Tsinghua University, Beijing

Tsinghua University is nearly 100 years old. It is a comprehensive university, with an historical emphasis on science and technology. It has been referred to as the "cradle of engineers" and is often compared to MIT in the U.S. It is very much like most large universities in the U.S. The university has over 31,000 students, and is a member of our international housing association, ACUHO-I.

There is a Vice President for Student Affairs who oversees financial aid, career services, counseling, tutoring, and disciplinary management. The Foreign Student Affairs office oversees all aspects of college life for international students. And the Property Management Center oversees the dormitories, canteens, student union, and judicial affairs. In addition to housing the 31,000 students, they house several thousand faculty and staff.

The housing program includes many aspects similar to the U.S. There is a live-in graduate staff member who oversees each dormitory, and student leaders help coordinate matters within the buildings. The room assignment process is on-line. Cultural and sporting activities are provided for students' development, and student satisfaction surveys are conducted regularly. Good attention is given to students' physical well-being; classes stop at 4pm each day and everyone encouraged to participate in physical activity for one hour. The sports fields and courts were very busy during this hour!

The staff told us that universities house all students because its hard to manage student behavior if they're living off campus, and because the local community doesn't have available space. Tsinghua once had eight students living in each room, but have moved away from this to four-person rooms and suites. International students have separate living quarters with a higher level of amenities and a higher cost than the other buildings. The university contracts with property managers to provides some of their student housing. Students pay the equivalent of about $200 per year for their university housing. This income doesn't even pay the interest due on the construction that the Property Management Center oversees; the national government supplements the budget to cover operating costs.

Tsinghua requires that Marxist theory be taught in the classrooms. The student services staff said they do allow for demonstrations on campus, so long as the demonstrating isn't against the national government. Financial aid, career services, and housing are seen as critical aspects of college life, and faculty who want to advance their careers serve in administrative roles within one of these three offices. This leads to a very holistic approach to the development of the student, meaning that the student's body, mind and character are all of great importance.

Beijing sightseeing

We flew from Guiyang to Beijing on Tuesday, January 6th. From the airport we boarded a tour bus to go to the Great Wall. Our guide shared facts and figures regarding Beijing, as well as information about the Great Wall. Beijing has a population of 17 million people. (To put this in perspective, the population of New York City is approximately 10 million people.) Five million people in Beijing are transients. The transients come into the city from the rural villages to find work in construction and other labor roles. They typically only go home once a year to take their earnings back to their family and to celebrate during the two-week period of Spring Festival and the Chinese New Year, which is about to begin right now.

During the 2008 Olympics hosted in Beijing, vehicle traffic was restricted in the city to reduce smog. This worked well, so they have maintained restrictions, and once a week everyone must take public transportation and personal vehicles are not allowed on the road. There is a commitment to keep subway and bus fares low to encourage use of public transportation. Also as a result of Olympic preparations, the city gained three new subway lines.

We went to the Ba Da Ling section of the Great Wall, the best-preserved section. We climbed the stairs to the top this section of the wall. It was a strenuous 50-minute climb. The steps are steep and it was very cold and windy. The views were amazing; the mountains are beautiful! Sections of the wall could be seen in every direction. It was very rewarding to make it to the top of the wall! Its daunting to imagine how backbreaking it must have been to build these walls. The tour guide told us that the walls were built by prisoners. Its called the largest cemetery in the world because so many workers died and were buried there.

So much history is represented by the wall. The first section was built in the 7th century BC. Some sections were built with grasses to simply block the view of the territory. Other sections were built with rocks and boulders to provide self protection. During the Qing Dynasty, over 2000 years ago, various sections of walls were linked together. In total, there are 3,270 miles of wall.

We closed the night with shopping at the Silk Alley. This was an adrenaline rush as we made our way through the hundreds of booths with silk, jade, pearls, and many other products, Merchants work hard to recruit shoppers into their booths, and bartering is rampant and competitive!