Planning Education: Made in China?

A high school field trip in China that is hard to imagine in the United States.

2 minute read

June 26, 2014, 5:00 AM PDT

My 16 year old daughter is in China for three weeks, traveling with 14 classmates on a language and cultural exchange. Their first week was spent in Qingdao, where each student stayed with a family that included a high school aged "buddy." On the second day of their stay, while their Chinese companions were in school, they took their first major field trip: the Qingdao City Planning Museum. According to one of the students:

Inside the exhibition hall, there was a huge non-scale model of Qingdao’s bay and the surrounding districts. A video played above, and some of the English subtitles continually described Qingdao as 'the blue dream.'...In the exhibition hall, there was also a 360° panorama of Qingdao. It was very similar to a virtual roller coaster...[A]...surprising number of local people [were] at the exhibition hall.

I have difficulty imagining a well-attended city planning exhibition in the United States (OK, maybe in Chicago). I frequently encounter adults who have no idea what city planners do, let alone teenagers. I am encouraged to know that Qingdao has a city planning museum, and it is both a popular destination and a place visited by school groups from other countries. China sends increasing numbers of students to U.S. planning schools to learn about our approaches to planning; perhaps we can learn something from China about planning education for lay people.

Education & Careers Social / Demographics Technology Urban Development International; China; High School; Public

Lisa Feldstein

Lisa Feldstein is a Doctoral Candidate at the Department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley. She is a 2012 Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation Fellow, a 2012 Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues, the 2010 recipient of The Robert A. Catlin/David W. Long Memorial Scholarship, and the 2009 recipient of the Friesen Fellowship for Leadership in Undergraduate Education. Lisa is formerly the Senior Policy Director with the Public Health Law Program, in which capacity she directed the organization's Land Use and Health Program.

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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