Peking University

Peking University (PKU) is generally regarded as China’s number one non-technical university, the “Harvard of China.” Indeed, this University, founded in 1898 as part of the Chinese reformation to bring the country into the modern era, admits only the top candidates from around the nation. The University houses approximately 20,000 or so undergraduate students at any one time, studying various disciplines. Most of the students I’ve met have been business students, eager to earn their degree and then study in the United States for an MBA. In Chinese, the University is Beijing Daxue, abbreviated as “BEIDA.”

PKU is also renowned as the nation’s top center for political movements. The May 4, 1919 movement against foreigners and the Japanese; the Cultural Revolution in part; and the 1989 Tiananmen Democracy protests all originated or had an important stage at Peking University. More recently, after the United States bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, PKU students took up the banner of protest again and marched to the U.S. Embassy in protest. (A more cynically minded individual noted that the next day the students went right back to applying to American graduate schools). It is interesting to be at an institution that has played part of so many of China’s important historical events in the past 100 years. The best AU equivalent was President Kennedy’s “We breath the same air” nuclear test ban speech in 1963, although to the best of my knowledge the only protest at AU in my time here was after the Boston Red Sox won the world series.

PKU, as you might expect, is a large university. I live in a University-run hotel, essentially, in the northwest of campus. To my north is Weiming Lake, easily the most beautiful part of campus, with a traditional pagoda overlooking the lake. During the winter, as you see, the lake freezes over, and hundreds of students ice skate around.

On a related note, PKU has very little parking space. For a major university of tens of thousands, in a city of fourteen million, this can be a problem. A friend of mine here remarked that most of the local students called it “Parking University,” and given how many times I’ve had to dodge a truck or car on the way to class, it seems entirely appropriate.

To the south is the library, the largest repository of books in the nation of China, actually. Other areas of note are the massive academic buildings, including the very new School of International Studies, which houses our program. The campus is a lot like any other major campus, with plenty of grocery stores, cafeterias, restaurants, laundry shops, and street vendors hawking fake DVD's and uncooked food–well, so not quite like U.S. Universities then.