Impressions of our Visit to Tsinghua University, Beijing as the 2^nd activity of AsOBiNet (AsOBiNet 2007 in Beijing)

　From 3^rd to 6^th of March 2007, I and other two graduate students from the Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences went to Tsinghua University in Beijing for the extended activity of AsOBiNet (Asia Oceania Biology Student Network). AsOBiNetis a network among the young scientists in biology. It was established and its first activity was held in October-November 2006 in Tsukuba, Japan with the support of Asia/Pacific Cultural Center for UNESCO (ACCU). In the first opportunity, three graduate students and their supervisor Prof. Wu Qingyu from Department of Biological Science and Biotechnology, Tsinghua University came to Tsukuba and joined the activity. In this time, Tsukuba students visited and met them again, and had an exchange with students in their laboratory through seminars, campus & city tours and one by one talking during such activities. In this article, I will report my impression of the present state of Tsinghua University and the students.

　Tsinghua University and Beijing University are the top universities in China. Both of the universities are located in the northwest of Beijing, and interestingly the areas of two universities are adjacent across a small river. Two universities are developing through friendly competition. Tsinghua University is easy to access from Beijing Capital International Airport (less than 30 minutes driving by car). There is the hall for the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympic Games on the way to the university from the airport. However, the campus is quiet and rich in natural environment. We could see many beautiful trees and birds’ nests on the trees.

　The area of Tsinghua University is not much bigger than that of University of Tsukuba. However, the number of students is twice as large as that of our university. Reflecting the difference of the number of people, there were a lot of buildings including research building, educational building and student dormitories. The existence of the Science Park is also a remarkable feature of the Tsinghua University. The Science Park consists of quartet four buildings, where the offices of companies including foreign-financed private company like Goggle or Microsoft are. The Science Park functions as a center for collaborative investigations between the university and companies. In Tsukuba, we have some cooperative research centers, and national or private research center around the university. However, the cooperative system in Tsinghua seems more aggregated and of a larger scale than that in Tsukuba.

　Tsinghua University is also rich in human resources. There are 35 members of Chinese Academy of Sciences and 31 members of Chinese Academy of Engineering. Recently, Chinese government selected the 100 best teachers in China. There are 8 teachers in Tsinghua University. Prof. Wu is one of them. Thus, Tsinghua University has been provided with an optimum environment for　research by the Chinese government.

　Most students in Tsinghua University live in student dormitory. And they come to class or laboratory by bicycle. There are large student cafeterias. We had a chance to use one. It was surprising that the prices were reasonable and the menu was rich in variety. The students can select the menu from over the 200 dishes within 10 Chinese yuen (about \150), which is also reasonable for Chinese students. The students usually have all meals at the cafeteria. Around the dormitories there are also fitness facilities, swim pool and gym. There were also a number of basketball hoops in the field.

　All the Chinese students we met were polite and active. They had a lot of interests to our visit, and asked many questions including program of a Japanese university, future career plan and individual researches. At a later date, I became friends with one Chinese graduate student in Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology from Shanghai. He also asked various questions to me. Japanese students including me tend to like funny and superficial topics in the first meeting conversation. Further more we are often quiet and reserved. This is the clear difference between Japanese and Chinese students in attitude to the communication.

　They are also active in their research works. Here is example of several students. One female student works from 8:30 till 23:00 everyday. She said 23:00 were not so late for everyone. Another male student said he does not have holiday, when I asked what he does in weekend. Students in Tsinghua University seem to study hard with an awareness of the student in the highest university. However, they also enjoy their student life. I heard that one male student plays Japanese computer game with his friends. Another female student was interested in Japanese cartoon culture. And they often play sports. There were table-tennis tables in the research building. Chinese students seem to make a sharp and strict division between play and research.

　My overall impression in this visit is that Chinese research environment is being enriched, some of the parts are already beyond that of Japan, and the people in such an environment are active. That has made me reaffirm the significance of developing Japanese and Chinese relationship in scientific field. Now, our activity of AsOBiNet is just beginning. But, I would like to develop and expand the activity of AsOBiNet, which will bring a big benefit in the future.