The Campuses

The old campus has beautiful tree arched streets. We have only

noticed a few stumps, so they have been blessed by good

health. There are no parking lots, only underground parking

so it really has a cozy, comfortable feel to it.

Northwestern Polytechnical University Campus
We really like our neighborhood and community.  The campus is about 3 square miles and we live right in the middle. Whether we want to shop on or off campus, eat on or off campus, catch a bus or a taxi, go to a bank or an ATM, we really are located perfectly. It is more like a compact, stately, tree filled U of M campus than a new more spread out BYU campus. There is also a “new” campus about an hour away where we actually teach.

The old campus has lots of construction
both adding and replacing. This corner

of campus is getting new housing.

Old Campus
As mentioned, Northwestern Polytechnical University is a highly regarded university of astronomical and aeronautical engineering. Very interesting to see a building titled “Moon Exploration.” 

This wall pays tribute to many of the accomplishments of

the university.

They have 12,000+ plus graduate students and 12,000+ undergraduates. The campuses contain lots of dorms and apartments. The students are required to live in dorms their entire stay here - including doctorate and post-doctorate students. The university also provides housing for the faculty as well as the retired faculty. There is a 2000 student elementary school right next to our apartment (noisy!) and a kindergarten school just a block away. Plus there are all the classrooms, offices and research buildings. There are also several banks, shops, stores, restaurants, and cafeterias on the campus. 

The fields, gyms, stadiums, and basketball courts are constantly

full of activity. That would include these women doing their  daily

exercise.

All in all it is very appealing. It makes a very compact, convenient, charming community. We enjoy that this community, while dominated by YSA students, has a full spectrum of ages from babies through the retired faculty. We really like it here.

The New Campus
It was built in 2007 and the building in still going on. (There is also lots of construction on the old campus both upgrading it and expanding it.) It is very modern looking. For sure I have never seen a library or gym looking anything as nice as these. It is really out in the countryside at the foot of the mountains and does not feel part of an 8 million population center. The air is much cleaner.

Pretty cool looking gym facilities. Full of courts for basketball

badminton, and ping pong.
.

The high-rise is one of several new
apartments under construction in a
new faculty village. Isolated.

This is the new library peeking through the trees. Still under
construction.
.

The mountains are attractive.

Student activity center between two very large cafeteria
buildings. Something interesting is always playing on the
huge monitor.
.

This is a connected set of 6 U shape buildings. We teach in

buildings C and  D

These are student dormitories on the
new campus. We also have a dorm
assigned to us for nights we have
to stay late. The lack of a western
bathroom pretty much assures we will
never stay overnight. We cannot miss
that last shuttle because there are
no taxis. But who ever thought we would
have two apartments in China!

All freshmen and sophomores are required to live in the dorms out on the new campus - totally removed from everything. Juniors and seniors in certain majors are also required to live on the new campus. English is one of those. All our classes are on the new campus. The other BYU couple, teaching non-majors, mostly teaches on the old campus.

























Students can take a free shuttle into the old campus, and for sure they do on weekends. But the hour in and out pretty much makes it impossible during the week. The classrooms we teach in are new, modern, and nice. We have modern computers and projection monitors/screens in each of our classrooms. Now if only they included a set of English instructions or labels........ Or as Ann says, "Welcome to my world; this is China!"