Beijing Language and Culture University – the first time I heard the name was on Kaoshan Road, Bangkok, eleven years ago. A French backpacker holding a beer bottle shouted at me: “Want to mix into China? First find BLCU!” At that time, I only used to joke. Later, I really stepped through the school gate and understood its magic in the global Chinese circle. In today’s article, I’ll show you fragments of my wanderings around the campus, turning over the curriculum and catching conversations with professors.
Why Is “Beijing Language and Culture University” The Name Of A Chinese School That Has Been Searched A Lot In Chinese Learning?
Keyword data doesn’t lie. Semrush 2024 Q1 ranked “Beijing Language and Culture University” second among relevant phrases for “China study Chinese,” with an average of 27,400 global searches per month, higher than “Tsinghua International Admissions.” The intention behind it is very straightforward – if you want to learn Chinese, you should first deal with the northern language. I mean, it is not at the top of the comprehensive ranking, but it has achieved a single-point explosion in the “Chinese as a foreign language” sub-track: it has been established for 62 years, receiving 230,000 international students from 195 countries, and the number of students in the country is the highest (Ministry of Education of China, 2023). In other words, it has almost become a synonym for the category of “Chinese International Education.”
A Brief History Of Beijing Language and Culture University For 60 Years
In 1962, Premier Zhou said, “Foreign students must have a special place to learn Chinese first.” It was reinstated in 1972, renamed Beijing Language College in 1975, and upgraded to Beijing Language and Culture University in 1996. The key turning point was in the 1990s: the state put the HSK proposal center here; since 2005, Hanban (now the Chinese Foreign Language Exchange and Cooperation Center) has added one-third of the global foreign Chinese teacher training to the 33 hectares of campus. Today, the foreigner you run into on the road is likely to be a student of the joint project of “Beiyu Harvard Yanjing,” or a German teacher from the Free University of Berlin who took Erasmus+ to exchange. In short, Beijing Language and Culture University has set the national standard of “learning Chinese first, then discussing majors.”
Subject Map: In Addition To Chinese, What Other English Teaching Majors Can Be “Lying Flat”?
Many people think that there is only “Chinese as a foreign language” in the northern language. In fact, there are 38 undergraduate majors and 15 all-English master’s programs in the school calendar for 2024. I mean, if you have zero background in Chinese, you can also choose the English track first and then slowly learn Chinese characters. I’ll bring out the “highlight disciplines” suitable for international students and give you a quick list:
| Discipline | Teaching Language | Learning System | Highlights |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese Language (Intensive) | Chinese + English Auxiliary | 1-3 years | HSK level 6 pass rate 92% |
| International Politics (Belt & Road) | English | 2 years | Optional United Nations internship credits |
| Linguistics & Applied Linguistics | Bilingual | 3 years | Joint training with the University of Cambridge |
| Computer Science (Big Data Chinese NLP) | English | 4 years | HUAWEI “Hongmeng” corpus project |
| Intercultural Communication | English | 2 years | Two degrees: Northern language + Lyon, France |
The data is from the 2024 project manual (BLCU Admissions Brochure, 2024). The key is the national A+ rating of “Applied Linguistics” (Soft Science, 2023), Beijing Language and Culture University makes “Chinese + technology” into a new label.
Real One Day Tour On Campus: From “World Wall” To Turkey Chicken Leg Rice For 3 Yuan
At 7:30 in the morning, from the north exit of Wudaokou metro station, you can ride a shared bike for 5 minutes to the “small South Gate.” The first place is the “World Wall” – the tiles are pasted with stamps from 195 countries. When international students graduate, they will paste the national flag of their own country, which makes it dense. I mean, this wall is more international than the TikTok you painted.
Then head to the “language learning center” in the north wing of the main building. You need to scan your face when you enter the door. It is like an airport waiting room: a soundproof cabin, a VR Chinese-speaking machine, and a whiteboard. The teacher told me that there were 700,000 real corpora recorded here, supporting real-time alignment of 43 languages. In other words, you are learning Chinese in Beiyu; in fact, you are using multilingual AI to tailor your teaching materials.
