Day 1...Getting settled

Housing
I guess since I breezed over what my housing is like - I'll share what my current place is like and also some details about the campus. Since I got in rather late from the airport the night I arrived, the only rooms available in the dormitories for foreign students was a double room with shared bathroom for the floor. (Yes...for the time being, I feel like I'm an undergrad all over again!)

My roommate probably won't return until just before classes begin, although a lot of his stuff is still in the room. This works out for me b/c it's like I have my own room for the time being...furnished w/ a TV, internet, and a fridge (my roommate's). There's a separate communal room each for showers, sinks, toilets - all of which are cleaned daily (as are everyone's rooms). Clean-yes, with a sterile feel to the elevators, hallways, etc. So in a sense, it's like a hotel-dorm that's very modern both inside and out. (The photos shows a row of buildings that are foreign dorms. Exterior has steel metal borders on the sides for a post-modern look.)


Anyway... I'm hoping to move into one of the rarer single bedroom (private bath) rooms, and I have to call every morning to see if there's one that opens up. There are also 1 bedrooms that share a bath b/wn 2 rooms...and at this point, I'm just itchin' to get my own space so I can unpack!

Tsinghua Campus
The campus itself is ENORMOUS! I spent most of Friday squaring away administrative stuff, and then walking around campus to get myself oriented. Seriously, it could take up to 40 mins to walk from the Northeast Gate to the South Gate at a normal pace!

The atheletic fields for pick-up games are just footsteps from the dorms, and they are in immaculate shape. Basketball, soccer, tennis, and of course...badminton. The dorms on the North part of campus (which is where I am) are definitely pretty recent, as it's easy to tell them from the older (and decades old!) dorms...A/C was an after thought so the units are visible from outside...and paint/concrete is worn out on the exterior...

About 2 times a day, troops of students, some form of reserve service, march throughout parts of campus - with occasional chats of "1-2-3-4" (in Chinese of course). While in procession, a marching tune is belted out from a PA system (which didn't sound like the Chinese National Anthem to me...)

The first time I heard it I had no idea what was going on...b/c from a distance all you can hear is a unison call-response chat, that you can't discern the words - but you know its a sizable crowd!

There are several wide streets on campus (as pictured here) that are closed off to automobiles, so pedestrians and bicycles can travel with ease. Lined from end-to-end with tall trees, it is very tranquil and refreshing to walk along the roads. Compared to the alertness one needs to exert to deal with the bustle of honking of horns and bad drivers on normal streets - it's definitely less hectic once inside the gate of the University.

Most buildings have small placards by the side of the main entrance, so it is difficult to see from afar where you're headed...guess it just comes over time.
Tsinghua is world-renown for its strength in the sciences (in the same league as MIT...), and one can definitely get that sense from walking around the buildings.






Here are a few shots of: 1) Institute of Nuclear Energy Technology, 2 shots of the newly constructed Nanotechnology building.


Logistics for the Olympic Games
I learned (or was reminded of) a couple of things about Beijing's preparations for the upcoming summer games that will start on 08-08-08:

• There is actually an official department called the "Beijing Weather Manipulation Office"! Nothing like trying to grab Mother Nature by the cajones and altering the weather to the way you'd like it! (I had heard about it earlier this summer when I was back in the US...but I hadn't believed it until now...)
• The indoor pool at Tsinghua (one of the most modern facilities on-campus) is closed this year to students for Olympic training.
• Similar to other Olympic Games...Beijing will put restrictions on when you can drive your car on the road* based on whether the last digit of you license plate is odd or even.
• FACT: More than 1,000 new cars are registered in Beijing, with more than 3 million on the road* now!
  

*Still haven't touched on much beyond the campus gates...there's so much to cover, that it'll be my next post.