I took a taxi to the South of the city today (Songjiang district), as I will be teaching for a few days at the Institute of Visual Arts. I was reminded once again just how massive Shanghai is – the taxi took an hour and a half and that was with traffic actually moving!
The Institute is part of Fudan University. I haven’t had a chance to look at the campus yet as Yijia, the lecturer who invited me, took me straight to a hotel. I am writing this 15 floors up at the Hotel Vienna. The wind is whistling outside my window and the view tells me there is still a lot more Shanghai out there. Where does it end?! This part of town has a slightly French feel to it – it has wide, tree lined boulevards, which the skyscrapers and futuristic glass domes of the University’s many, many Institutes render tiny, despite them being the equivalent of major roads back home.
I’m looking forward to meeting students tomorrow (despite the 8am start). I’ve had a nice bit of email correspondence with some of them already, which makes the whole thing seem a little less scary. In the meantime, more sketching and collaging and drinking Chinese tea puts my mind at ease.