Don’t go to the hotel for lunch. The “international flavor area” on the third floor of the canteen sells Turkey chicken leg rice for 3 yuan. Now it sells 12,000 servings per month. Taste? The flavor of spices is strong enough. The key is to practice listening in Arabic while queuing.
Tuition And Scholarship: Price List, How Much Cheaper Than Europe and America?
Take the tuition fee in 2023 as the benchmark: 26,000 yuan (about US $3,600) for a year of advanced Chinese students, including teaching materials and five HSK examinations. By contrast, the Middlebury summer Chinese program at Middlebury University in the United States costs US $7,200 for 8 weeks and does not include exams. In other words, I studied at Beijing Language and Culture University for one year, only spending half of the other party’s money, and also passed the HSK highest level exam.
Scholarships are even more impressive. The Chinese Government Scholarship (CSC) full version covers tuition + monthly subsidy of 3,000 yuan; Beiyu’s own “Silk Road scholarship” gives another 10,000 yuan one-time settlement fee. Admission data in 2023: self-funded students accounted for only 38%, and the rest 62% received some kind of subsidy (annual report of Beiyu financial department, 2,023）。 Some students even read at zero cost, and they also saved their travel expenses to Lhasa.
Where To Go After Graduation? Data Tells You The Way Out
In 2023, there were 1,476 international graduates, and the employment/enrollment rate within half a year after graduation was 87% (Beiyu employment quality report, 2,023）。 Segmentation path:
- Return to teach Chinese 38%
- MNCs in China 24%
- Continue to read Bo / two masters 25%
- Other 13%
The most fragrant is the “international Chinese teacher” channel: Beiyu has teachers to connect with 183 Confucius institutes. As long as you get a master’s degree +HSK6, you can directly sign an assignment. The first year’s annual salary is 32,000 US dollars, including tax, and also includes round-trip air tickets. In other words, studied at “Beijing Language and Culture University”, not only to learn languages, but also to get a global work visa.
Application Strategy: DIY Four Steps, 0 Intermediary Fee, Can Also Get The Notice
- selected project: enter “Beijing Language and Culture University” official website.
- Fill in the form online: the first page of passport, the highest education level, HSK or IELTS scanning copy,
- pay the 600 yuan registration fee (Alipay / WeChat can be swiped)
- Wait for the offer: the official commitment is 15 working days, and I received the PDF 9 days in 2020
The key point is to set another template for the “learning plan”. The most annoying thing for admissions officers is “I have a dream to promote world peace”. You write “you want to study how TikTok translates the peduncle into Kazakh”, which is specific and verifiable, and the enrollment rate is soaring.
Common Q&A: Things You May Worry About
Q1: Can you live without Chinese? Yes. The campus police station, school hospital, and rookie post station are all marked in English; Starbucks speaking is better than mine.
Q2: How about the air in Beijing? In 2023, the annual average PM2.5 of the city was 32 micrograms, the best since the monitoring began (Beijing EPB, 2,024）。 The school installed three floors of a fresh air system, and the dormitory can fall to within 10 micrograms.
Q3: Accommodation for parents? Nanmenkou “Beiyu Conference Center” 380 yuan/night, including breakfast, half cheaper than five stars; Family members can apply for a 30-day home visit visa.
Conclusion: Write “Beijing Language and Culture University” Into Your To-Do List
I mean, if you just want to “see China”, you can go to the Bund in Shanghai to shoot night scenes; But wants to quantify “understanding China” into a resume hard currency, and Beijing Language and Culture University is the best springboard. A HSK6 certificate, a multilingual debate in the Wudaokou metro station, and a “Confucius Institute expatriate contract” are all packed in the 33 hectares of “small United Nations”, waiting for you to reach out.
References
Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau. (2024). 2023 Beijing Air Quality Report. https://www.bjmemc.com.cn/
Beijing Language and Culture University. (2023). 2023 Graduate Employment Quality Annual Report. https://jyb.blcu.edu.cn/system/_content/download.jsp?urltype=news.DownloadAttachUrl&owner=1419803374&wbfileid=2405286
Ministry of Education of China. (2023). Statistics of International Students in China 2023. https://en.moe.gov.cn/
ShanghaiRanking. (2023). GRAS Rankings 2023: Beijing Language and Culture University. https://www.shanghairanking.cn/rankings/gras/2023/RC0004
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