University Room Regulations

Approved and Prohibited Items

    The following items are approved for use in residential (住宿的) rooms: electric blankets, hair dryers, personal computers, radios, televisions and DVD players. Items that are not allowed in student rooms include: candles, ceiling fans, fireworks, waterbeds, sun lamps and wireless routers. Please note that any prohibited items will be taken away by the Office of Residence Life.

Access to Residential Rooms

    Students are provided with a combination (组合密码) for their room door locks upon check-in. Do not share your room door lock combination with anyone. The Office of Residence Life may change the door lock combination at any time at the expense of the resident if it is found that the student has shared the combination with others. The fee is $25 to change a room combination.

Cooking Policy

    Students living in buildings that have kitchens are only permitted to cook in the kitchen. Students must clean up after cooking. This is not the responsibility of housekeeping staff. Kitchens that are not kept clean may be closed for use. With the exception of using a small microwave oven (微波炉) to heat food, students are not permitted to cook in their rooms.

Pet Policy

    No pets except fish are permitted in student rooms. Students who are found with pets, whether visiting or owned by the student, are subject to an initial fine of $100 and a continuing fine of $50 a day per pet. Students receive written notice when the fine goes into effect. If, one week from the date of written notice, the pet is not removed, the student is referred to the Student Court.

Quiet Hours

    Residential buildings must maintain an atmosphere that supports the academic mission of the University. Minimum quiet hours in all campus residences are 11:00 pm to 8:00 am Sunday through Thursday. Quiet hours on Friday and Saturday nights are 1:00 am to 8:00 am. Students who violate quiet hours are subject to a fine of $25.

    BEIJING — China's education authority will tighten the widely criticized policy of “extra credits” for the national college entrance examination to ensure a fairer chance for all exam-takers.

    Under the policy, high school students who win awards in national Olympic competitions could get "extra credits', up to 20 points for the national college entrance exam. Students with talent in sports and students who are from ethnic groups can also benefit from this policy. The extra credits have increased these students' chances of being admitted by famous universities. Some parents were found to have helped their children fabricate(伪造)award experiences or falsify qualifications to get extra credits.

    “It has harmed education equality，” the ministry said.

    Xiong Bingqi, vice-chief of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said the policy is designed to help students who have special talents but may be weak in academic performance to have a chance to receive higher education. It will still be needed but it is time to make the rules fairer," he said.

    The ministry said it will reduce the range of competitions whose winners can get extra credits, and limit the winners, privileges.

    The new policy will apply to students who begin high school in 2011, it said.

    Chen Lei, a mother of a 10-year-old girl, said she welcomed the ministry's policy adjustment as she does not want her daughter to become an Olympic competition geek.

    But not all the Chinese parents welcomed the new policy. “It is like a thunderbolt for me. My 13-year-old son has spent so much time studying Olympic math, and participated in so many technological competitions during vacations. It is useless now,” said Dong Wen, a 43-year-old mother.

    A student said, “Many students have changed the current study plan, and they can abandon the competition. I will be interested in learning the courses which can improve my abilities.”

    Yuan Guiren, minister of education, told China Daily that the reform is an attempt to consider the overall quality of an applicant. “But the country will not stop the national college entrance  examination as it is still the most objective way to evaluate talent in China,” he said.

    If you have spent any time living in or visiting a big city in China, you have most likely used the service that Didi provides. The convenient ride-sharing company, now known as Didi Chuxing, was praised last month by Fortune magazine. According to the magazine, it is changing the world with its environmentally friendly solution to getting around in major cities. As the magazine reported: “Didi concluded that last year its car-pooling services helped reduce total car trips in the country by 1 million a day, which saved 500 million liters of gas, cutting 13.5 million tons of carbon emissions (排放) per day.” The transport service was the only Chinese company to make the important magazine's list, and its influence can be felt in many parts of Chinese society.

    Didi is just one example of what is being called the “sharing economy”. The sharing economy is one in which regular people exchange goods and services, usually using an online marketplace. Other similar companies include companies that allow people to rent out their homes to strangers like Airbnb and Couchsurfing, and similar ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft.

    All of these services are possible partly because many people are realizing that they have underused assets in their lives. Millions of people around the world have started renting them out online to earn extra money. They rent their apartments while they are away for the weekend, lend people their cars for money and even sell their spare time.

    The sharing economy is the latest example of the Internet's value to customers. This model is now big enough for regulators and companies to have woken up to it. That is a sign of its great potential. It is time to start caring about sharing.

    Teaching materials for learning Chinese are provided here. There are sites where you may find interesting instructions suitable for you. Here are some sites to begin your surfing.

