Anyone else going to Beida this autumn?

[Alleluia]

I will be studying Chinese at Beijing daxue from september onwards on a bilateral exchange program. Just wondering if there is anyone else here who'll be going there? When will you be arriving? I've got a flight for the 25th august, so I'll be in town on the morning of 26th... Don't know what I'll do with the accommodation yet. I know I've got a place at the dorms, but I'm not sure if they'll let me in before registration begins. Well, I just thought it would be nice to know some fellow students in advance.

[StealthyBurrito]

I'll be at Beida starting August 28th. If you are staying in one of the Shaoyuan buildings (and most foreign students are), I'm almost positive you can check in early.

[Alleluia]

Yep, at first a friend who studied at Beida last spring term reckoned that I wouldn't be able to check in early (what with Beida being a tad more bureaucratic than some other major universities and all), but I looked into it and it seems that I should be able to get my room even before the official registration begins. Well, there should always be room at some hostel in Beijing anyway, so I'm not going to start worrying. StealthyBurrito, are you a degree student or an exchange student at Beida? I'm going there on a bilateral program and I'll be taking Chinese classes only. I've heard the Shaoyuan dormitories are awful, so I don't know if I want to stay there for the whole year or not, but I will at least try them out first.

[StealthyBurrito]

I'm an exchange student just for the fall.

Shaoyuan buildings really vary. Buildings 1-4 have decent rooms; however, the bathrooms are shared per floor (sometimes per 2 floors) and those bathrooms were not very pleasant (small, old, dirty, and squat-styled toilets). Building 9, for short term students, was nice in that the furniture and bathrooms were decent, but the rooms were ridiculously small. In fact, you don't even get a chair, you get a half length bench. Since you are there for a year there is a chance you will be staying in building 6 or 8, which is really nice. Not only do you get a single, but you share a bathroom and living room in a suite with 1 or 2 other singles. So it really depends on which building you get.

I'm only there for the fall so I was given the option of 1-4 or 9, and I decided to live offcampus since I was in Beijing already. I'm pretty glad I took the offcampus route though, I found a place where I personally pay 1500RMB per month and it's only a 10 minute walk from campus.