THE STAIRWAY TO OUTER SPACE
2 min readZhuhai Campus of Sun Yat-sen University(SYSU)
The gigantic structure, together with its rooftop deck, no doubt makes a bold statement that matches the aspiration of Sun Yat-sen, the spiritual incarnation of SYSU.
The library building of the Zhuhai Campus of Sun Yat-sen University looks like two wings fully spread. An imposing stairway of 263 steps set in between the two “wings” seems to be able to reach the sky. At the end of the stairway, the architectural grandeur of the campus opens up in the form of a futuristic rooftop terrace. Standing on this 20,000-square-meter platform, one cannot help wondering how the love-sick who meet for dates on this heavenly terrace locate each other. Well, the students surely have their own romantic ways to tackle the massiveness.
The nondescript, sci-fi aesthetic charm of the campus culminates in its main teaching building, the longest structure of its kind in Asia. Encompassing as many as 179 classrooms of all sizes, the gigantic structure, together with its rooftop deck, no doubt makes a bold statement that matches the aspiration of Sun Yat-sen, the spiritual incarnation of SYSU. The red-walled one-storey building sitting in parallel with the main teaching building presents a striking contrast to the overbearing cosmic feeling, reminding the more nostalgic visitors of the short-lived but longremembered National Southwestern Associated University* born in the war flames of 1937. The emeraldgreen roof set against the cloudless sky has a retrofuturistic vibe.
Standing proudly on Sun Yat-sen- Avenue, the bronze statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen-is replica of the work by Sun’s close Japanese friend Umeya Shokichi(1868-1934), the donor of the bronze statue of Sun Yat-sen in SYSU.
As an integral part of the SYSU network, the Zhuhai campus acts as a forerunner in a variety of fields including tourism, international finance, translation and marine sciences.
A new addition of the campus is now under construction. The coastal sprawl across the Gangwan Avenue will evolve into a powerful base of atmospheric and marine sciences, and will be the home ground of the “TianQin” Project, led by SYSU and aiming to lay the cornerstone of China’s space gravitational wave detection innovation.
When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out between China and Japan in 1937, Peking University Tsinghua University and Nankai University merged to form Changsha Temporary University in Changsha and later National Southwestern Associated University(Lianda) in Kunming and Mengzi, in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province. After the war, the universities moved back and resumed their operation. What was left behind in Kunming became the National Kunming Normal University which later emerged as the Yunnan Normal University.
