A visitor from Central China's Hubei Province surnamed An, who took his
daughter, a pupil for a visit in Beijing following a travel agency was stopped
from visiting Peking University at the school gate July 23, 2006.
"We travel with the agency for the sake of Bei Da (Peking University) and
Tsing Hua (University) but we never expected that we were not allowed to get
in," An, with his daughter was very frustrated at the ban.
Peking University, a hot tour site recent years for those who dream of famous
universities issued a notice July 23, 2006 to the public aiming to control the
number of visitors for the sake of normal order on campus. The notice says the
university will not receive pupil and adult visitor groups but allow middle
school student groups and education institutes, Beijing Morning Post reported.
According to a guard official of the university, the notice had come into
effect. "Middle school student groups are only allowed in between 8: 30 to 11:30
a.m. and noon to 5:00 p.m," the official added. Individual visitors are free to
visit.
A visitor from Southwest China's Sichuan Province said Peking University is
unjustified to ban visits. "The money raised to build the university is from
taxpayers, so why can't taxpayers get in?" the visitor wondered.
Gu Haibing, professor with Renmin University voiced his support to open the
campus to public. "Bei Da belongs to people around the nation, not only to
people in Bei Da," the professor said.
He added that the campus is huge enough to receive the visitors it now has so
the university may want to save the money for hiring guards by controlling the
number of visitors.
However, voices opposing "famous university visits" have their own reasons.
Students of Tsing Hua University complained that the campus overfull of
visitors is not comfortable for them to study and live in. "Many of them jam
into the campus dining-halls," one student said.
The defense office of Tsing Hua said though the campus had been divided into
tour area and teaching area, visitors are nearly everywhere on campus.
Tang Jun, associate researcher with Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences said Bei Da should not be a tour site receiving visitor groups
organized by profit-making agencies. "As a free-charging site, Bei Da has the
right to refuse travel agencies".
According to CCTV Evening News, a travel agency charges 50 yuan per person
for a Bei Da and Tsing Hua visit. It means the free-charging university services
as the ready profit source for the travel agency.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Guan Xiaomeng in Beijing at guanxm@chinadaily.com.cn
