Justin Kegg
Preparing for china was fun and exciting. One of the first things you want to remember to have at all times is your passport, without this you won’t make it to china…so don’t forget. Then you should begin to focus on what you are going to pack such as:
Walking shoes
Outlet converter
Camera
Computer (optional)
Depending on amount of days–prepare to wear clothes more than once
Some sort of sample packets for laundry detergent
Advil
Small backpack to carry things around in during the day
As for staying in contact with friends and family during the trip. I brought a laptop to email or video chat with people, others brought Ipads or some other device to use. Hotels will generally have WIFI you just need to ask for password.
And once you land in china and are ready to make exchange from USD to Yuan, either use the exchange booth that will be located in the airport which the professors will show were it is or use the ATM (exchange rate is about 6.2 Yuan for every $1 USD). The rate of exchange is about a $5 difference between ATM and exchange booth.
Reflection:
Before going to china all we had to go on was literature and maybe a few personal resources about china and some challenges the country is currently facing. The following information is a brief overview of the transportation situation in china.
What does it mean for china to be green? (Broad question)
· In 2005 about 50% of all new building construction will begin in China.
· What type of construction? Mainly large commercial building
· During 2001-2005 the budget for environmental projects in china was about 84 billion, and the budget to create more innovative and environmentally friendly construction will continue to go up. In 2009 an estimated 170 vehicles (non-efficiency vehicles) where traveling the roads of china. As china continues to grow that total by 2020 is estimated to add an additional 222 million vehicles to china’s current “on road” transportation.
So, how is china looking to improve its current pollution problem that continues to create
health problems for its citizens. One way is the a project called “ten cities, 1000 vehicles”
the goal was to put 1000 fuel efficient vehicles on the road between the years of 2009-
2012. By 2010 china had exceeded the goal number and incorporated 5000 new fuel
efficient vehicles into its current circulation of car traveling the road.
Overall, China continues to grow at a rapid pace and the only way its citizen can live
healthier lives is through the creation of projects such as the “ten cities, 1000 vehicles” project and continuing to add railways which could lessen the amount of carbon emitted into the air.
After spending a couple weeks in china I not only learned a great deal more about china’s overall challenges, but I also gained a valuable life experience. One thing I learned very quickly is that Beijing’s current population is about 25 million or more, the roads can be as wide as 8 or more lanes which here in the states we are only use to seeing such large roadway used for highway purposes, and million of people cross these extremely wide roads everyday. I was amazed at traffic, to visiting student it doesn’t make sense how things flow but seemed to sense to the citizens of china. Although we seen our fair share of near accidents and some minor bike collisions, it seemed to work. However, the planners of china’s roadways realize that the current road conditions need to improve for overall safety of drivers, bike riders and walking pedestrians. When I think back to the first time I crossed the street, it seemed like pedestrians were dodging cars and bikes, bikes dodging cars, and cars dodging buses. So some solutions to this sort of problem that china is working toward, are the shortening of the roads that are wide and don’t have as much overall traffic flow. This will allow more walking area for pedestrians and individual that bike. And currently china already operates under a law that restricts certain vehicles to travel on specific days give the first letter(s) in the license plate and also increased buses on known busy days. All these will not only help people travel safer but also low the carbon footprint left behind which is a main contributor to pm 2.5.
Another challenge is energy consumption. The main source of energy is coal and one of the current challenges is, how to obtain a higher percentage of clean air being put back into the environment. Currently about 90-95% of clean air is being put back into the atmosphere but that 5-10% had devastating consequences and china is exploring new and more innovative ways of obtaining somewhere around 98% in the near future.
However, I feel I got most benefit from the exchange with the students from each area we visited. At first both the Chinese and our UC group were a little nervous about the cultural differences, but once we got past the small hurdle it was as if there was no separation of our two great nation and we have very similar life goals and enjoy a lot of similar downtime activities. But the most important thing we had in common was to work together and try to have best out come for the challenges that china faces but also here in the states. We as students from Shandong, BJUT and UC all realize that its never just on countries challenges, it’s the worlds challenge to work together and strive to create better more sustainable ways of living on this planet.