campus visit

Visited 北大 and 清华 today. 北大 campus was full of old buildings, but the roofs and tiles were like the ancient palace kind, albeit not so grand. Everything was grey and the sky was gloomy and misty, giving everything a stale and dreary kind of feel. 清华 was much nicer, but it was kind of like a tourist destination, as there were souvenir shops and people touting for guided tours and bike rentals at the entrance. It was really serene, like a garden neighbourhood on its own, with lots of trees (but they were bare since it's winter) lining the roads which must be really beautiful in Spring or Autumn. Then there were fir trees and architecture which reminded us of the American-style Universities, with the red bricks and overgrown creepers which made for a perfect horror movie in my imaginative mind, but which was otherwise peaceful and homely, and certainly conducive for studying.

According to maria, "In 2009, only 3,560 out of 6.29 million people who passed the gaokao were admitted to 清华. Some 10.2 million students sat for the gaokao, which was spread over three days." So 0.03% of the students who sat for the gaokao got into 清华, and for 清华 and 北大 combined they would have the top 1%. Cream of the crop who escape to the USA eventually for greener pastures, according to my Opthalmology teacher today. What an irony. She said China is like nuturing talents for the USA.