Across China, many cities have been working to move college campuses to outlying areas. Our city is no exception, with the largest area of development on the subway line southeast of town:
Last week, a student and I walked around the University of Science and Technology:
Modeled after Yale University, the place is very impressive, including the 12-story library. I’ve heard that there are over 150,000 students attending the universities in this new district.
The new campus for my school is northeast of town (no subway or train – boo hoo). As mentioned in a previous blog, it’s a fairly long bus ride from our main campus:
That just changed – for the worse. The northbound highway closed for a 4-month maintenance project, so our bus now leaves at 6:10AM and takes small, bumpy roads through the countryside. The two hour ride would be a major problem if you were prone to motion sickness or had back issues (click Bus Ride to Yanglin to see video).
The students are not very happy about the remote location of the school, especially those who moved across the country with the hope of living in a large city. At least they can take tennis lessons on the school courts (try to avoid the dirt pile):
If there’s nothing else to do, you can always join the crowd of students heading to the cafeteria after class:
As usual, I asked my students to sign up for lunch if they’d like to eat with “the foreign teacher”:
This is usually an interesting time, giving me a closer-up view of what the students are thinking:
Of course, it’s always interesting each semester to see the English names selected by students. Here are some from this year’s roster: Aroma, Una, Mean, Seven, Eleven, Milo, Sky, Snow, and Money!
I wonder if they choose a name based on the phonetic spelling of it? Your bus trip sounds so challenging—hope it will get easier before too long, for everyone’s sake.