China: A Step in Volunteering Progress, a View on Transforming Nation Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Grading was a source of attention. The purpose of the project was to create precedents for later students at BASE to aid rural villages in a sustainable method. We were not exposed to the classes and academic standards of BJUT, but we received assistance from their students. However, later, this was not permissible, perhaps due to the associations of the BASE studio with neighboring artist Ai Weiwei. The teach was extremely casual, since students worked on projects independently with feedback from instructors. The further your project was from the expertise of the instructors, the more likely that they permitted to work on your projects as you desired. This session of BASE was a collaboration between the Taubman College and Graham Sustainability Institute of the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and architecture students from Tulane University. Students basically worked as much or as little as they wished. For example, I would engage in literature reviews and searches for basic materials to create models for rudimentary water filters. Days often began at 9:00AM and ended around 4:00-5:00PM. If preferable, days could last longer depending on how work you could create for yourself.

On-site administration of your program

The faculty were very casual in their operations, and the assistance of BJUT students and native faculty were essential to conduct affairs and to carry out operations.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

The rooms for the students were quite nice and impressively affordable by American standards.

The foods available in the urban villages and outside was often tasty. If your constitution is sensitive, it is best to try to avoid spicy foods. Fluent level understanding of Mandarin is essential if you wish to avoid specific dishes and/or foods. Due to a lack of fiber perhaps, meals were not always filling. The prices for food were impressively economical.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Memorable experiences includes surveys of a few of the rural villages outside of the Beijing city, documentation of the Forbidden City, walking through the Olympic Stadium, acquaintance through a native instructor about modern Chinese art, the experience of art galleries in Caochangdi and the 798 Art District, as well as experiences with the Chinese government in the studio connections with Ai Weiwei; other experiences include those of Americans having lived in China regularly.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Traffic jams in the early evening were problematic, but there no observed car crashes. A noticeable difference between Beijing and Chicago skylines and horizons is the presence of smog in Beijing. Faculty who had been in Beijing for ears did not need vaccines, and neither did the students need them. Health care was not a problem due to few incidents. From anecdotes, health care was much more affordable in Beijing.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

You could practice Mandarin speech with some students, but most interaction simply required the ability to speak basic sentences and phrases for Beijing natives to understand you. Some districts were high;y frequented by other foreigners, so some staffers adapted themselves to speak English. If speech or Anglophone staffers were unavailable, copying basic characters onto paper from MDBG or Word Reference was helpful.

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• Hotel

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• Americans

• Talking to villagers
• The historical sites of Beijing
• Going beyond history and political science to work with chemistry and civil engineering

• Studio operations
• Faculty preparedness