Yenching Academy at PKU, Beautiful Sights, and Scorpions for Dinner

Today, our intrepid group of travelers ventured to Yenching Academy at Peking University (PKU), (often referred to simply as “Beida”).

Immediately upon entering the gates at Peking University, we realized we were in for a treat – groups of Chinese clustered near the gates taking pictures, and we even saw a wedding photo or two in progress. The campus itself is lush, idyllic, and historic. Many of the PKU buildings are part of the original imperial college built in the Qing dynasty. In fact, Yenching Academy is nestled into the heart of the old Beijing style campus buildings.

We gathered in a meeting room in Yenching Academy to meet once again with Dr. David Moser, Yenching Academy’s associate dean, as well as Miranda Zuo, the head of admissions. Similar to its rival Schwarzman down the street, Yenching Academy is a one year funded master’s program aimed at bridging China with Yenching scholars’ home countries. Dr. Moser explained to us that Yenching is looking primarily for students who want to enhance their knowledge of China through constructing a more cross-disciplinary view of China.

Yenching scholars take interdisciplinary courses in the humanities, social sciences, and Chinese language, with the intended purpose of developing into unique innovators, leaders, and global citizens. They also take ownership of Yenching’s programming; Yenching offers funding for students to organize events, engage in cultural activities, and invite ambassadors to speak. As one current Yenching student expounded: Yenching pushes you to be intersectional and to see China as your oyster, as it helps you work directly with Chinese companies and programs.

Miranda also offered some insight into the Yenching selection process. Yenching takes around 125 students a year. It also offers students the opportunity to continue their projects into a second year; around half of each class decides to stay on. Yenching has several partner universities who have their own on-campus selection processes and can nominate 1-5 students a year for the fellowship. They also have many cooperating universities who spread information to their students and encourage direct applications to the program. She noted that the applicant pool continues to grow; it increased by 30% last year, up to 800 applicants.

Finally, she let us know that the US deadline would be moved up this year to December 1st for general applicants and cooperating applicants and December 15 for partner universities.

After our meeting, we split into three groups to tour the campus grounds. The campus itself is idyllic; the many academic buildings are built around a tranquil manmade lake. We saw many families and students enjoying the vistas. We also saw many of the ubiquitous “Ofu” bikes – bikes you can rent wherever you are by scanning a code on your smartphone. Our student tour guide explained that the Ofu bike concept had been invented by a PKU student. We spent about an hour enjoying the grounds before moving inside to take in a Chinese language course. Though Chinese is not required to enter the Yenching program, all students take Chinese language and culture courses. Charlotte and I had the good fortune of sitting in on a class discussing Chinese literature of the 1980s; while we couldn’t understand everything, it did give us a good perspective on how Yenching links Chinese language learning with cultural understanding. After our classes, we wrapped up the day with an informal lunch with some current Yenching scholars.

Around 1:30, we said goodbye to our hosts and left for sightseeing at Tiananmen Square and the

Forbidden City. We experienced typical Beijing once again: heavy traffic, large crowds, and long queues. Though an overcast day, the sun did peek out just a bit, highlighting the beautiful architecture of the buildings. We left the park just as it was closing, and navigated large crowds once again. Yet, we successfully made it back to the bus on time and safely home.

That evening, several of us went to a local night market (Wangfujing) to eat street food and buy souvenirs (check out the weekend edition blog post!). The more adventurous of us even tried scorpion on a stick (not me. Definitely not me).

We somehow managed to navigate the Beijing subway and two train changes both to and from the night market. No NAFAn left behind.

On to tomorrow’s adventure of the Great Wall!