Also see last year's blog at www. goldenchild39.blogspot.com
Talking about remodeling...the next morning as I walked through campus I was confronted by the building that previously had been shrouded from sight to protect us from the dust and sound (perhaps) and the building from any invasion by adventuresome college students (Chinese students are very serious, and the culture doesn't seem to allow for a lot of horseplay.)
Here's the first building. It's finished on the outside, but work must being going on inside.
And now it's emerged from its chrysalis.
Across the street is the relatively new Law School building.
At the next corner is the next new building, a cafeteria. Last year it too was draped and hidden. I had no idea what this building was going to be and to tell the truth hardly noticed it, shrouded as it was from public view. Today it's like a shiny new toy.
Here's the cafeteria itself.
Not only does the building house the cafeteria but along the side is the entrance to a new restaurant complete with waitresses and waiters and iPad menus!
Next door, a third building, which was under construction at the same time awaits some finishing touches.
And construction continues across the way from these buildings. Behind the Law Center was a running track and tennis court; these have been demolished and solid ten foot fences have been erected. Now giant dump trucks roar in and out from between the panels with loaded with dirt and rocks. Now in the evenings and the dark, the campus avenues are crowded with cars, bicycles, and people running through campus because the track is closed.
These trucks are truly monsters. So large and heavy, the streets have been covered by heavy half-inch thick steel plates with rebar welded onto them for traction. The dust each truck raises must match a crash of rhinoceros. Not only do people cover their noses from the daily pollution but now they have dirt flying through the air and into their eyes as well.
I'm told the workers are digging out the track to install an underground parking garage. I understand that the track will be reinstalled on top of the garage.
Another year and a half of construction!
And out the west gate, the Flower Gate, as Susan L. called it when she was here, the porch where mail had been strewn instead of delivered, is now enclosed, but the sidewalks are torn up going both north and south.
You can't tell from this picture, but it made me smile to see that the Chinese "digging machine" was having a problem similar to the one that Seattle's Bertha had these past few years. The crew was trying to get the bucket to work.
Nothing like old fashioned shoveling, is there?
Here, the city or someone has decided to replace a perfectly good and serviceable sidewalk, much to the inconvenience of the business owners and pedestrians.
Over the next week or two, you could see the changes taking place.
Back on campus, the cranes and trucks work on, it looks like 24 hours a day, hauling dirt out to make the underground parking garage, hopefully with the running track replaced on top of it.
And nothing old-fashioned here. This is one of two cranes at work where the track and tennis courts used to be.
And here are the BEASTS of Burden.
The beasts rumble by. (This video may or may not work for you. It was working and today seems to have stopped. Perhaps it will be working again some time in the future.)
Kitty corner from my hotel there is more city construction going on. Last year this four or five block area was walled up and construction apparently was under way. It's still going on. In fact,it looks like they are just pouring footings for the foundation of whatever is going to rise here.
And those cranes and trucks are here too.
Shanghai grows and continues to remake itself. Construction never ceases.
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