China Zhejiang University

Zhejiang University is located in Hangzhou, China. It is one of China’s top higher education institutions, as well as one of its oldest; its roots can be traced back to 1897 and the founding of the Qiushi Academy求是书院.

If you are traveling in Hangzhou, you will surely visit West Lake and I suggest you include Zhejiang University since it is only nearby. And you also got to feel and see how the university looks like in China.

It is quite a pleasant campus, spacious, and has enough green areas and trees. The buildings look good and new but can’t find a special unique architecture here.

 

The International canteen (Yuquan Campus) is open to the public so we had our lunch here. This canteen is very popular as people talk about it on the internet. The good thing is visitors can also dine in here.  The menu at the self-serve section are all listed on the blackboard behind the cashier, but all written in Chinese.  If you can’t read or speak Chinese, you can ask the foreign students who dine in the canteen to help you to order.

The canteen is divided into two sections.

One section is you will have to order at the counter then paid and go get your food and find a place to sit and have your meal. The other section is you can order from the menu book and the food will bring to your table. Obviously the second cost more.

More exclusive place to dine here but mostly round tables.  People who dine here are normally in a big group and share the dishes together.  The downside of having food in the more exclusive section is the wait can be longer and cost slightly more.  If you are in a hurry, it is better to have a cheap meal in the self-serve area.

What we order in the Zhejiang International canteen.  Pork stir fry with bamboo shoot.

Steam scallops with green bean noodles with garlic and spring onion

Hangzhou Style Duck

Final thoughts:

Overall, it is a modern campus but the history is quite long over 120 years. It has a glorious past and promising future. The university also has a very nice neighborhood that is surrounded by restaurants, tea houses, hotel inn, gardens, lakes, and hills.

The environment on campus makes me recall my younger years at Kumamoto University in Japan. The layout and ambient look similar. I somehow feel young again when I step into the Zhejiang University campus.