The Registration Final Chaper

After accomplishing half of your registration process, you need to do these things before you can get your student card. 

• For students who have prior knowledge in Mandarin, you need to take an assessment test after the accomplishing the paper works. The Room number where you should go to take the exam and the date/time will be indicated in your schedule. The assessment result will actually depend on you. Even if you have background in Mandarin, and your results state that you can go to upper levels, you may still opt to enrol in the lower levels. In fact, you can transfer to higher- or lower-level class within the first two weeks of the semester.
• Medical Exam
• Visa Extension/Application forResidence Permit
• Orientation
• Claiming of Student Card

Here is what the schedule of activities looks like:

Even if some of these activities are not yet completed, you will already be issued your class schedule and you may already attend your class. 

The Registration Chapter 2, Registration 0.5

The whole registration process is a lengthy process! But, this part, you can accomplish in just one day.

So after knowing the buildings, the first step is to get a dorm. If you are staying outside the University you may skip this and just go to the next step. Caveat, be sure to have your “official proof of lodging (housing certificate) either by the authority of the hotel/guest house you live in or by the local police station if you live in a private-owned house/ apartment.”  (Registration for self-supporting, BLCU website)

Getting a dorm

1. Go to Student Housing Services Center located between Dorm Building 1 and 2.

2. Present your Admission Letter and JW201/202

If you’re a scholarship student, you have a pre-assigned dorm; Dorm9 for girls and Dorm1 for boys.*

3. If you have preferred dorm, you have to inform the staffs. The staffs will check which dorms can accommodate you. You need to settle the full amount of your stay.  If you have booked a dorm in advance, you can go directly to the dorm.

4. You will be instructed as to which dorm to go and once you are in the dormitory, you will be asked for passport. The dorm staff will issue a Temporary Residence Permit once all documentation and payments are completed. Make a copy of the Temporary Residence Permit!

Your College’s Office, Tuition Payment, and Insurance

There are different colleges in BLCU but almost all offices are located in ground floor of Main Building. You really have the option to go here first or to get dorm first. What will you do here?

-   You again need your admission documents and passports. Give your documents to the personnel there and they will give you forms to fill up and a checklist of what documents you need. They will also give you a free M-zone SIM card and student handbook.

-    Why do you need to get a dorm first? The Dorm will give you your Temporary Residence Permit. It is one of the items in the required documents list. So if you have the Temporary Residence Permit from your dorm, you do not need to go to the dorm and back to the office.

-      They will issue you tuition fee voucher and you need to pay your tuition. To quote from the BLCU website,

You need to go to ICBC (Room 120, Office Buildin, the building with white highlight in the campus map) or finance office (Room 108, Office Building) to pay the tuition and buy medical insurance on the second floor of Run Run Shaw Teaching Building (the building with green highlight in the campus map). Below are means of payment:

If you pay in cash, or traveler’s check, pay at the ICBC (Industry and Commercial Bank of China, Room 120, Office Building) and then exchange for the invoice in the Finance Office (Room 108, Office Building).

If you pay by international VISA Card, Master Card, American Express Card (the bank will charge 3% commission, if your card is not applied in China), you may pay directly in the Finance Office (Room 108, Office Building).

-          If you’re a self-supporting student, you need to make sure you have all of these:

o   Admission Notice

o   JW202

o   Receipt of tuition from bank or Finance Office

o   Insurance receipt/card

o   Passport

o   Copy of Passport

o   Copy of your Visa

o   Copy of Registration Form of Temporary Residence

o   At least 5pieces 3.5cmx4.5cm ID picture in white or blue background

o   Accomplished registration form for international students

-          If you’re a scholarship student, you need these:

o   Admission Notice

o   CSC scholarship notice

o   JW201

o   Passport

o   Copy of Passport

o   Copy of your Visa

o   Copy of Registration Form of Temporary Residence

o   At least 5pieces 3.5cmx4.5cm ID picture in white or blue background

o   Accomplished registration form for international students

Submit these documents to the College Office and they will issue you a schedule of activities that you need to accomplish before you are issued your Student Card. For scholarship students, you will be given a slip of paper which needs to be signed by the officer in the Room2, 2^nd Floor of Run Run Shaw Building. Once this paper is signed by the officer, you can now go to the Accounting and Finance Office (Rm107 of white highlight in the map) to collect your one-time settlement assistance and monthly allowance.

If your papers were signed after the 15^th of the month, you will only receive half of the monthly allowance. Otherwise, you will receive the whole monthly allowance.

*Side Bar

My male classmates were placed in Dorm 4. They were graduate school (Master program) scholarship students who needed one-year language training before entering graduate school proper). According to them, they didn’t pay any additional fees to get in Dorm4. They were just assigned to Dorm4 . Thus, my theory is graduate school scholarship students gets in Dorm4 and language training scholarship students goes to either Dorm1 or Dorm9. 

