Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Walking Tour: City University of Hong Kong

This weekend I attended a reading at City University of Hong Kong that was part of the MFA program. I am thinking about applying for the program (with an emphasis in creative non-fiction), though I am not yet sure an MFA is the direction I want to take. While I was there, I took the opportunity to make a walking tour of the university campus. I had never been there before, so consider this an exploratory tour. The campus is located in Kowloon Tong, right next to the Festival Walk shopping mall, which is where our tour begins.


I entered the university through the shopping mall.


There was a long corridor filled with students.


The walls sang the praises of the university, and I was able to do some bookspotting too.


I emerged from the tunnel to see the main building.


There was a gently sloping walk to the doors, bordered by covered sidewalks.


Groups of students were promoting something and calling to passersby.


The buildings itself looked nice and modern.


I went through the front doors.


The lobby had a big mural...


...on each side.


There were escalators rising into the building.


Directly in front of me I found the library...


....and to my right I found the bookshop.


I took the escalator up to the next floor.


I found myself in a busy student union. It was cool to be around college students again.


There was some sort of design event, and the place was filled with teams showing off their strange vehicles.


I kept walking and saw students studying intently on the other side of the hall.


I passed a small office at the end of a hall littered with advertisements for events...


...and discovered another set of escalators.


There was a map here, clarifying that I had just walked the length of Academic Building 1.


I left the building...


...and saw some shaded walkways leading to the smaller surrounding buildings.


I noticed a big construction site, which I assume will be part of the university.


I walked through the breezeway beneath the Amenities Building in front of me.


I found events posters and information typical of a university campus.


When I emerged from the breezeway on the other side of the Amenities Building I found the pool.


It looked impressive, and it was backed by a nice bank of trees.


The side of the next building was open to the hazy sky.


I walked along the edge of the pool to Academic Building 2, where my event would take place.


When I left the event a little later I saw a poster that made me want to be a student again.

Thanks for joining me on this tour of City University of Hong Kong. I was an outsider on this tour, and if you know more about the university feel free to share in the comments. Come back next week for another Hong Kong walking tour. There will be fish.

2 comments:

  1. Wow, City University has really grown since I was in HK! I remember when it was still a college. In the early 90s, there were only two universities: HKU and CUHK. The other colleges--Polytechnic, City, and Baptist--became universities a couple years later. City reminds me of a newer version of CUHK, where I studied: the Olympic-sized pool, Sir Run Run Shaw Hall, the colorful posters, and active student life.

    I've heard great things about City's MFA program and am very impressed with its faculty. I definitely think you'd get a ton out of the program. Even if you end up writing fiction, you can't go wrong by starting out with creative non-fiction. Many successful novelists and memoirists received an MFA in poetry, but never really published books of poetry. I think City's MFA program is low residency, so you only meet up with classmates a couple times a year. If I were any closer or didn't have to take care of three kids, I'd apply in a heartbeat!

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  2. LOVED seeing the Bookshop and the Library so prominently located...and they looked busy, too.

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