Tsinghua University
My name is Warner Brown, and over the coming year I am going to be writing about my life studying Chinese at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. I'll be introducing a few aspects of my life in Beijing over the next few entries, but some background details may be appropriate here: I was born and raised in Shreveport, and went to Eden Gardens and Caddo Middle Magnet before graduating from Caddo Magnet High in 2002. I became interested in China at Johns Hopkins University, from which I graduated in May 2006. I spent much of the next year doing independent research in Shanghai, and after a brief spell back home, I've returned to China (this time to Beijing) to continue studying the language. Okay, with introductions out of the way, I think the best way to get started is to jump right in, so please see below for my first impressions of Tsinghua University, the 'best university in China'.
----------------
The language program that I'm participating in this year is administered by UC Berkeley, but classes are held at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Tsinghua University is one of the best known universities in China. Mention it's name to any Chinese student and they will breathlessly tell you "It's the best university in China!" They will usually say exactly the same thing, however, about Tsinghua's neighbor Peking University, so I'm honestly not sure which is number one. It doesn't really matter, though, since the two schools divide responsibilities between different fields of knowledge, with Peking University handling liberal arts and Tsinghua serving as China's MIT. When I mention that my university major was history, Chinese friends usually admonish me for not choosing Peking University. This year, though, I've come to China for the best Mandarin education that money can buy, and that's found right here in Tsinghua.
Strolling through campus, one will soon realize that Tsinghua is big. Really big. In fact it's the biggest university campus in all of China. It measures at least a couple of miles from end to end, and it covers all of 395 hectares (a number which would probably sound a lot more impressive if I had something to compare it with). It's also probably worth mentioning that the campus is not particularly car-friendly, and most of the students and faculty walk or bike to work, making traversing the sprawl that much more arduous. It makes for good exercise, though.
Entering through Tsinghua's main gate, you will first see directly ahead an immense structure that is marked on the map as the "Central Main Building" (my translation). It is the largest building on campus, and I've been told that it dates back from the 1950s, when China's best friend on the world stage was still the USSR. To say that this building was constructed in the Soviet style is to do it a disservice; it looks like it was built brick by brick by the hands of Stalin himself. Thankfully, the overbearing, authoritarian atmosphere that it radiates is a misleading introduction to the campus that lies beyond.
The Central Main Building. I cannot remember a day when the sky was actually this clear.
Parts of the campus feel a lot like universities in the US. Compared with the rest of Beijing, the campus is refreshingly green and most of the streets and paths are lined with trees. There are modern-looking physics and mathematics buildings that look just like their counterparts in the US. The northeast quadrant of campus is full of rows upon rows of anonymous student housing blocks, where Chinese students are crowded in groups of four or more to each room. With one important exception, the campus doesn't really have quads as in US universities, although on the western side there is an immense garden park full of winding paths and benches that look out over a large lake. In other parts of campus the utilitarian school buildings will sometimes give way to small patches of green space, landscaped in the traditional Chinese garden style. All in all, Tsinghua is a very pleasant place to take a stroll in.
There is one section of campus that feels particularly incongruous, and it centers around a Rotunda-like structure that would not look out of place at the University of Virginia. The Rotunda opens out to a quad surrounded by old brick academic buildings. On a clear day, walking through this part of campus feels just like walking through JHU or any number of other American universities (albeit ones with large Asian-American populations).
Those are my initial impressions of Tsinghua's campus. Before classes started I alloted a weekend for exploring around, but I still haven't seen nearly everything. I'll append more interesting sights and experiences as they come up.
----------------
The language program that I'm participating in this year is administered by UC Berkeley, but classes are held at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Tsinghua University is one of the best known universities in China. Mention it's name to any Chinese student and they will breathlessly tell you "It's the best university in China!" They will usually say exactly the same thing, however, about Tsinghua's neighbor Peking University, so I'm honestly not sure which is number one. It doesn't really matter, though, since the two schools divide responsibilities between different fields of knowledge, with Peking University handling liberal arts and Tsinghua serving as China's MIT. When I mention that my university major was history, Chinese friends usually admonish me for not choosing Peking University. This year, though, I've come to China for the best Mandarin education that money can buy, and that's found right here in Tsinghua.
Strolling through campus, one will soon realize that Tsinghua is big. Really big. In fact it's the biggest university campus in all of China. It measures at least a couple of miles from end to end, and it covers all of 395 hectares (a number which would probably sound a lot more impressive if I had something to compare it with). It's also probably worth mentioning that the campus is not particularly car-friendly, and most of the students and faculty walk or bike to work, making traversing the sprawl that much more arduous. It makes for good exercise, though.
Entering through Tsinghua's main gate, you will first see directly ahead an immense structure that is marked on the map as the "Central Main Building" (my translation). It is the largest building on campus, and I've been told that it dates back from the 1950s, when China's best friend on the world stage was still the USSR. To say that this building was constructed in the Soviet style is to do it a disservice; it looks like it was built brick by brick by the hands of Stalin himself. Thankfully, the overbearing, authoritarian atmosphere that it radiates is a misleading introduction to the campus that lies beyond.
The Central Main Building. I cannot remember a day when the sky was actually this clear.
Parts of the campus feel a lot like universities in the US. Compared with the rest of Beijing, the campus is refreshingly green and most of the streets and paths are lined with trees. There are modern-looking physics and mathematics buildings that look just like their counterparts in the US. The northeast quadrant of campus is full of rows upon rows of anonymous student housing blocks, where Chinese students are crowded in groups of four or more to each room. With one important exception, the campus doesn't really have quads as in US universities, although on the western side there is an immense garden park full of winding paths and benches that look out over a large lake. In other parts of campus the utilitarian school buildings will sometimes give way to small patches of green space, landscaped in the traditional Chinese garden style. All in all, Tsinghua is a very pleasant place to take a stroll in.
There is one section of campus that feels particularly incongruous, and it centers around a Rotunda-like structure that would not look out of place at the University of Virginia. The Rotunda opens out to a quad surrounded by old brick academic buildings. On a clear day, walking through this part of campus feels just like walking through JHU or any number of other American universities (albeit ones with large Asian-American populations).
Those are my initial impressions of Tsinghua's campus. Before classes started I alloted a weekend for exploring around, but I still haven't seen nearly everything. I'll append more interesting sights and experiences as they come up.
posted by Warner Brown at 9:59 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks, Warner. I'm considering enrolling at Tsinghua for a Mandarin language course in Spring 2008, and would welcome some interesting insights on campus life.
Natesh
Post a Comment
<< Home