It is now Finals Review of the Chinese Language Program at Tsinghua University, in Beijing China. Within 2 weeks, most of us will be leaving this place where we've spent the last 9-10 months of our lives at.

Tsinghua, despite minor setbacks, has been a great place to study at. With each semester and even with each passing month, I notice that Tsinghua is improving its system, its curriculum, student life and etc so that it can be a major candidate for attracting foreign students to come study.

These last 9-10 months have been invaluable to me, in terms of what I've learned, the friends I've made, the teacher's I've met, and the life I've experienced while abroad.

For a fun little read, I have compiled a list of 10 things that I love and hate about studying and living at Tsinghua University. Hope you enjoy it!

Also! Feel free to add in your own list , no matter how long you've been here! Perhaps later we'll compile a Beijing top 10 loves and hates list. 

Loves:

From Most Loved to Least Loved.

1. The dorms. The foreign student dorms at Tsinghua are really indeed nice, despite the setbacks.

2. The room service. To come home to a room with my bed made everyday, the trash thrown out, the floor swept, the windowsill dusted, clean bed sheets, and a clean bathroom, if only you knew how good it could make you feel after a long and tiring day out in the wild west of Beijing.

3. My receptionists in building 22. They are so very sweet. Water pressure is bad? Give them a call and they will be there within minutes to diagnose it and try to solve it for you. The power went out during vacation (non-sealing room type like May holiday) and everything in your fridge rotted/melted? They will come and clean your fridge and offer to reimburse you for loss food. I didn't have them reimburse because it wasn't a big deal, but it was very sweet of them to clean it for me. And so much more. They have been wonderful.

4. The convenient classroom location. The Chinese Language Program is held M-F in the "C" Building near Zijing Dormitories. All Chinese Language classes are held there, so meeting people in other classes in that program is VERY easy. Not only does it provide a very social environment, it is also located really close to the dorms. Only a 3 minute bike ride and maybe 5-10 minute walk.

5. The Zijing student supermarket. It is located right underneath the classrooms in the basement and the prices are all set for Beijing students, so it is very convenient to run down to the basement during break to buy household items like toilet paper, or lunch, or breakfast, yogurt, or drinks and also freshly cooked "jian bing"! Yum!

6. The C building. Ok I am talking a lot about this, but this is a part of everyday life at Tsinghua during school days and you'll really appreciate the convenience of everything. A Bank of China branch in this building, photography studio, copy and printing place, supermarket in basement, really cheap eyeglasses store in basement, bookstore in basement, and a telephone card shop for your dorm phone.

7. The dining halls. There are so many dining halls located all over campus and most of them have overlapping menus but some have some specialties. The closest dining hall to C building is only a 2 minute walk and makes it really convenient to each before/after class with friends/classmates. The food though a bit oily is rather decent and there are 4 stories to choose from for the closest dining hall, with an underground sit down pizza restaurant. The other dining halls are quite nice and have their own specialties too. There is also a decent dining hall/restaurant between building 21 and 22, whose food is a bit higher quality, though pricier than other dining halls around campus.

8. The school shuttle. This shuttle, though oftentimes late or too early, is very cheap, 1 RMB w/student ID and 2 RMB w/o. The shuttle runs the entire perimeter of campus and can take you from the hospital (good luck), to the school hotel, to campus scenery, to the main gate at WuDaoKou, and etc. For the first timer, I recommend just paying for it and riding it the entire way, it will end at West Gate and then you can ride it back just to see the campus, or get off along the way. You can board this shuttle anywhere along its path, just wave at it and it will stop. Beware that on Friday afternoons it will get very crowded.

9. The flexibility of classes. All students get one week to sit in to various classes and decide which class is best for them and request a change if needed. This is a very good thing to do to get a feel for the right class, right teachers and right difficulty despite what you were assigned to.

10. The teacher rating system. During midterm time, students are given a survey to rate their teachers on certain qualities and this makes sure the teachers keep in line with their duties, their manners, the curriculum, and etc. There have been students who have abused this survey and given their teachers scores that are unrealistically low, which is a cowardly act of passive aggressiveness. It is best to talk with the teacher in person (even if you don't like them for whatever reason), after class, in private and give them constructive criticisms, even though they may take it hard at first because the Chinese really value face, but most do listen and improve.

Hates:

From Most Hated to Least Hated.

1. Slooooowwwww Internet (the internet here is slower than dialup back home almost, especially for overseas sites)

2. No 24 hour hot water (We get hot water just 8 hours a day at different intervals)

3. Poor construction (something always seems to be breaking, but building 22 doesn't seem as bad as 21 in terms of breakdowns)

4. Smoking in classrooms, class hallways, and dorm hallways (This university and this whole country doesn't have any smoking policing where you shouldn't smoke in class. Have to wash your clothes/hair every day because of the smoke odor.)

5. The mean old hags when you pay for your internet. They are very mean, aloof, and cranky, lucky for them China is lacking females, can't imagine what their husbands have to endure,. The young ones are nicer.

6. The Tsinghua Hospital. Regardless of how long you've waited, when your doctor decides to go home at 4:30pm, he goes home, without ever telling you or seeing you. Then you kindly tell the nurse and she says "too bad", come back another day or get moved to ER and wait to see a specialized ER doctor who might not know anything about what you need because he is specialized in maybe chiropractics and you have a high fever. There's the occassional incident where when they need to draw your blood and the first time patient will usually comply and realize too late that the bloody and yellow stained gloved finger is pressing down on your skin and you pray to the heavens you aren't going to die of some kind of transmitted disease from this incident.

7. All the black cabs outside that harass you in the beginning to take them over a real cab, and that they don't let "real" cabs in if they are empty. So to get a real cab you either have to get lucky with one that's dropping someone off, or walk "all the way" to NE Gate. There is one black cab that I do take regularly, he's much more civil than the rest and fair with prices. I have experienced the mini-van ones change price on me after we came to an agreement. If you get molested by them, just pretend you didn't hear them or don't understand and they will eventually remember you and never bother to call after you again.

8. The location. We live at the most NorthEast side of campus. The only way to exit is to take a cab or the school shuttle. The school shuttle though it only costs 1 RMB with a student ID will get you to WuDaoKou in 20-40 min, including wait time. The taxis, now that they don't let real ones in, you either have to get lucky to hop in one that's dropping someone off, or walk all the way outside of the NE Gate to take one and pay 10 RMB and wait in traffic for 10-30 min, or worse in rush hour. The other option is to bike of course, which is fine most of the time. The little road that leads to NE gate is has a really badly designed intersection. But it's worse when there's a cop there directing traffic. When you first see him, you think he's doing traffic a favor until you realized you sat at that intersection for 1 hour and you wish his mother didn't drop him on his head when he was small.

9. The food. I wish it wasn't so oily, but it's still yummier than the dorm food back in the U.S.

10. I've run out of gripes. Can't think of anything else. I have heard from other students about some bad teachers that only use you to learn english, or that make fun/laugh at you, or that are very mean, though I personally have had pretty good teachers. I think the higher the level you are at the better the teachers, maybe because you can talk back. Overall, I'm happy with my Tsinghua experience. 

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