Scalpers emerge
Waiting in line for hours under a burning sun can be horrible for those eager to enter PKU or Tsinghua. Thus, scalpers have emerged.
"You can get in easily by spending just 20 yuan," a woman who claimed to be a Master's student at PKU said. Soon afterwards a couple from Wuhan, Hubei Province paid her the cash and was escorted in successfully. About ten minutes later, the lady returned to the gate and continued to sell the "VIP tickets," reported the Beijing News.
"Some security guards have been collaborating with several outsiders who are self-proclaimed 'school staff'," noted Zhang Xin (not his real name), a guard at PKU.
"By bribing the security chief with cigarettes, drinks, and sometimes even money, those 'school staff members' can get in easily with fake student IDs and employee cards," Zhang said, adding that scalpers can make about 1,000 yuan per day.
Some self-proclaimed "insiders" at Tsinghua also reportedly charged visitors 6-8 yuan per head to enter, which was denied by Li, head of the campus squad at Tsinghua.
Following the flood of visitors, various campus tour guides have also sprung up.
The side-effects generated by the controversial restriction policies have in turn put PKU and Tsinghua into an even worse situation.
Easier said than done
"The school should either completely be open to the public or forbid all visitors," complained a mother from Hunan Province, adding that "we had to wait in such heat for an hour to get in, and later were criticized for disturbing the normal campus life."
However, this is easier than done. Speaking of whether to completely open the schools to the public, like some foreign universities, Wang Deyan, director of the Chinese Language Department of the College of Humanities and Law at the North China University of Technology, said that "it is easy in theory, but hard in practice."
Wang added that since PKU and Tsinghua are public universities funded and operated by the government, they should allow appropriate visitors to tour the campus.
Yet, taking into consideration the various operational difficulties the universities are facing now, Wang said that he understood PKU and Tsinghua. "The campuses usually need to be maintained during vacations and cannot take as many visitors as usual. Therefore, it is to some degree reasonable to impose some restrictions," explained Wang.
"Such a huge flow of visitors indeed affects the school, especially by polluting the campuses," said Cheng, a junior at PKU. "I know that PKU and Tsinghua should take their social responsibilities seriously. But I still hope that the tourists can protect these 'academic palaces'."
In fact, not all foreign universities are 100% open to the public. Andrew Hamilton, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, told reporters of the Hong Kong-based Wenhuipo that not all buildings and historical sites inside Oxford are open to the public.
