BLCU International Students Housing and Dorm Costs

If you're planning to study in Beijing Language and Culture University as an International Language student, you might want to get information about BLCU's International students housing and dormitories (accommodation) and how much it will cost you to live in them. This article is a product of my research, inquiry and my intent to help students all over the world who want to study Chinese in BLCU.

The BLCU University has a total of 6 dormitories for international students, located in different parts within the school, namely Dorm 1, Dorm 4, Dorm 6, Dorm 7, Dorm 8 and Dorm 9. The dormitories are classified into ordinary, middle class and luxury class. The prices or rates can range from 35 RMB - 160 RMB per day. 

Dormitory 1 and Dormitory 9

BLCU Building 1 

Students with a tight budget can consider living in BLCU Dorm 1 and Dorm 9. Both of them only have public toilets (that's why they are cheaper). The public toilets are located within the building, which makes life better for foreign students. Some Chinese students need to go across their buildings just to take a bath in the school's public toilet. The facilities for dorms 1 and 9 include a television, air-conditioner, telephone, wardrobe, desk, chair, bed and bedding. 

BLCU Building 9

Dorm 9 has extra facilities such as a mini-refrigerator and a public kitchen. Most students living in these dorms are Government scholars. 

The standard daily rates for these dorms are as follows:

Dorm 1 - Single Room - 80 RMB/day, Double Room - 40 RMB/day

Dorm 9 - Single Room - 95 RMB/day, Double Room - 65 RMB/day, Luxury Double Room 40 RMB

             

Dormitory 4 and Dormitory 6

BLCU Building 4

Although the school considers these dorms as luxury dorms, I would say they are middle class dorms. These dorms may not be as nice as the famous Dorm 17, but they are livable, more affordable, and location-wise, closer to the student classroom buildings.

BLCU Building 6

The difference between Dorm 4 and 6 is that dorm 4 is located near the South Gate (closer to the Intensive students' classrooms) and Dorm 6 is located near the West Gate (right in front of the basketball courts). Dorm 4 also has an International cafe on the ground floor, named Hope Cafe.

The facilities include: a television, air-conditioner, mini-refrigerator, telephone, wall-closet, desk, chair, bed, bedding, public kitchen and public washing machines. They both have private toilets in the room. 

The standard daily fees for dorm 4 and 6 are:

Dorm 4 - Single Room - 150 RMB/day, Double Room - 80 RMB/day, Luxury Double Room - 80 RMB/day

Dorm 6 - Single Room - 160 RMB/day, Small Single Room - 120 RMB/day, Double Room - 80 RMB/day and Suite - 200 RMB/day

Dormitory 7 and Dormitory 8

BLCU Building 7

These 2 dorms are exclusively for Single room occupants only. Facilities include: television, air-conditioner, mini-refrigerator, telephone, wall-closet, desk, chair, bed, bedding, public kitchen and public washing machines. These dorms are also located near the basketball courts and are closer to the west gate.

BLCU Building 8

The standard daily costs for these rooms are:

Dorm 7 - Single Room - 120 RMB/day

Dorm 8 - Single Room - 120 RMB/day

Safety and Services

All the above mentioned dormitories have a 24-hour receptionist service, which means you can check in anytime on your arrival to Beijing. Their receptionists also have good memory, they usually remember the students who live and don't live in these dorms. They also have CCTV cameras in each floor to ensure student's safety. 

Although these dorms promise the tidying of rooms and cleaning of bathrooms daily, it's better if you don't expect because they seldom do. The bedding on the other hand, is changed every week. 

Curfew

I'm not sure which dorm will have a curfew in the coming terms, but I have experienced this while living in Dorm 4. The curfew is 12 midnight (every night), the doors will be closed after this time. They did try to implement it strictly but due to the way foreign students live, they were barely able to implement this rule. 

Every time we arrived late, we would just ring the bell and they will open the door for us. We did meet one cruel receptionist who was very snob with foreigners. She would scold at us when we were late but I hope she resigns. Soon.;)

Discounts

The standard rates I have mentioned can still be covered by student discounts. The longer you stay in these dorms, the bigger your discount is. 

For example, when I stayed in Dorm 4 for 1 whole semester, I only paid 56 RMB/day instead of the standard 80 RMB/day because of my length of stay. 

If you want to know the specifics, here is list of maximum discounts you can get from each of the international students housing and dorms, click here to download the file: BLCU Housing and Dormitory Brochure. It is in an Adobe PDF file format. I got it from the school itself.

I will post a different article for BLCU Dorm 17 and Conference Center costs.

I hope I helped you with this article. 

So... Do you have anything to say about BLCU's housing and dormitories? 

Adventures in Inner Mongolia!

After being away for my 4-day trip to Mountain Heng Hanging Temple, Datong Yungang Buddhist Caves, Inner Mongolia Grassland and Desert, I have this irrevocable feeling of having the need to post a blog about that indescribable trip! With a mix of fun and a few woeful events, it was indeed a very, very memorable one.

When I enrolled in BLCU, I wasn't able to prepare extra money for this additional expense trip to Inner Mongolia. The school arranges a 4-day trip and it costs about 1,750 RMB. My friends told me that it would be much cheaper to join a trip arranged by an agency, so my classmates and I chose to go with an agency instead. True, the trip costs only 1,460 RMB compared to the school's trip so we saved around 300 RMB in the expenses.

The trip was organized by Happy Holiday - an agency located on the 9th floor of the Conference Center. They organize people in groups. So if you're planning to have friends with you, register yourselves under one name so that you can be together in the bus and the places you are going to.

The first day of our trip was spent on visiting the Mountain Heng Hanging Temple and the Datong Yungang Buddhist Caves. The place isn't really enormous or entirely breath taking but they do have positive sides. First is, your stay in the bus will be shortened immensely and you'll spend the night in a hotel, so the number one priority of including these places in the tour is your comfort. You can also spend some time appreciating how much effort, time and skill were placed in creating the Buddhist caves. I'm giving a salute on how perfectly they carved on the stones to create the altars for their gods.

The second day was spent in the Inner Mongolia Grassland where we met the locals and rode horses through the grassland. I've never really seen a grassland before, but when I saw it, I just knew why it was called a grassland!! Haha. There weren't any trees and the wind was so cold. At first, we didn't pay the 300 RMB cost for the horse because we thought it was too expensive. But realizing that we can only stay in the bus while waiting for our friends to finish riding the horses, we knew it was going to be extremely boring. So we got the cheaper one at 200 RMB and still rode the horse but to fewer places. We never regretted spending extra though. At night we slept at the Yurts (without heater and hot water), so I kind of suffered the whole night with roughly 3 hours of sleep due to the cold weather.

On the third day we went to the Inner Mongolia desert and I think this was the best day of the trip. We rode the cable car, the camel and took the sand slide. The camel-riding was really a cool experience. It was much slower than the horse but the experience was unique in it's own way. At night we were able to stay in a hotel so it made up for our 1 night stay at the cruel yurt!

Going back to Beijing took us around 13 hours and that includes a couple of stops (for lunch and stopping by the toilets). 13 hours and we were counted lucky because the tour guide said that it could have extended to 17 hours if we were caught in the traffic jam. That was indeed an adventure!

If you are planning to go to a trip to Inner Mongolia, be ready to bring hand sanitizer, face moisturizer, baby oil for your hair, lots of tissue, a face mask (to cover your face when using the most gruesome toilets) and as many thick clothes as you can! Enjoy!