    You may start with these pages from this website — just to get a little taste of it without working too hard.

    A Is For Love

    Flash cards for learning a few Chinese words

    Listening to the sound of Chinese

    Play a few words of Chinese on your computer.

    A few Chinese words

    Each word is enlarged for easy study.

    If you are studying Chinese, these tools can help.

    Zhongwen site

    More than a dictionary!

    Clavis Sinica

    Excellent program by Professor David Porter. It displays a whole document in Chinese [GB] or [BIG5], and gives individual word's definition, pronunciation as well as much more information when you click on that word. If you are studying Chinese, this is a very useful tool.

    Chinese Character Visual Dictionary

    If you like to know more, go to the following sites on the Internet.

    The Chinese Outpost

    Pronunciation, Character and Grammar By Mark Andrew Baker. The best. A must-visit site.

    Learn Cantonese / Mandarin Online

    Internet Based Chinese Teaching and Learning

    Rainland Kids discover Chinese — Site is in Germany

    If you want to have a better understanding of China, go to this one.

    Wanfang Data

    As an affiliate (分支) of Chinese Ministry of Science & Technology, Wanfang Data has been the leading information provider in China since 1950s. With a wide range of database resources and value-added services, Wanfang Data has become a gateway to understanding Chinese culture, medicine, business, science, etc.

    Although small business training and credit programs have become more common throughout the world, little attention has been paid to the need of young people, and even less to the children living on the street or in difficult condition.

    Over the past nine years, Street Kids International (S.K.I.) has been working with partner organizations in Africa, Latin America and India to support the economic lives of street children and develop opportunities for street children to earn income.

    The S.K.I. Bicycle Courier Service first started in the Sudan. Street children who took part in it were given bicycles, which they used to deliver parcels and messages. A similar program was taken up in Bangalore, India. The Shoe Shine Collective was a program with the Y.W.C.A. in the Dominican Republic. The children in this project were lent money to buy shoe shine boxes. They were also given a safe place to store their equipment, and facilities for individual savings plans. The Youth Skills Enterprise Initiative in Zambia is a program with the Red Cross Society and the Y.W.C.A. Street youths are supported to start their own small business through business training, life skills training and access to credit.

    During the program, The S.K.I. and partner organizations have drawn lessons from the past: First of all, being a businessman is not for everyone, nor for every street child. And it is important for all loans to be linked to training programs that include the development of basic business and life skills. Secondly, small loans are provided firstly for buying fixed assets such as bicycles, shoe shine kits and basic building materials for a market stall. As the children gain experience, they can be given more loan amounts. And all S.K.L. programs have charged interest on the loans. Generally the rates have been lower than bank rates. Most importantly, it is believed that credit must be given with other types of support that help the young develop key life skills as well as productive businesses.

    Most Americans see their pets as family members, surveys show. Those with dogs are more likely to call themselves pet "parents" than pet "owners". There are more of these parents than ever. In big cities such as San Francisco and Seattle,(owned) dogs outnumber children.

    The ways in which companies are profiting from the trend are also becoming various. Kinds of dog food and various pet mattresses (垫子) are always in hot sale. And it is not surprising that, for pets, Americans spent more than $400 million only on Halloween costumes this year. Overall, annual spending on pet food and products in America has risen by around 40% over the past ten years.

    Now a pack of startups have sensed a fresh opportunity.

    Much as Airbnb has offered travelers another choice instead of staying in a hotel, two firms, Recover and DogVacay, want to give pet owners an alternative to kennels (养狗场) when away from home. The cost is around $30 a night, with the majority of that going to the sitter, who takes care of the dog, and around a fifth to the company﹣much less than you would spend to check your dog into a kennel.

    The other big sellingpoint is that pets will receive better treatment. There are ways, apparently, to vet (审查) dog hosts to the real pet lovers: only around 15% of those who apply to serve as sitters are passed. Besides offering more attention and room, Rover has launched a feature that helps customers to see how far their dog has been walked via the GPS in the host's phone. Like Airbnb, both DogVacay and Recover insure stays against accidents.

    Another advantage of the model is that consumers often use dog-sitting services many times a year, and they tend to be loyal. That has helped DogVacay and Recover attract a lot of money﹣around $140 million between them.

    But firms that connect pets with hosts will face great competition as they try to go global. Companies offering homestays for dog rapidly appear in many different countries, including Australia, Brazil and Britain. And unlike Airbnb, which pulls in customers thanks to its presence in lots of markets that people want to travel to, the network effect for services like DogVacay is local.

    Despite having predicted the trend early, such firms may never achieve the same scale as an Airbnb. But then no one ever said it was easy to be top dog.