Tsinghua University Accommodation

[chrisoyoung]

Hi guys, does anyone know if Tsinghua has a gym for students to use? Something with weights and running machines? If so how much would you expect to pay for a semester.

Thanks,

Chris

[dannyk1]

Hi Chris

I think there is a gym on campus but i havent heard any good stories about it..i never heard anyone talking about that one, everyone i talked to about it goes to nirvana.

I use the gym in my compound, but a lot of students go to Nirvana gym just outside the campus (south east gate/maingate), next to the lotus supermarket. i think that one is about 300 rmb per month, so its a bit expensive i think.. but good quality gym, also i heard there is 1 under thus park, its an office center which is on the opposite side of lotus.

[chrisoyoung]

Thanks Dannyk1,

Just a message for others, the online room booking system is active at www.thutraining.com

Good luck with the applications!

[hyanglee]

"For the new students who check in just one week before the registration time on the admission notice, we charge as favorable room price.

For those who check in before over one week, we charge normal room price for the days ahead of time"

Registration is Feb. 18, monday.

Therefore those who check in between Feb 11-17 get the favorable price.

Whereas those who check in before Feb 11 get the normal price?

Yeah, I am having trouble understanding this as well. Can anyone confirm that checking in within Feb 11-17 gets us the favorable price? I have tried emailing the university but I have yet to receive a reply. Are you guys all here for the Chinese language program?

[hyanglee]

Hey Chris, let me know if you need a workout partner. I was worried about the gym facilities at Tsinghua as well as a friend of mine who studied there told me the gyms there were rather poor in terms of quality.

[ChTTay]

> There are a few gyms in Wudaokou of varying price all with pretty good quality. Most foreign students tend to use them over the Tsinghua one.

There are also a bunch of "outdoor gyms" dotted around within Tsinghua campus that you could use. These have chin up bars, dipping stations, monkey bars as well as actual weight machines. Free to use but might be a bit cold in Feb/March.

> "Yeah, I am having trouble understanding this as well. Can anyone confirm that checking in within Feb 11-17 gets us the favorable price?"

It just means if you come to Tsinghua REALLY early, before Feb 11, you have to pay the full price for the room - per night. It doesn't mean you have to pay a higher price all semester, just the days you have arrived early. If you check in to your room just 5 days before registration - the normal check in period - then you would pay the reduced, student price.

[hyanglee]

Thanks ChTTay. Are you an incoming student too?

[ChTTay]

I was at Tsinghua last semester and will be there again this semester!!

[angeia]

Hi everyone,

I also went to Tsinghua, but only for 6 months. I lived in the Zijing dorms and I actually really enjoyed it. I had a lively floor with great neighbors and we would leave our doors open and interact with one another and have little parties in the dorm. We did a gift exchange for Christmas in the main study room, as well as have a morning Christmas party in there. It was nice.

I stayed in the AB room and it did the job. It's really tiny but it has everything you need and is pretty clean. The workers come to clean the room every other day (although their cleaning job is terrible), but they're really nice and always happy to practice Chinese with you.

Of course, the limited hot water is really annoying (no way to sleep in, hot water stops after 11 AM I think?).

They are strict about the no guest thing, but sometimes this can be a good thing. (I'm at SISU now in Shanghai, and the front desk will tell random Chinese people my room number and they'll come to my door asking to teach them English. Argh.)

The dorms are far from Wudaokou station. You can take a bus there or ride a bike. I think having a bike is a must if you live in Tsinghua, since the campus is MASSIVE. But one of my best memories was riding my bike throughout the campus and admiring the pretty gardens.

Renting an apartment Wudaokou is crazy expensive--to get a good deal you will definitely have to get a roommate.

If you are going to stay at Tsinghua for the long haul (6 months +), then I recommend off campus.

If you're not going to be staying there long, maybe 6 months, just want to study some Chinese, etc.. Then do the dorms. Finding a good apartment in China is a pain, so for a 6 month study just save yourself the hassle and get the dorm.

I remember dorm reservations filled up really fast. In one day they were all booked, but somehow hitting refresh a couple hundred times helped get me a room.

Hope that helps (but everyone else already gave really good advice). Enjoy Tsinghua!

[ChTTay]

"Renting an apartment Wudaokou is crazy expensive"

This is completely subjective. It would depend on where you're from, at point in your life you are at, how much money you have, what you need/want out of where you live ... etc etc It also depends on how lucky you are when you're looking for a place.

I live in a 3 bedroom apartment and I pay 2600 a month. What's the cost of a dorm, 2400? We have a large living room, good sized kitchen, nice bathroom etc For me, having a kitchen/living room is important and worth the small amount extra. In addition, I really wouldn't want to be eating Tsinghua canteen food the majority of the time.

I think my neighbours pay a bit more than us, nearer 3000 each per room. I also have a classmate who lives a block away from the subway station (10-15 minute walk) and pays less than 2000 for a room.

There are a lot of more expensive places out there as well but enough foreigners must be willing to pay those prices or they wouldn't have reached that level.

I totally agree that if you are here for 6 months it's probably not worth the hassle of finding a place. The dorms are really convenient for studying, if not for going into Wudaokou. A small part of me is jealous at not being able to roll out of bed at 7:50 and still make it to class on time.

[wqkev]

Hi Guys, I hope you can help me out. It's very important to me.

I missed the application time for the student dormitories on 23.Jan - 24.Jan.

Now I can't even contact the International Student Office.

Did that happened to someone you know? What am I supposed to do in such situation?

Thank you.

