Nanjing and Southeast University

After a long week in Shanghai full of sites and firm walk-throughs, we boarded the hi-speed rail to Nanjing. This is a second-tier city and has a slower pace of life than that of Shanghai - although the population is well over 6 million. It is also much warmer and drier than Shanghai; yesterday's high was 99F with a humidity between 80 and 90%. Here I am at the golden wishing tree in front of the Confucius Temple.

 We are joining forces with a group of design students from Southeast University, a prestigious institute of 26,000 known throughout China, to work through a one-month urban design studio. The campus is very nice with neo-classical stone buildings, large grass quads, and hundred-year-old plane trees planted in 1925, in memory of Sun Yat Sen. 

This project will entail the master-planning of a long, narrow section on the South border of the ancient city wall. Here we are in our studio space listening to a presentation from the Urban Planning Bureau of Nanjing. SWOT analysis anyone?!