Facilities

China Center Facilities


Located inside the historic and beautiful Yuquan campus of Zhejiang University, the China Center is centrally positioned on the third floor between the north and south wings of the No. 11 Education Building, just inside the main East Gate of the university, facing east and overlooking Baoshi Mountain. The China Center facilities consist of a faculty office, student computer room, and a large multifunctional community room that serves as the library, cultural studies classroom and social room.

The China Center was fortunate to receive support from both Zhejiang University and Long Island University to expand, remodel and refurnish the existing facilities in the summer of 2004. With a newly painted interior, new flooring, lighting, storm windows and hot/cold air-conditioning in every room, students will find the refurbished China Center a professional and welcoming environment in which to study and relax.

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China Center Building

Community Room


The multifunctional community room serves as the primary location for all community meetings and events and is composed of the library area, social area, and cultural studies seminar room. The previous community room has been expanded to twice its original size in summer 2004 and is now equipped with a Wi-Fi Internet access point, a large-screen television and a digital data projector and screen for multimedia presentations and films. The new conference table has also been expanded to three times its original size and seats twenty-five students.

Office


In 2004 a faculty office space was partitioned next to the student computer room, with desks and computers for two faculty members, to give students better access to their advisors and privacy during advising sessions.

Bathroom


There are women’s and men’s Chinese style public toilets located in the same building and on the same floor next to the China Center, which were entirely remodeled in fall, 2005, and there are additional and larger bathroom facilities on the second floor in the adjoining wing.

Classrooms


While all China Center cultural studies seminar courses will be held in the community room, Friends World students will attend language classes at the classrooms of the International Students Building on Yuquan Campus, located in the same building as the dormitory and about a ten-minute walk from the China Center. Students in the oral Mandarin Chinese class will have their own dedicated Chinese language instructor and will study only with other Friends World Students, while students electing to study intensive Mandarin Chinese, including reading and writing, will be in class with other international students from eighty countries around the world. Elective courses in wushu, Chinese calligraphy and Chinese painting are also held in the International Students Building. The elective course taiji quan will be held outside in the nearby Quyuan Fenghe Park.

Library Area


New floor to ceiling shelving with glass doors accommodates a library collection of 2,000 (and growing) volumes. This is an outstanding resource for Friends World students, and is one of the few places in the province to find such a variety of current scholarship on China in English. The China Center also maintains a large collection of DVD and VHS movies, including numerous Chinese films with English subtitles and English language documentaries about China, many banned for Chinese audiences. All books and films are cataloged in a searchable database.  Read more...

Social Area


The social area is located in the multifunctional community room and includes a new couch, coffee table and a new large-screen television (including three sets of wireless infrared headphones), a VHS player, and a new region-free VCR and DVD player. During course related films or bi-monthly community movie nights, students can also watch films projected on a large screen. The China Center is equipped with satellite television providing access to fifty-two foreign stations, including Cinemax, CNBC, CNN International, Disney, ESPN, ETC, Fox News, Hallmark, HBO, MTV, National Geographic, Nickelodeon, Sports Plus, Star World, Studio 23, and Turner Movie Classics, so students have ready access to international news and opinion.

In addition, the China Center provides cable access to Chinese language and domestic English language programming, such as China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 9, which provides important insight into Chinese culture and Chinese perspectives of domestic and international news through programs like World Wide Watch, News Asia, Dialogue and China Today, as well as through feature programs such as Around China, Documentary and Culture Express. The China Center is also equipped with a hot and cold potable five-gallon bottled water system that serves natural Thousand Island Spring Water (Qiandao Shanquan).

Computer Room


The newly designed computer room is equipped with broadband, wireless ADSL Internet connection and four student computers that were purchased or upgraded in spring, 2005. All computers run on Microsoft XP and are installed with the latest word processing, photo imaging and Chinese language learning software. Students also have access to a color Canon Bubble Jet S100SP printer, black and white Hewlett Packard Laserjet 6L laser printer, Hewlett Packard Laserjet 3030 laser printer/scanner/fax, and an Epson Perfection 2480 Photo scanner. All computers are equipped with headphones, and a CD or DVD burner, and USB ports. For students interested in composing electronic music, the China Center also has Yamaha KX-76 MIDI Master Keyboard controller, which was kindly donated by 1971 Friends World amlunus, Frederick H. Cahn, CEO of DreamShore Music.

Four locked file cabinet drawers house student records and another three drawers organize articles relating to Chinese cultural studies, and current program documentation is also available in this room. Individual student and faculty in-boxes are available for internal, domestic and international mail. There are also weekly and monthly calendar white boards and a notice board for student use.

For more information about Internet use in China see the Internet and Email section of Local Services.