Change in SCUT

By Chen, Jun

I went back to SCUT last November for the 50-year anniversary and experienced the great change in SCUT.

The first surprise was that it took less than 20 minutes from Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport to SCUT. A lot of highways were constructed in recent years. The traffic in Guangzhou has been improved a lot. Tianhe district has become the center of Guangzhou. The main street in front of the gate of SCUT was changed a lot. A cross-connect bridge was built. The area between SCUT and South China Normal University has become crowded commercial district, with a lot of office buildings.

There was a lot of construction undergoing in SCUT campus. There were many new buildings, compared with what I saw last time in 1996. A statue of Sun Zhongshan was in the square in front of Building One. Shao Yifu, boss of TVB in Hong Kong, has donated to build not only the Science Building, but also the Art and Humanity Building. There was a three-star hotel next to the West Lake. Most departments are re-grouped to different schools. Many schools have their own new buildings.

Student’s life is also quite different from that of my years in SCUT, which was from 1988 to 1992. In the dormitory, there are 4 students in one room. Each room has Ethernet socket. Students get Internet connection by opening an account in the Computing Center. Each floor has a public phone, using IC phone card. Electrical power is not turned off at 11pm any more. Some students can live in 2-person-a-room dormitory if they pay more. There is also mini-bus route from the front gate of main campus to the northwest campus. It is very convenience for the students.

But there is still something not changed. Every morning and evening, there are a lot of students running along the East Lake and West Lake. A lot of students rush between dormitory and classroom. A lot of guys play football or basketball on the squares. And, guys are still not allowed to enter girls’ dormitories.