Beijing Language and Culture University Q&A #3: Maria

Thanks fo tuning in to the third BLCU question and answer! If you would like to have your question featured as a post here on The BLCU Blog, please get in touch in the comments section or by email at theblcublog@gmail.com.

As always, I will do my best answer them as soon as possible, though can't promise a set time frame. Usually it should be a day or two, though depending on what is going on in my personal life it may be a little (or a lot) longer!

You can find the previous Q&A posts, including video Q&As done on YouTube, here.

Hello! I'm going to short-term courses in July in BLCU. I'm very glad that I found your blog. It's really useful and interesting. Thank you for sharing all the information. I have a couple questions for you: Can you please tell me where is the nearest subway station?

Thanks for the comments, Maria.

The nearest subway station to BLCU is in Wudaokou, just a ten minute walk from campus. It's actually very convenient. Check out my post on the Beijing subway system for some more information on getting a transport card which can also be used on buses.

To get to the Wudaokou subway station, which is to west of BLCU, take a right out of the south or southwest gate (yes, there are two south gates a few minutes apart) and continue walking in this direction for about five minutes until you come to a crossroad.

On the left you will see the big building known as the U-Centre and ahead of you further along will be a bridge. This is actually the subway bridge. Underneath it there is a railway line and a crossing point with barriers that are lowered when trains pass. You should be able to spot it from quite far away.

You can enter the Wudaokou subway station on either side of the road, though if you stay on the same side as the BLCU campus it is most convenient. There is no need to cross. On your right, before you get there, is a cinema that only shows Chinese films and some restaurants, plus a fairly large car park (if you want an English language cinema you will have to go through to the electronics district that isn't too far from BLCU, though I am not going to go into that in this post).

Does the university offer any trips to the sights of Beijing, or not? 

Thanks in advance.

Good question. The short answer is yes.

When I was at BLCU in 2010 there were a variety of trips organised by the university. The two I remember hearing about were to Inner Mongolia and to the Great Wall. I'm sure there were some others too, though I can't remember. I only went on the latter of the two, which went to the Badaling section of the Great Wall. I knew people who went to Inner Mongolia and I think they enjoyed it, though they did say quite a lot of time was spent on buses and trains.

All students should be notified by their teachers regarding upcoming school trips, or at least our class always was. It is also usually the teachers that will keep you updated with events around campus, whether that's demonstrations, talks, or whatever else is going on.

There is an office in Runshaw building (if I remember correctly) where you will go to book and pay for trips. The prices are always dirt cheap, probably as a way to encourage as many people as possible to join. I think to go all the way to the Great Wall, including the coach and entry tickets, was under 100 RMB. Very affordable.

Obviously I can't be sure of what trips will be running in 2012 or 2013, but I imagine they will be similar. There will always be one to the Great Wall, that's for sure. A lot of the Beijing-based sightseeing, however, remains up to students to organise independently.

I've also just remembered that there may have been a school trip down to Xi'an to see the Terracota Army. It would be worth enquiring about as I imagine that would be a good trip.

Hopefully this has given you some more information into school trips and the subway station in Wudakou. If there is anything else please let me know, either in the comments section or by email at theblcublog@gmail.com. Thanks for reading!

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