China: Environment and Development

"China: Environment and Development" is a one quarter long program, offered every Fall quarter, and delivered in China. The program combines an examination of the key environmental issues affecting China with exposure to the unique factors that inform China’s national character and influence its behavior.

The program is divided equally between Hong Kong and Shanghai.  Hong Kong, a British colony from 1841 to 1997, with excellent academic institutions, offers a unique perspective on Chinese politics, policies and culture.  The Program then moves to Tongji University in Shanghai, where the environmental effects of rapid urban and economic development are explored. Participants will also spend one week in Beijing.

China is rapidly becoming the most significant international player in global environmental affairs. With over 1/6 of the world population, China’s economic expansion and its growing demand for energy and raw materials also make it a critical player in any discourse about climate change. Because China’s behavior at the international arena is profoundly influenced by its unique history, politics, institutions and intellectual traditions an understanding of its environmental policies can be greatly enhanced by direct in-country experience. 

The program offers four courses:

  • Introduction to Mandarin. Essentials of the official dialect of Chinese spoken throughout the country.  This course is taught in both Hong Kong and Shanghai.
  • The Pearl River Delta. This course is taught during the Hong Kong portion of the program.  It focuses on the Pearl River Delta region, which contains several important cities including Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Macao. Of particular interest are air and water pollution that crosses the Mainland China/Hong Kong border.  How can Hong Kong, located downwind and downstream of much Pearl River Delta industrial pollution, cope with these problems?
  • China’s Environment and Culture.  This course, taught both in Hong Kong and Shanghai, introduces students to China’s history, culture, geography, and environment.  In Hong Kong the course emphasizes early Chinese history, including the geography and environment of Guangdong Province and the Pearl River Delta, and a rapid outline of the role played by Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and Communism in China's approach to environmental issues.  The Shanghai portion emphasizes China's more recent history, mainland China's geography and environment, and selected elements of China's rich cultural heritage, for example, portions of Sanguo Yanyi (“The Three Kingdoms”) and a few Tang Dynasty poems.
  • China’s Economic Growth and Environmental Policy.  This course, taught in Shanghai, examines the Chinese central government’s environmental policies, policy implementation at provincial and local levels, and China's economic development since the opening in 1978.   Topics include conflicts between China's development and environmental policies, its water shortage, management of its nature reserves and other protected areas, desertification, and China's international role with respect to global warming. 

More information and applications

Program contact: International Program Development Office, 847-467-6953

October 24, 2011