The Registration Chapter 1, The Buildings

Before the first step, I think it would make your life faster if you familiarize yourself with the buildings that you will be going to.

First of all, there are many entrances to the University. If you are staying at Xijiao Hotel, the nearest entrance is the XiNan (West-South) Gate, then Xi (West) Gate. Do not be deceived by the map. There is no direct road from Xijiao Hotel going to Xi (West) Gate. More info on Xijiao Hotel in this page.

The “main” entrance is the East Gate located at Xueyuan Road. This is where you can see the popular picture of the school. The building in the picture below is the Main Building. In the map, it is highlighted by the red square. The Main Building has 3 sections, the North, the South, and the Main section. The main section is the one in the picture below.  

Taken from the Student Handboook Front Cover

The South building is an on building connected to the Main building. Across the South building is the Run Run Shaw Teaching Building (highlighted with green). You know you are near the Run Run Shaw Building when you see the big signage of Alliance Francaise, a big AF. Run Run Shaw Building is a 2-storey building beside AF and across South building. Another landmark is an ATM of Agricultural Bank of China. It is also near China Unicom shop. See picture of Run Run Shaw Building below.

The one highlighted in yellow near the South Gate is not a building, although is it located between two tall buildings. This is the Student Housing Services. It is located between dormitory 1 and 2. It is in the ground floor of between the two buildings. From Run Run Shaw, you just need to walk south to reach Student Housing Services.

Since we are talking about student housing, Dormitory Building 4 (highlighted orange near Student Housing Services), 6, 7 ,8, and 9 (highlighted blue near the basketball and tennis courts) are available for foreign students. Other dormitories are for local students. The Conference Center (highlighted pink) is also available for foreign students. It is located at the back of the Library.

Lastly, the one highlighted in white is where the bank (ICBC) and Accounting and Finance Office are located (see below for one of the entrances).

This is only one side of the building

Now, you’re familiar with the buildings, you need to remember to bring the following during registration

• Admission Letter
• JW201/JW202 (if you do not have the original JW form, go to Run Run Shaw 2F, Rm2 first to get the original. Usually, scholarship students will not have the original copy)
• Receipt of tuition ( not needed for scholarship students)
• Insurance (not needed for scholarship students)
• Scholarship acceptance (if applicable)
• 10 pieces 3.5cmx4.5cm picture in white or blue background (5 for the College office, 1 for Visa Extension, 1 for physical exam)
• Passport
• Copy of Visa (X, F, or tourist)
• Copy of registration form of temporary residence (the dorm will issue this)
• Registration of application for international students (you can get this from your college’s office and you need to complete the form)

Be prepared to have copies of every document that you have.

To summarize the buildings and color markings/box highlight

Blue- Dorm6,7,8, and 9

Pink- Conference Center

Orange-Dorm4

White- ICBC, Accounting and Finance Office

Red- Main Building

Neon Green- Run Run Shaw Building

Yellow- Housing Services Center

The Registration Process, Preface

I registered late for the Fall Semester of 2011-2012 (September). The registration period was from August 31- September 4 (for long-term students). I was scared because it was written in the Admission Notice that failure to register within the given period will automatically means forfeiture of your admission (and in my case, as well as the scholarship), unless you were granted the permission to register late.

Side bar

I emailed BLCU regarding my situation explaining that I will late and I do not want to give up my admission and scholarship. My email was about 2 paragraphs long and after few days they replied with “No problem”. That was it. “No problem”. I replied again and asked who should I look for when I arrive and they gave me a phone number. I tried to call the BLCU office numbers, the one given in the email and the one in their website for Long-term students.  Unfortunately, the person who answered my call does not speak English. Strike one!  This made me wonder if the person who replied to my email understood what my email said. Thus, I sent another email and again I got a one-sentence reply. I was a bit sceptical about the email replies because there was no particular person owning the replies and I am worried that they might deny the email correspondences once I arrive here. So, I asked my uncle to call BLCU. He can speak perfect Mandarin. And he said the respond he got was a bit vague. If he will translate it in English, “she can, but I (the person from BLCU) am not saying yes”. Strike two! This made me send another email to BLCU. This time, I ask my uncle to write a Chinese email.  I got a short reply again saying “No problem” in Chinese. I printed the Chinese email and brought it with me during the registration. This was my only proof that they allowed me to register late. But this letter will be useless in the registration process.