[wqkev]

Ok now they told me that they have no student rooms available.

Great. Have to search for an Off Campus room. I'm not lucky this time. Everything is getting worse.

[detailsdontmatter]

Hi wqkev,

I'm sorry to hear that you missed the application time I have heard of this website called Beijing Buddy (www.beijingbuddy.com/) which might help you with different housing options/prices to expect around Wudaokou? Hope it helps!

P.S. My first post here! My name is Lisa, and I'm from Sydney Australia. Will be joining you guys for the Spring Semester at Tsinghua's Chinese Language Program. I look forward to meeting you all

[dannyk1]

Don't need to worry,

Depending on your budget and preferences you can find a good alternative place to live.

Just get a hotel room for the first 2/3/4 days and make apointments with 2 or 3 agencies.

i have contact details of

1 agency which transforms apartments (with living rooms) into "dorms" so they transform the living room into another 1 or 2 bedrooms.

2 agency (pekinglettings) , which do a great job, but you will need to pay an agency fee, but you can always ask them for any help getting around, which is really useful.

3 agency, homelink, but this is more usefull for complete (1,2,3 bedroom apartment renting) and often only 6 or 12 months rent minimum.

4 agency, who has about 15-20 places which doesnt require agency fee and also has temporary rooms.

You can find a place north of Wudaokou station (liudaokou) because the teaching building is in the north of campus, or you can find something around wudaokou, the further you go from the subway station the cheaper, but being close to the subway station has a lot of benefits.

I am on a holiday at the moment but could give you some phone numbers.

[ChTTay]

I tend to disagree with the advice above.

> The first place you look should probably be The Beijinger (and cityweekend). Have a look a "room mates wanted" and filter it for Wudaokou 五道口 , go through the first 10 pages or so and write down a few details of the apartment and the contact information (email/phone) of any that you like. Around February there should be loads of people looking for room mates.

I've just spent 6 weeks trying to find one. Often these are people who sign a 12 months rent but someone has left early OR the agency/landlord just lets the rooms individually.

Next you can change the filter settings from "room mate wanted" to "looking for apartment/aparment to rent" (or whatever). Do the same thing again. This setting is likely to have more agents and landlords advertising under it.

Ring each one in turn and set up a time to go and view the apartment. If your speaking to someone who speaks good English, it's worth asking them about anything they don't mention in the advert. For example, cost of electricity per month, agency fees... etc If there English isn't that good (an agent) or your Chinese isn't just go have a look and ask them anything in person. You can get the message across with a dictionary/pointing/drawing.

> When you are in Wudaokou you can just go from agency to agency looking at any apartments that they have available. There are loads in Wudaokou, ranging from professional fancy looking places to a man with a telephone. In my experience, most had very limited English or none at all. I personally found 我爱我家 (wo3ai4wo3jia1) to be a very good agency. Homelink has also been recommended to me as being very professional. I wouldn't ring them in advance, just turn up and arrange some viewings.

Personally, I really don't like the "dorm" apartments mentioned above. It's essentially landlords just removing the kitchen and living room then putting as many small rooms as possible into an apartment to maximise rent. Tend to feel pretty crowded. If you are going to live in Wudaokou, outside of Tsinghua campus, you may as well try and find a place to live that has some advantages over the dorms - e.g. a kitchen, living room.

If you live right in the middle of wudaokou then you are generally going to pay at least 2400 to 3000 a month if you are sharing with other people (e.g. one room in a 3 bedroom place). There are places you can find for less though. It seems like the area around BLCU has cheaper rooms, although that would be a longer bike ride to Tsinghua. The places right opposite the subway station are the most expensive. I only live 5 minutes from the subway but pay a good amount less.

As suggested above, you could also have a look into Liudaokou. Personally, if you are new to China I would try to stay in Wudaokou. I cycle to Tsinghua everyday and it takes between 10 and 15 minutes depending how late I am :-)

In terms of where to stay, there is only one "hostel" in Wudaokou and it's called THE PEKING UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL YOUTH HOSTEL. My room mate stayed there recently and said it's clean enough but no windows. If you are looking for an affordable option right in Wudaokou, i'd stay here. You can find it on hostelworld/hostelbookers. There are other hotels in the area too.

Hope that helps, good luck!

[natcct]

Hey guys,

I booked a dorm at thutraining a few days ago. However, I'm just slightly worried since I never to any verification mail/receipt/refunded number. But the site clearly said they received my transaction while it was still active. Is there a way to confirm? Or do we just walk up to the dorm counter then and just give them our student IDs?

[hyanglee]

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. I tried accessing thutraining recently and couldn't open the website. So now I don't even have any proof of my dorm assignment besides my student ID number.

[ChTTay]

I spoke to my friend in dorms recently... He couldn't remember if they sent him an email or not. My guess is that they will as, at lesst when i applied, they were good at confirming things.

He did say that the day you move in you just go to the reception of your building and show them your passport. Thats all you need apparently.

Good luck

P.s. you don't actually get your student ID for a few weeks after term starts. It might have been closer to a month last semester. In the meantime, you just use your admission letter to sign up for things like a canteen card.

[roddy]

Folks, if you have questions or information about apartments in the Wudaokou area, please look for the numerous topics we already have on the subject - this is just one of them, and a good place to start. If you post in here then the information gets lost under the wrong heading - you're less likely to get answers, and fewer people will see your information.

[chrisoyoung]

Hey guys, I booked in yesterday. Piece if cake, go to building 19, have your passport, admission notice and 6 months rent. Very easy. See you in class.