Thomas Bird at WIS

Last week the Geography Faculty hosted two Royal Geographical Society (Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)) lectures. The first by famous explorer John Pilkington outlined his adventures hiking the length of the Mekong River.

The second lecture was by travel writer and journalist Thomas Bird who described the changes that have taken place in Shenzhen over the last 1000 years. Both speakers also gave advice on having adventures and travel writing.

In his talk he starts by telling a story that spans the centuries, beginning with the earliest records of Qin Dynasty conquest and concluding with Shenzhen under Mao. This includes the Tianhou Temple built in 1410 by the Ming admiral, Zheng He as an expression of his thanks to the goddess of the sea, the tomb of the last Song Emperor and Nantou Ancient City, with its Ming-era walls.

He then focuses on the recent history of Shenzhen, the story of reform and opening up. No city in world history has ever grown so fast or so far in such a short period as Shenzhen has and Thomas describes its astonishing growth. He shows how the city was planned and how it grew so powerful so quickly. He illustrates this with a unique visual accompaniment of photographs he has sourced from Mainland journalists and Hong Kong photographers who captured the change first hand over the past 40 years.

Many thanks to Mr Bird!