in Chinese tourism destinations. Further, Professor Zhen Feng introduced the topic of making the cities more livable. On the Swiss side, Professor Paul Messerli gave a speech on the context of Switzerland and its regional development policy. And Professor Heike Mayer presented about Slow Cities as an example of challenges and opportunities for development in peripheral regions. In between the presentations obviously the mandatory group picture had to be taken in the courtyard. Afterwards the students guided us through the compound, where we could observe young Messis and Ronaldos. We realized that in both countries there are quite a few differences but also a lot of similarities in student life.

Referring to Ghandi`s citation, we enjoyed a relaxed and AMAZING evening, ending in a Karaoke bar where new singing and gymnastic talents were born. As the day started also the night ended with an adventurous taxi ride, where the reading capacities of the drivers (with a magnifying glass!) were tested successfully once more…

Step count on our pedometer: 20 303

Silvia Hunkeler, Stefanie Lehmann