Shao Yuan/ Dorms/ cafetaria

[jinjin]

Has anyone lived in the Shao Yuan dorms at BeiDa? I'm trying to get into one of the new buildings.

I'm assuming there is a student cafetaria on campus at BeiDa--am I right? how much is a board ticket? Is there much to choose from? If I live in the dorms, I won't have a kitchen so I'm not sure I will be able to cook.

In my undergrad in the states, we had a common area with a kitchen and refrigerator--do we have this at shao yuan?

thanks!

[zixingche]

I stayed at the Shao Yuan dorms at BeiDa in the late 90s so things probably have changed now. I can't remember the number of the building but it was one of the basic and cheap ones. Every room had a fridge that the students put outside their rooms just by the door, and on every floor there was a very small kitchen, just a room with a sink and electric stove. Some people did cook in their rooms, although I heard you weren't suppose to, but most people ate out. There was a separate canteen for foreigners, but a lot of people went to the canteens for the local Chinese students as it was cheaper.

[WangLongju]

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"Buildings" 1-3 (actually 3 wings of the same huge building) are the core of Shao Yuan. The cafeteria is behind (connected to the west) of the central wing, Building 2. They split the main cafeteria into two parts (somewhere between 1997-1999) with the left side still the old student cafeteria where you walk up to the window and order and the right hand side trying to be a restaurant with wait staff. Off to the far left of the room is a Korean restaurant that's pretty good. Building 4 is just behind Building 1 (to the South). There's also a coffee bar in the basement just to the left of the door of the cafeteria, but it doesn't look like it's open during the summer.

Buildings 6-9 are to the south of the old complex. There's an "upscale" restaurant to the left of the main reception area in Building 6. Not the best deal, but very edible. They've redone the Chinese student cafeterias, and there're a couple of fast food cafeterias on campus just to the east of the #5 Cafeteria.

There are a couple of restaurants just outside the West Gate, but new building complexes have replaced many to the south. A short walk to Haidian Bridge (Haidian Qiao, where Tushucheng used to start) will get you to a few other restaurants (e,g., Goubuli Baozi, a Korean restaurant, etc.). A McDonald's is also one block further south.

I haven't been back to the South Gate since I came back to Beijing, but there used to be many restaurants over there as well. I think that has all been cleared away tho.

Anyway, zixingche is right in saying that there is a kitchen on each floor, but I'm not sure about refrigerators in the new buildings. At least I don't think they're the big jobs like students have outside their rooms in Buildings 1-3.

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