Peking University: Older Student Dorm Rooms

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• published: 27 Dec 2014
• views: 1835

My home base when I was in Beijing was "Zhongguanyuan," or the newly renovated "Western" dorms, in the Global Village located across the street from the North-Eastern Gate of Peking University. Akin to the freshman dorms at UC Berkeley, with a little more emphasis on simplicity and the color white, the dorms I lived in were equipped with showers built into the individual student units, a quaint sitting room, and then separate smaller rooms for the international students sharing two or three bedroom apartment units. (I'll show photos and video of my room later) I assumed that all the dorms on campus were the same as the one I was living in, but upon visiting another international student who had opted to live in the Chinese student dorms, I found out that this was definitely not the case. By way of background, Peking University is the Harvard of China. It is the school with the greatest prestige where the brightest students across all provinces of China attend. To be eligible for admission, students must take the "GaoKao," one of the most brutal exams on this planet, and get ranked in the top 1-5% out of the 9.8 million test takers annually. It is a grueling exam that occurs only once a year; in some highs schools, students spend up to 15 hours a day studying for it. But why, you may ask? Well, in the Chinese education system, the student's ranking relative to the rest of the population on this single exam is the determining admissions factor in university. That means, a student's score determines which university they can go to, and whether they can enroll in university at all. My point in sharing this is to inform you of the caliber of the Chinese students at Peking University. These are the cream of the crop across China, a country that hosts one-fifth of humanity. It's kind of a big deal to get into this school. And hence, when I visited one of the dorms for the Chinese students who are undoubtedly the leading proteges for the country, I was quite shocked with what I saw. Many news articles have been written about the difference in quality between the dorms used by the Chinese students and the dorms used by the international students. While arguments have been made that the difference is based upon what the students are used to in their home countries, (Western students are used to having access to warm water all the time, while Chinese students must abide by the strict time rules on when they can use hot water), I think it's interesting to note that many of the Chinese student dorms are still reminiscent of the older restrictions enforced by the early Communist authorities. Everything is based upon a strict time schedule-- the lights automatically shut off around 8pm, to save electricity (as they did in the past), and hot water can only be used for two hours in the afternoon. I know that things are changing now and that the university is giving its Chinese student dorms a serious modern makeover, but this video captures what I saw when I was there. (See here for photos and more info about the "GaoKao": http://www.businessinsider.com/24-stunning-photos-of-chinas-college-entrance-exams-2014-6)

Peking University: Older Student Dorm Rooms

• Report rights infringement
• published: 27 Dec 2014
• views: 1835

My home base when I was in Beijing was "Zhongguanyuan," or the newly renovated "Western" dorms, in the Global Village located across the street from the North-Eastern Gate of Peking University. Akin to the freshman dorms at UC Berkeley, with a little more emphasis on simplicity and the color white, the dorms I lived in were equipped with showers built into the individual student units, a quaint sitting room, and then separate smaller rooms for the international students sharing two or three bedroom apartment units. (I'll show photos and video of my room later) I assumed that all the dorms on campus were the same as the one I was living in, but upon visiting another international student who had opted to live in the Chinese student dorms, I found out that this was definitely not the case. By way of background, Peking University is the Harvard of China. It is the school with the greatest prestige where the brightest students across all provinces of China attend. To be eligible for admission, students must take the "GaoKao," one of the most brutal exams on this planet, and get ranked in the top 1-5% out of the 9.8 million test takers annually. It is a grueling exam that occurs only once a year; in some highs schools, students spend up to 15 hours a day studying for it. But why, you may ask? Well, in the Chinese education system, the student's ranking relative to the rest of the population on this single exam is the determining admissions factor in university. That means, a student's score determines which university they can go to, and whether they can enroll in university at all. My point in sharing this is to inform you of the caliber of the Chinese students at Peking University. These are the cream of the crop across China, a country that hosts one-fifth of humanity. It's kind of a big deal to get into this school. And hence, when I visited one of the dorms for the Chinese students who are undoubtedly the leading proteges for the country, I was quite shocked with what I saw. Many news articles have been written about the difference in quality between the dorms used by the Chinese students and the dorms used by the international students. While arguments have been made that the difference is based upon what the students are used to in their home countries, (Western students are used to having access to warm water all the time, while Chinese students must abide by the strict time rules on when they can use hot water), I think it's interesting to note that many of the Chinese student dorms are still reminiscent of the older restrictions enforced by the early Communist authorities. Everything is based upon a strict time schedule-- the lights automatically shut off around 8pm, to save electricity (as they did in the past), and hot water can only be used for two hours in the afternoon. I know that things are changing now and that the university is giving its Chinese student dorms a serious modern makeover, but this video captures what I saw when I was there. (See here for photos and more info about the "GaoKao": http://www.businessinsider.com/24-stunning-photos-of-chinas-college-entrance-exams-2014-6)