August 13

I visited the DKU campus yesterday for the first time.  I was very impressed with the vision and beauty of the campus.  It is going to be a stunning place when it is finished.

Construction on campus is in full swing.  The Conference Center which will temporarily house the faculty, students, and library is not complete.  We will be living in the Swissotel in Kunshan until we can move into the Conference Center.

View of the Conference Center from the Academic Building

Mary Bullock and I were given a tour of the Academic Building.  The Academic Building will be the home for the library when we leave our temporary space in the Conference Center.

Outside view of the Academic Building

Atrium on the first floor of the Academic Building

The Blue Room

Future home of the coffee shop in the Academic Building

August 11

The grounds of the Fairmont Hotel are beautifully landscaped with miles of trails, an organic farm, and scenic overlooks.

 It's the end of the waterlily bloom season in Kunshan, yet the waterlilies are still stunning.




 The classical gardens in Suzhou, located in a town close to Kunshan, are said to have beautiful waterlily gardens.  The gardens are a UNESCO World Heritage site, http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/813, and I am hoping to go next weekend for a visit.

With my experience as a landscape designer, I can appreciate all of the hard work that goes into maintaining such beauty.  Every day, including Saturdays and Sundays, the workers are busy manicuring the grounds.

The workers have makeshift bicycles they use to get to work and do their errands. 

August 7

I promised I would share my trip with you so this is the first day of my Chinese adventure.  I'm off to Kunshan after much planning and a deliberate decision to remain calm about all of the uncertainty of this project.

It's not my normal inclination to write a blog but this has truly been a group effort to set up the new library at DKU and it doesn't seem justifiable to hold my experiences so hidden.  I hope you will enjoy my observations and photos.  I will try to not be too mundane.

My flight took me from RDU to Detroit to Shanghai.  The flight left Durham at 6 am so we got very little sleep last night.  Michael had no complaints about his early rising even though he has a full day of work. I'll miss my sweet husband and feel very grateful that he's willing to take care of all of the home responsibilities while I am away. I'm very lucky.

I had a four hour layover in Detroit so I took advantage of the Delta Sky Lounge.  I've never flown business class so this was a treat. The flight from Detroit to Shanghai took fourteen hours and it made a huge difference to be able to sleep comfortably.

http://www.upstartmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/kunshan-map.jpg

 
Mengjie Zou, the library assistant at DKU, met me at the Shanghai airport with a driver.

So, off we went to Kunshan.  The Shanghai streets were crowded and several times I thought we were sure to have a collision with another car.  But, there seems to be an uncanny understanding of who can merge and who needs to yield.  We made it to the Fairmont Hotel in Kunshan without a hitch.

Mengjie has been wonderful! She has answered all of my questions and helped me orient to my new surroundings.  It would have been much more difficult without her help.

I'm settled into the Fairmont Hotel.  It's a luxury hotel with lots of amenities.  It's been good to arrive before all of the students and faculty as it gives me a chance to meet the DKU staff who have been here working hard to prepare the campus.

There's a happy hour every day in the hotel from 5-7 pm and I've met the IT guys working at DKU and Mary Bullock, Executive Vice Chancellor at DKU, to chat about our plans and the progress of the campus.  It's been a nice introduction to what feels like a quickly changing and intense beginning to this new semester.