say do you remember niihaomaa in china 02: where creativity heads (beijing and shanghai)

since Richard Florida wrote his famous book "the rise of the creative class," creativity has caught the spotlight in the field of urban studies. although there are plenty of oppositions against him, it is undeniable that the creative capital now plays the decisive role in urban discourse. cities all around the world compete to attract people from the creative class, and consequently some areas become the mecca for them. and these sort of areas are often used to brand the cities.

this sort of trend is especially remarkable in the field of modern art. as artists tend to demand cheep big spaces in urban areas, they started settling down in former factory or garage buildings. this movement is widely observed in the world. for instance chelsea in nyc and east end in london are the most famous examples of this sort. like other major cities around the world, both beijing and shanghai have successfully attracted artists to 798 (beijing) and M50 (shanghai).

what surprised me the most from these areas were their scale. they were HUGE!!! i could easily spend a day or maybe two there. the quality of exhibitions were pretty good and the built environment was splendid although both of them are former industrial areas;) the areas were filled with creativity.

(exhibition of Song Dong)

(built environment of M50)

many of asian growing cities tend to neglect what they have and just implement scrap-and-build strategies for development. yet we have to be smart enough to realize whats valuable for the cities.

say do you remember niihaomaa in china 01: peace outside the gated society

while i was walking around in wuhan, i immediately realized that the gap between rich and poor in china was much bigger than i had imagined. there was a clear class segregation visualized by physical boundaries. most of fancy neighborhoods equipped walls, gates and security check in order to probably keep safety or just segregate others. ive never seen a real "gated society" before, so it was quite a shock.

as i was segregated from any of fancy neighborhoods unfortunately, what i did was wondering around ordinary "unsecured?!" neighborhoods without walls or gates, and it was a great opportunity to encounter the reality of china. what surprised me was its rich street culture. famous Jan Gehl's three types of activities (necessary activities, optional activities, and social activities) were naturally found everywhere. people not only just walked to their destination, but also met friends, had a good conversation, went shopping on street markets, and played games together. it seemed to be chinese habit but they even hang their laundries on the street.

when i found these peaceful sights of non-fancy neighborhoods, i came to realize that such areas' quality of the physical environment was not poor at all, regardless of how they looked, and came to wonder what was the gate for. Gehl claimed in his famous "Life Between Buildings" (1980) that optional activities are "dependent on exterior physical conditions. when outdoor areas are of poor quality, only strictly necessary activities occur." yet obviously this good quality of life was found outside "safe and peaceful" gated societies that are supposed to produce good quality of physical environment. i somehow understood why Jane Jacobs kept living where she lived.

it might be true that Gehl's cultural background and that of china is totally different, yet this chinese street culture made me understand that it is not fancy neighborhoods that create a good physical environment, it is the people that create.

say do you remember niihaomaa in china 00: ibaraki airport

as i was luckily invited to my friends wedding in wuhan, i decided to spend my summer holidays in china. of course my initial plan was to attend the wedding, my motivation to discover something unknown and curiosity about the country drove me to fly from one city to another, ended up with 2days in wuhan, 4days in beijing, and 2days in shanghai.

usually it is really convenient to fly from tokyo to big cities in china like shanghai and beijing, as both haneda and narita airport have direct flight to major cities there. yet i took the alternative choice which was not really convenient at all this time; flying from the ibaraki airport. it is said to be the third airport in tokyo region but it has only 3 destinations; sapporo, kobe, and shanghai.

as it is not well connected with public transportation system, there is a direct bus connection available between tokyo station and the airport and it costs only 500yen if u fly. in order to use it, u have to make a reservation beforehand.... thats what i didnt know until a day before my departure, and it was too late to book a room for my ass to fit in anymore then. so what i had to do was to take a metro, a local train, a local train, an express train, and a bus with my huge backpack.... and it costed me like 4000yen....

one of the reasons that i decided to fly from the ibaraki airport was that i could take a cheap flight there, but thanks to the transportation fee to get there, this reason became a phantom.

apparently the ibaraki airport and host municipalities are investing a lot to build better city networks intranationally and internationally. if they really want to, what they have to do is clearer than crystal; prepare an easier and cheaper access to the airport with public transportation system.