Led by one of our teachers, Shufan Zeng, art design students of class 09 of University of Southampton had a five-day study tour in Shanghai from June 18 to 22, 2010, during which the students visited Moganshan Arts District, Shanghai Museum, Shanghai World Expo and the Bund, enjoying the supreme achievements of the human society and the unique charm of Shanghai.

Moganshan ,once a quiet industrial park, has become the most influential arts district in Shanghai as a home to the best galleries in China, while being highly regarded in the international arts community. During the visit, student are involved in the discussion on the source of creativity and conception from time to time.

Shanghai Museum is a large-scale museum of ancient Chinese arts, featuring bronze ware, chinaware, calligraphy and painting, in addition to coins, jadeware, sculptures, seals, arts and crafts of ethnic minorities. The museum is well renowned both home and abroad for its rich collection and excellent quality of objects. The cultural relics in the museum helped the students to relive the greatness and brilliance of China in the past and to explore the connection between traditional culture and modern civilization while getting a better understanding of our own culture and nation.

Shanghai World Expo was a miniature of the world with pavilions built by over 200 countries and regions, showcasing foreign histories, cultures, science, technologies, urban management, customs and practices etc. It allowed the public to have a view on the general situations, economic strengths, science, technologies, education, urban construction and future development of other countries around the world. There were ten popular pavilions in the Expo famous for their wonderful exhibits, each of which required people to queue for 3 to 4 hours for a visit. But the students stop their interests. They took pictures and made records every now and then for subsequent analysis and studies.

The students also paid a visit to the Bund, which has been a landmark of Shanghai for more than a hundred years. The Bund is bordered by Huangpu River on the east, with 52 buildings of various architectural styles in the west, such as Gothic, Romanesque, Baroque, and Chinese-Western style, forming “exotic building clusters”. The unique architectural features of the blocks around the Bund generate a collage effect, providing an experience of a robust, vigorous, magnificent and sumptuous atmosphere both from a distance and up close.