Xiamen University was founded in 1921 by Tan Kah Kee, the well-known patriotic overseas Chinese leader. It was the first university in China founded by an overseas Chinese. At present it is the only university in any of five special economic zones and is one of China´s higher-level universities designated for the state key construction of the “211 Project” and the “985 Project”.
Over the past ninety three years, as the result of following the school motto: Pursue Excellence, Strive for Perfection, Xiamen University has accumulated rich experience in offering its educational programs and has presented its distinctive features in running the programs. Equipped with a strong team of faculty and staff, Xiamen University, which provides a fairly complete range of programs of education, has become a first-class comprehensive university in China with extensive international influence. Since its founding, Xiamen University has produced more than 200,000 undergraduates and graduates for the country and over 60 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) have studied or worked at Xiamen University.
Xiamen University has inter-university cooperative ties with over 270 institutions of higher education at home and abroad. Xiamen University vigorously promotes the campaign of teaching Chinese as a foreign language. The university has co-established 15 Confucius Institutes with universities in North America, Europe, Africa, etc. Because of its especially favorable geographical location and advantageous human resources, it is the key university most actively engaged in cross-straits educational, scientific and cultural exchanges.
Location
Lying in the sub-tropical Zone, Xiamen has a maritime climate, and congenial, spring-like weather in all four seasons. People can enjoy the bright sunlight, the gentle breezes, lush plants and colorful flowers all year around.
Xiamen University is located in Siming District on the island of Xiamen, which is just north of Taiwan and south of the mainland coast. The city of Xiamen is comprised of five districts, two on the island and three on the mainland. Xiamen, known as Amoy in Hokkien dialect, is a major deepwater port, whose ships come and go around the world. The city was one of the first Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in China, but rapid economic development has not damaged its environment. Throughout the city its inhabitants and leaders are aware of the necessity of environmental protection and so Xiamen can boast of splendid scenery and clean air.
Rich in tourism resources, Xiamen has various sightseeing attractions, places of historic interest, and tourist resorts, such as Gulang Islet, Wulao Mountain and Nanputuo Temple, Ten Thousand Rock Botanical Garden, Bailuzhou Recreation Center, hot springs resorts, Jimei scenic spots and other ecological environmental tours outside the island.
Campus
At present, Xiamen University’s 3 campuses cover over 600 hectares. With green hills behind and fronting the sea, Xiamen University is recognized as one of the most beautiful universities in China. Xiamen University has a constructed area of 1.4 million square meters and its libraries hold 4.48 million volumes (including 39,204 gigabytes electronic volumes). The scope and level of its high-speed information network on campus is rated at the top of all universities in China and has become the one of the main injunctions of CERNET2.
The university’s main campus enjoys unique geographical advantages: it is cooled by sea breezes and framed by green mountains. The beaches are minutes away from campus, just across Huandao Lu, and the rocky hillsides, threaded with paths for hiking, stack up behind the dormitories. There are massive banyan trees, hundreds of years old, palms and scholar trees, orange-flowering kapok trees, and pink and red bougainvilleas next to sub-tropical conifers. Swans glide across the pool at the center of main campus; we Xiamen people believe too, in taking time for reflection.
Zhangzhou Campus is a new campus of Xiamen University. It is situated on the coast in Zhangzhou Development Zone (in Zhangzhou City, not in Xiamen City), facing the Main Campus in Xiamen across Xiamen Bay, a distance of about 3.5 miles. It was built in 2003 and presently there are about 15,000 undergraduates living and studying there. They are freshmen and sophomore students and will move back to the main campus when they become junior students. Many Chinese and foreign teachers go to Zhangzhou Campus to teach classes to students there. Our university has arranged a school bus and school boat service to take teachers there. It takes about 1 hour to travel from the main campus in Xiamen to Zhangzhou Campus by special bus and boat, with regular runs daily Monday to Friday.
If you need to go to Zhangzhou Campus to teach classes, your college will help you to make a Transportation Card in the beginning of the school year with which you can take the school bus and boat.
There is a school hotel on Zhangzhou Campus. If you have classes in the morning and afternoon on the same day, you can take a rest in a hotel room at noon time. If you have late classes in the evening or have early classes (1st and 2nd classes) in the morning of the next day, you can sleep in a hotel room in the evening. Your college will forward your teaching schedule to the hotel beforehand and you only need to register at the hotel front desk with your Transportation Card when you require a rest there.
Living in University
Gymnasium and Stadium
There is a 400-meter standard track and field ground to the opposite side of Qunxian Building near the West Gate of the university. In front of the track and field ground, there are ten basketball courts and several horizontal and parallel bars. To the south of the track and field ground, there are tennis courts and volleyball courts. In front of Jiannan Great Hall, students will find the Shangxian (First Quarter of the Moon) Football Field containing two small football pitches where football lovers can demonstrate their ball skills. Besides that, eight new basketball courts have been set up between the Lingyun dormitory complex and Furong 12 dormitory building. Table-tennis rooms are located at Jianwen Building and Cai Qingjie Buildings. There is a swimming pool with standard tracks as well other facilities in the Qing Ming Swimming Gymnasium. In order to swim there, students need a health certificate issued by XMU Hospital and pay by XMU e-card.
Foreign Language Corner
Students can join the foreign language corner once a week in the courtyard of OEC college building, where students of different major and nationalities can meet together and talk in a foreign language undertood by each other.
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