Dorm Curfews. Is it a thing?

[Yiling]

Hi everyone, I'll be staying in an international dorm on Minhang campus, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. I'm wondering if there's a curfew? I stayed in a dorm last summer when I was at BLCU for short study and we didn't have any curfew as far as I'm aware, we went out and came back when we pleased. I'm just wondering if anyone knows what it's like at SJTU for international students. Also does anyone know any good websites or methods for finding an apartment to share with others? Thanks in advance 

[Tiri]

I'm in SJTU Minhang dorm 12. Not only is there a curfew, but also if you bring a male friend, they can stay no longer than half an hour, which, as you can probably imagine, makes work on any project utterly impossible. These regulations are funny to me but there is no other way than to comply with it. When I was studying in Zheda, there was no problem at all, anyone who had a card could come and go at anytime. And the funniest thing is, most of Chinese dorms in the campus do not have such regulations, it's just the foreigners that need to be closely watched at all times.

The way the curfew works: ayi locks the door at 12 and opens at 6am. If you arrive between those hours, you need to ring the bell, wake her up and sign in their notebook. As far as I know, it has no other consequences than just the wrath of ayi, but nobody wants to bring that on themselves... One time I came half hour late, because we went to La Bamba with friends who were leaving (and whom I will never see again in my life). And I tried to explain it to her, but she made such a big fuss about it - that I have no shame and no respect for my friends who are sleeping, and no respect for her and such. Well, I'm pretty sure more people woke up to her screaming than to me ringing that bell. But just to paint a picture, the pride of 大妈 is bigger than anything else in the known universe.

[Lu]

9 hours ago, Tiri said:

If you arrive between those hours, you need to ring the bell, wake her up and sign in their notebook. As far as I know, it has no other consequences than just the wrath of ayi, but nobody wants to bring that on themselves...

What my friends used to do at BLCU (in 2002-3) was to discuss their return time in advance with the ayi. I think they told her they would arrive either at 1 or at 3 in the morning, something with intervals. The ayi seemed to appreciate that. But the ayis in that dorm were always pretty good-natured about foreign students returning at ungodly hours, so no guarantee that this will also help with yours ?

[Yiling]

@Tiri oh gosh well this is definitely going to be an experience. I'm thinking about nights out or say I go downtown and get back late. She may hate me. I feel like a kid having a curfew. I'll be in dorm 8. Gonna take me a while to get used to the size of the campus too.

[hejmeddig]

Hi

I spent a semester at Shanghai Jiaotong University in 2013.

 

I returned to the dorms late once by about half an hour. There was a rotation of 3 ayi's in the dorm I was staying in. After 12 they turned off the light and went to sleep. If you return after the curfew, you need to wake them up by knocking or calling out. They don't really appreciate being woken up but don't worry about having to sleep on the streets. They were pretty friendly, especially if you can speak some Chinese, as they didn't speak much English.

[谢恩灵]

I studied at Sichuan University and I lived off campus. I would often go out and party/stay out late with a friend who lived in a dorm. Although there was no real curfew and no one really enforced it, at the end of the year someone who also lived in the dorms told the study abroad office that my friend would always come back very late and be really drunk and make so much noise (which just wasn't true at all!). I mean sometimes we pregamed in her room but we would be out of there by 10 or 11pm... some people are crazy. lol anyway just be careful of some party poopers 

[陳德聰]

Honestly I would just bring on the “wrath.” When I was at Fudan they used to close the gate and make us wake up the people in the box to sign the book. I routinely wrote fictitious names in English. I feel like ayi will get tired of making a fuss after the fourth or fifth time.

[hoshinoumi]

@陳德聰 That's exactly what we ended up doing in XISU (Xi'an International Studies University) and it worked. Before that we had to be in the dorms at 11 or bye bye.

[ZhangKaiRong]

It depends on how your dorm looks like, but the best advice I got before going on my journey in China was to be super friendly with the ayis guarding your dorm, especially those who take the night shift. I did not bring too many souvenirs from my own country, but I gave most of those to the ayis. I also made sure that they get some small stuffs from other cities I visited in China, and also invested time to have longer chats with them in the beginning and have smaller chit-chats later on (btw, it also helps to polish your Chinese, especially in the beginning). Never had any issues (and our dorm closed at 10.30 pm), neither with bringing Chinese friends/girlfriend to our dorm, nor with entries after curfew time. The gate of our dorm looked like a low climbing frame, so you didn't need to be too athletic to actually climb it and get to the other side, but it was definitely a noisy task after some glasses of alcohol. I was too slow on one occasion and the ayi had come out of her building before I could rush into the dorm, but she was not mad, just saying on her sleepy voice that she wakes up every time someone tries to get inside via climbing the gate, and just ring her the next time I'm outside, and she lets me in, just to be on the safe side and making sure no one falls from the top of the gate. 

[Guest]

On 8/13/2018 at 5:50 AM, Tiri said:

most of Chinese dorms in the campus do not have such regulations

Are you sure about this? I've heard one of their regulations is having the electricity cut off at night... this sounds more extreme imo.

[Tiri]

@MrDuque 100% sure, I used to sneak into my Chinese boyfriend’s room ?

[Guest]

@Tiri hahah I see, well, I'd say every Chinese university is differrent 

[Tiri]

@Yiling the campus only seems so big on paper, especially when you live in a city as big as Shanghai, I promise you, the campus soon will feel like nothing ? the curfew isn't that bad  either, usually when we go out, the clubs are so far away that we come back after 6 anyway.