Beihang University (BUAA) or Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics was founded on October 25th 1952 and was the merger of the aeronatical departments of Tsinghua University, Beiyang University, Amoy (Xiamen) University, Sichuan University, Northwest Institute of Technology, College of Engineering, North China University, and Southwest Aeronautical Institute.

Beihang University is regarded as one of the leading engineering Universities in China, and has a great influence on China’s aeronautical and astronautical industry – the chief engineers and commander of China’s Shenzhou space project are among the alumni of Beihang. Beihang plays and will continue to play a key role in China’s ambitious space exploration goals.

Beihang has traditionally been closed to international students until the early 1990’s. In order to internationalise, Beihang University decided to offer large numbers of programs in English. As a result, Beihang is the University with the most English language programs in China open to international students. Beihang specialises in Engineering but is a comprehensive University and offers subjects in many subjects, from trade, and accounting to linguistics and law.

There are a total of 13, 000 undergraduates, 10,000 postgraduates studying and 1,100 international students at Beihang.

Location

Beihang University is located on Xueyuan Lu in Haidian District of Beijing. It is located close to Wudaokou (the student district) of Beijing.

Faculty of Beihang University

Beihang has been developing the faculty and staff members, with over 3300 staff, they are experts on the national level, with 11 Changjiang Scholars, 315 supervisors of PhD programs, and over 100 recipients of subsidies from the national government. The University’s faculty has the highest percentage of PhD out of all the Universities in China. Beihang places continued emphasis to develop the quality of the faculty.

Life at Beihang University

Beihang has many student activities in science, technology, arts and sports. The Feng Ru Cup competition is named after Feng Ru (Alumni of Beihang), and is a competition in invention in science and technology. Beihang also has the festival of Aeronatuics and Astronautics, and the Festival of Culture and Arts, and the Festival of Sports. Beihang is the only University of science and technology that has won the “Victory Cup” for 8 years in a row. The University also has a choir, music group, and Chinese folk music band, winning a number of competitions and awards.

Students can also participate in a number of sports at Beihang, with world class facilities, such as the Gymnasium, built specifically for the 2008 Olympics (see below). Beihang’s Volleyball team is famous for winning the China College Volleyball competition many times.

Beihang University Campus

Beihang University has a beautiful campus with more than 50% of the campus covered in trees. The campus is divided into four parts: the teaching quarter, student’s living quarter, residential quarter, and the science quarter.

The campus is next to the High-Tech park of Beijing and the Olympic park. It is convenient for transport links, and has a number of services on campus including various sports facilities, a bank, post office and canteen.

Beihang University Gymnasium

Beihang University Gymnasium is a 5,400 indoor seated arena. It was built specificially for the 2008 Beijing Olympic games and hosted the weightlifting.

Beihang University Library

The library was opened in 1952 and is 1,8000 square meters. It is a six story building (see pictures below). The library is open over 80 hours a week, and has a large collection of books (over 1.2 million), 1,235 periodical titles, hundreds of newspapers. There are over 2000 seats, 13 reading rooms, 2 study rooms and a teaching room.

There are also a number of online databases, which are available on the campus network. There are also inter-library loans with National Library of China, Tsinghua University and a number of other libraries that allow the faculty and staff to use the above libraries.