BNU dorms

[sannomiya]

hi everyone,

i am planning to attend beishida/bnu this winter and would like some information on the dorms. i looked at the school's website and found all the basic information, but since i'm not so familiar with the layout of the school, i'm not sure about their locations. as far as convenience goes, which is the best dorm to stay in with regards to access within the school and also the city? no matter how nice the dorms are, i don't want to be stuck in the farthest darkest corner of the campus where no one goes and takes 30 minutes to get to the main gate. thanks for any help.

[StealthyBurrito]

Beishida is actually a pretty small campus compared to the larger universities such as Beida or Qinghua, so basically any foreign student dormitory you get will be within a 15 minute walk of your classrooms (most likely 5 minutes).

As far as I know, there are 2 main groups of foreign student dormitories. One is where most people stay, near the east gate. This group is comprised of Liyun Apartments and also the newly remodeled one across the street of Liyun. Liyun is very nice, also the most expensive, but you get what you pay for. You also get a McDonalds and a small convenience store on the first floor, which is incredibly convenient, and BNU has a decent sized supermarket on campus near the east gate (a 2 minute walk from Liyun). Right outside of the east gate is a ton of restaurants, DVD stores, a 10 minute walk north leads to a KFC and a rather large supermarket/mall called Wu Mart (not to be confused with Wal-Mart) and a 10 minute walk south is the Jishuitan subway station.

The other one is where I stayed, the Lanhui apartments near the small west gate. This is pretty isolated in terms of foreign student locations, but the small west gate is close to all the student cafeterias, and right ouside of the small west gate there are tons of restaurants. There's also a small convenience store on the 2nd floor, and the campus post office is a 2 minute walk.

So either way you can't lose. Beishida has a convenient campus and their dorms are great for foreigners, so don't worry.

[sannomiya]

Hi Stealthy,

Thanks for the help. Also, how are their regulations regarding visitors? Is it like an open dorm where people can come and go as they please (preferable), or is it pretty much a "gated community" where outsiders cannot enter. I'm not a big party animal and I've been out of college for awhile so I'm hoping not to be treated like a freshman who needs constant supervision, etc. Any curfews?

Also, I chose BNU since a lot of these posts state that BLCU's performance seems to be going downhill while BNU seems to really care about student performance. Since you just started Beida, any first impressions?

Thanks again.

[Zhende ma?]

BNU dorms have security but they don't ask any questions about people coming in and out as long as they are with residents. You won't be supervised heavily. The main rules are 1)No parties in dorm rooms 2)No one can stay in your dorm room longer than 3 days

[StealthyBurrito]

As Zhende ma? said, there is security but they usually don't ask questions. During my stay at Lanhui, one day two of the rooms on my floor actually were burglarized. The doors in Lanhui are pretty heavy and although they close, they don't actually lock until you give it a good shove and hear the "click." So someone who probably realized this just came in the middle of the night while the inhabitants were asleep and stole 3 laptops, 2 cameras, and other small items.

Back on topic, there are two levels of security. First is at the gate. Usually if you don't make eye contact with the security guards, they won't ask for your student ID. Our program director made a joke when he asked to visit Beida, he responded "we'll slowly infiltrate, and under no circumstances make eye contact." The second is at the apartment/dorms itself, and I don't think they usually stop you here (as my story above conveyed). At Lanhui they did have a sign in sheet for guests, and after-hours (past midnight or so) they had a required sign in for everyone.

There are no curfews aside from the small gates being closed past 11pm or so. You'll just have to enter through one of the large gates (East or West).

BNU was really great, and the administration there was flexible and really cared about the students. Suggestions are taken very seriously, and from what I have heard, reasonable suggestions are almost always implemented. BNU isn't just a school to teach to foreigners, but they also do a lot of research in education, and they are always looking for betters ways to teach. My teacher was very passionate about teaching Chinese, not just to us, but as a field of academic research. Plus BNU is a relatively small school, so you get attention and a cozy feel. Just a word of warning, however; this may not be indicative of the normal school year as I went over summer. Some of my classmates are currently at BNU for fall and they tell me it's no longer as flexible as it was over summer.

From the teaching perspective, it's a lot better than Beida, which, although also cares for its students, has a more inflexible bureaucracy typical of China, and teachers are not as experienced in teaching Chinese (for some reason my teachers are a lot younger). As for BLCU, I'm sorry I don't know anyone who goes there so I don't have any first or secondhand information.

I hope that's not confusing, I know I tried to go over a lot of stuff.

[sannomiya]

thanks stealthy and zhende. from what you've told me, it looks like i made a good choice with bnu. if all goes well, i'll be there at the end of the year. thanks again!