BLCU

17^th August 2005

Place: Sihaile restaurant.
Useful for: Cheap Chinese food.

Place: BLCU Hospital.
Useful for: Herbal remedies and flu jabs.

Place: Family building 21.
Useful for: Living, the second year I was here.

Place: Family building 7.
Useful for: Living, both the first time I came to Beijing, and later the following year. Although it doesn't look bad in the summer it looks well dodgy in winter; still, I have many fond memories of living there.

Place: West gate.
Useful for: Meeting point.

Place: Basketball court.
Useful for: Playing basketball. Being accosted by Chinese students desparate to practice English.

Place: Friendship Store.
Useful for: Buying everything you need to survive before becoming brave enough to venture off campus.

Place: Cherry-tree park.
Useful for: Getting a nice suntan.

Place: Campus convenience store.
Useful for: Buying things after 9 pm, especially bottles of 8 yuan (50p) Vodka.

Place: Building 3.
Useful for: Where most of my classes were held the first time I came here.

Place: Library.
Useful for: Sleeping; leaving books on desks between classes.

Place: Administration building.
Useful for: Having a bank in it.

Place: Main Building.
Useful for: Having classes.

Place: Yifu Building.
Useful for: Having arguments with school paper-pushers.

Place: Building 1.
Useful for: Having classes in much nicer surroundings than any of the other buildings.

Place: BLCU Rock.
Useful for: The Chinese love rocks, especially big ones with writing on them.

Place: Long-distance phone room.
Useful for: Sending faxes, buying phonecards without wondering whether or not you're getting ripped off.

Place: Foreign and Chinese student dorms.
Useful for: Living, though now apparently only if you're a scholarship student.

Place: Foreign Experts Building.
Useful for: Collecting mail.

Place: Blue Bar.
Useful for: Cheap Chinese food in dirty surroundings. Not actually a bar.

Place: Diamond Restaurant.
Useful for: Having lunch when all the other places are packed out.

Place: Canteen.
Useful for: Having cheap food while rubbing shoulders with the masses.

Place: South gate.
Useful for: Meeting point. Finding dodgy van-taxis.

Place: Sports field.
Useful for: Walking around backwards late at night for a lot of Chinese.