BLCU is lenient in enrolment. I think as long as you can pay, they will accept you. I have classmates who came in to class around October already.  So being a week late for the registration is not a big deal.  I arrived in Beijing on September 9; classes have already begun on September 5 for the long-term students and September 8 for the intensive classes. I arrived Friday afternoon and the coming Monday (September12) was the Mid-Autumn Festival, which was a holiday. To make my point shorter, I only have about 5 hours to finish my registration process. Now, I know you are more interested in the registration process than my story, so here are the steps.

The Physical Exam

I don’t why the Chinese are so obsessed with the health exams. Before arriving in China, the medical examination was my biggest problem. Don’t get me wrong; I am not sick or whatsoever. I am perfectly fine, but I was rejected twice by the Chinese embassy for my visa application because my Foreign Physical Exam Form was incomplete. Well, it’s not my fault; it was the fault of St. George Clinic (damn them!) Anyway, that is another story. Lets go back to the Physical Exam when I arrived here in BLCU.

September 16, 2011 (Friday), 1230PM was my schedule. At 12noon I was already outside the library waiting for the bus while watching How I Met Your Mother. The physical exam is done by batches. Make sure you do not miss your schedule. During the scheduled time, the school provides for free bus transfers to and from the Beijing International Travel Health Center in Haidian District. If you miss your schedule, you have to go there on your own. And here’s the address:

Beijing International Travel Health Center

No.10 Dezheng Road, Haidian District, Beijing

Commuter’s guide (from BLCU handbook)

·         Take subway Line 13 from Wudaoku station to Xi’erqi (Take the train going to Dongzhimen station. From Wudaoku, Xi’erqi is just 2 stations away)

·         From Xi’erqi station, take the bus No.333 and get off at Xialinyuan stop.

This is the building you will see:

During registration, you will be instructed to do the physical exam and you will be given a 1-page form. This is some sort of the checklist of medical history such as AIDS, Asthma, etc. You have to write your contact number and address in China, therefore you should have an accommodation by this time. (Check this if you still don’t have an accommodation).

 Things to remember/bring in the Physical Exam

• ·         PASSPORT
• ·         1PC PASSPORT-SIZE OR 2X2 PHOTO
• ·         MONEY (amount depending on scenario)
• ·  ACCOMPLISHED FOR (the medical history checklist form given to you during registration)
• ·         FOREIGN PHYSICAL EXAM FORM with supporting medical records*

*A Foreign Physical Exam Form (here's the form in .pdf) is the form you should have submitted to your Chinese embassy during visa application. Usually, the Chinese Embassy has a list of accredited local hospital and clinics for the physical exam. In the Philippines, Chinese Embassy will not accept the physical exam if it is not done by accredited hospital/clinic. If you’re from the Philippines, the list of POEA accredited clinic/hospital is also the list of the Chinese Embassy.

Supporting medical records are the HIV-AIDS test certificate, Blood Test Results, Xray results, ECG results, etc. Attach whatever you can attach.

There are 2 possible scenarios.

Scenario 1:  NO FOREIGN PHYSICAL EXAM FORM

If by any chance you lost or you have forgotten or simply you do not have a complete Foreign Physical Exam Form with supporting medical records, you will have to undergo the whole process of the physical exam which are:

Step 1: Registration. Present your accomplished form and your passport

Step2: Cashier: Pay RMB400 and you will be issued with a yellow receipt.

Step3: Physical Exam: You will have to undergo the medical exams such as X-ray, blood test, EENT test, etc.

Step4: Complete forms. Once all medical tests are done, you approach the teacher/coordinator. He/She will collect your papers and your photo.

I am not really familiar with steps on this scenario because I did not personally go through the steps. What I underwent was Scenario 2.

Scenario 2: WITH FOREIGN PHYSICAL EXAM FORM

Step 1: Registration. Show your passport, accomplished form, and the Foreign Physical Exam Form with supporting medical reports.

Step 2: Cashier: Pay RMB60 and get the forms and receipt.

Step 3: Go to coordinator and submit the papers with your photo.

Some students choose not to wait and take the taxi or commuter bus back to the school.  The free transfer only leaves once everyone is done. It’s really up to you if you want to wait.

How long this process does takes if you are going to wait?

12:30-1:00 PM	The bus will be waiting for the students in near the Library.
1:00PM-1:30PM	Travel time (this can be extended up to 1:45PM depending on the traffic condition)
The actual Physical Exam will depend on what scenario and on the number of people in the Center. In my batch’s experience, when we arrived at the Center, there were around 60 military men who came before us. So we have to queue behind them. As for me, I had Scenario 2. It took me around 30minutes for Step 1 and around 2minutes for Step 2 and 3. By around 2:15PM , I was already in the bus watching How I Met Your Mother in my cellphone.
3:00PM-3:30PM	Travel time
3:30-3.45PM	Back to BLCU library, again this depends on the traffic conditions