How To Get A 12L Water Tank At The Beijing Language and Culture University

A water tank from my apartment near BLCU

This article goes into a lot of detail on everything you will need to know regarding water tanks at the Beijing Language and Culture University, including off-campus arrangements for water tanks (i.e. when renting an apartment). I hope you find it helpful!

Even though bottled water is cheap to buy at BLCU, I would still recommend investing in a 12L water tank as soon as you get there. I made the mistake of not doing this until a few months after I arrived and it ended up costing me a lot more. I kept putting it off at the time because I didn't think it was that important, but once I had one in my room I realised it made life much easier.

Water tanks on-campus

You can buy 1.5L bottles of water for around 3 RMB (at the cheapest, though prices range) or you can get the 12L tank refilled each time for 15 RMB. If my maths is correct, that means you will be getting 12L of tank water for the same price as 7.5L if you were to buy bottled water. That's quite a saving and great value. The initial deposit on the tank was 50 RMB when I was there and I imagine that's still the same. This just acts as insurance should you crack the tank or otherwise make it unusable, but most people won't have any problems. At the end of my stay I returned my tank and got my deposit back.

Receipts and filing

Whilst I'm on the subject of deposits, I should mention that at BLCU you will be given receipts for almost everything and it's important to keep these receipts as a kind of guarantee. This includes when you get the water tank. At the end of your stay when you come to return it you should also provide the receipt, or at least in a perfect world you would. I don't see there being any major problems if you happen to have lost the receipt, but I suppose it IS possible for them to refuse returning your deposit on these grounds.

Organising a good filing system from the very beginning of your time at BLCU will save you much grief in the long-run. The number of times I had to dig around for some receipt or piece of paper that I was given to me months before were to many to think of. Buy a simple but durable folder (the one I had was full of plastic wallets) and label it thoroughly. You will find this so helpful when you eventually come to leave BLCU. I recommend you do exactly the same for your water tank receipt.

Getting the tank refilled on-campus

When I say the tank is "refilled", I don't mean the exact same tank is taken away and new water is added - that would be pretty inconvenient. Instead you are just given a new tank each time. When I stayed at the Conference Centre, 12L tanks were kept in plain view behind the reception desk for anyone who needed a new one. I imagine this is much the same wherever you stay on campus. If you're feeling a bit heroic you can carry the tank back up to the room yourself or it can be delivered by staff as soon as possible (normally after a few minutes). I would recommend most people take the latter option, though I used to just drag them back myself - what can I say, I'm a bit of a one-man army.

Getting a pump on-campus

Don't be an idiot like me and leave buying a pump until you have exhausted yourself and spilt half the contents of the tank on the floor by trying to manually lift 12L of water and pour it into your cup! I saw after a few days of doing it this way that I needed a new system. That's when I learnt that most people buy pumps. It was a small revelation at the time.

When I stayed at the Conference Centre and inquired about buying a pump, they offered me one for 40 RMB. I remembered having seen a guy standing outside Dorm 17 selling them so I decided to take a stroll over and see if he was there that day. As it turned out, he wasn't, but I did find him a few days later and managed to buy a pump from him for a mere 15 RMB each (though I did haggle). If you know a friend wants one you can buy two at the same time to get a better discount, like I did at the time.

Having been away from BLCU for nearly six months at the time of writing this, I'm can't say whether the guy selling pumps outside Dorm 17 will still be there, but it's worth looking into to. You could probably also find cheap pumps off-campus, but because I got it sorted before trying that alternative, I can't really comment.

Water tanks off-campus

If you end up living off-campus, for example sharing an apartment with people you meet there, most apartments will come furnished with a water dispenser. Depending on where you rent, there will be a "water depot' very nearby. You will probably notice men going back and forth through your complex delivering these 12L water tanks to apartments. Get one of their cards and, either over the phone or in-person, arrange to have one delivered to your new apartment. I found the deposits for water tanks off-campus to be slightly cheaper than on-campus. I think I only paid 30-40 RMB or thereabouts. 

Getting the tank refilled off-campus

Depending on where you stay, the price of having the tank refilled could also be significantly cheaper. When I first moved off-campus to rent an apartment in Hauqing Jiayuan (Wudaokou, near the subway station, about a ten minute walk to campus) I found that it only cost me 12 RMB to have the tank refilled. Then, later in the year when I moved to Hanting Jiayuan (a new apartment complex north of BLCU that had just been completed towards the end of 2010), I think I only ended up paying 10 RMB per refill. That's seriously cheap.

I forgot to mention that if you can't get a contact number directly from a water delivery man, the best place to ask is at the estate agency you dealt with. There may be a few competing companies delivering water in the area so be sure to ask for the cheapest.

How long does it take to have a refilled water tank delivered to your apartment?

My experience when living in apartments off-campus was that a refilled water tank would generally arrive within half an hour of me calling them. Sometimes it would be a lot sooner, very occasionally it might stretch to an hour. Find a cheap shop in your area where you can buy big 1.5L bottle very cheaply (3 RMB) so that you always have a back up if you're really in need of water and the tank is empty! That is what I always did, though the need didn't arise often.

Don't drink the tap water!

Everyone should be aware of this but it's worth mentioning anyway. The tap water at BLCU and in the rest of mainland China is NOT for drinking. If you want to drink tap water it must be boiled first. All accommodation on-campus should have kettles in the rooms provided for this very purpose. There are some nasty bugs you can pick up from drinking unboiled tap water so keep that in mind. Health should be a top priority in China and when you're away from home. This leads me onto my final point.

Alternatives

I've talked in great detail about water tanks at BLCU but what are your other options? Well, there's only one really and that's to boil tap water in a kettle. Personally, I tried doing this at BLCU and found that, either due to limescale build-up in the kettle itself or otherwise poor water quality, the boiled water would often have a thin film of what looked like scum on the top. For this reason I (and others I knew) stopped boiling kettle water and instead boiled distilled water from the 12L tanks or bottles. Maybe you won't find the same problem but I'm just relating my personal experience and why I chose not to go down the road of boiling tap water (as it would save you money in the long-run).

Well, I've put quite a lot of time into writing this article on water tanks at BLCU so I hope you found it helpful. These insights have all been from my own experience but I've tried to give as an objective view of the situation as I can. If you have any further questions please leave a comment in the comments section below.

A water dispenser from my apartment near BLCU

One last thing...

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