China 666 BNDS Campus Tour

I work with some incredible people at a most amazing school campus.
Beijing National Day School was founded in 1952.  The International
department was established in June 2004.  The Cambridge A-Level
diploma program was added in 2009, and the AP dual diploma program
with Wasatch Academy in Utah was added in 2010.  All total, there
are over 4000 students K-12 on campus, and over 400 faculty...with
over 70 Chinese and foreign teachers in the International Department
alone.  And now?!  Here we grow again.... take a look at our new
building!  We got a walk through tour on our last day of school.

This is going to be my new room, up on the fifth floor.  You
can't appreciate how HUGE it is!  It is at least triple the size
of my temporary classroom in the library this past school year.
Oh, the things I can do WITH THIS SPACE!!!

My new classroom door :) I can't wait to get
back in August to start decorating!

The top floor is an atrium which will be filled with plants,
flowers, trees, water features, and lots of places for relaxing.
Can you say "nap station"?!

Our campus is beautiful spring through autumn...
flowering trees, fruit trees, hanging wisteria,
rose bushes galore (ah-choo!) and Rose of Sharon.

Every floor is decorated in a different color, from lockers
to circular sofas, to study nooks.  I am on the orange floor :)

On every floor, in many of the walls are these built in padded
nooks for studying, socializing, or simply resting :)  I like!

It appears that many of the migrant construction
workers have taken up residency in the building-
beds are sheets of plywood on cement blocks.
This was in one of the unfinished classrooms. It's
better than the tent cities that have been erected
on sidewalks all over the city.  These tent homes
are for the road construction workers this summer.

The 'blue floor' was still very much under construction.  I love
 how they have created comfortable lounging and study spaces
all over the building. I wonder if they took a lesson from Google?!

All of the administrative offices will be together.  That will be
nice to have them in one central location.

In China, it is common to have 'drink stations'
where you can fill your own water bottle with piping
hot or cold water....the Chinese do love their hot tea- or
just plain hot water.  I have yet to get accustomed to that!

As you walk around the exterior of the
building, it is still very much a construction zone.
Miraculously, it will be all tidied up by the
first day of school.  I am always shocked to see how
they work in the final days before students return.

At night, the school's name on the
side of the building is in bright
white light.  By day, the sign looks black.

Workers were re-doing the pavers around our school sign.

The new front entrance to the Int'l Dept. :)

Our building will now be connected to the sports complex-
basketball court, badminton courts, table tennis, weight
room, dance rooms, and Olympic pool are all in the building
to the left of the Int'l Dept. building.  

This is our performing arts building, complete
with classrooms, multiple art studios, band, choir
and orchestra halls, and individual practice rooms.

Along side the performing arts building is the
ROCK WALL!!!!

There are beautiful places to sit all over campus :)

The science and technology building is in the background.

As you walk past the science building on your right, you will
then pass by student dormitories, then the Teacher Apartments.
The basement and first floors of this building are our many
dining options, a convenience store (WuMart) and ATM.

As you walk on the path in the above photo, the aforementioned
buildings are on your right, and to your left is the soccer field.
Behind the soccer stadium are the tennis courts.

The red brick building is the Teacher Apartments,
which is the northern most part of campus. Some
teachers will live here, many others (like myself)
are in the North or South apartment complexes
across the street from our school. A few teachers
will elect to receive a housing stipend as they
prefer to live on the east side of town, where
there is a larger expat community.  The east side
is where much of the 'jing's night life is located.

We also have a small museum on campus which details the
history of Beijing National Day School. BNDS was originally
a school for the dependents of officers in the newly founded
People's Republic of China. Under the leadership of Principal
Li, BNDS was previously named the "Model Secondary
School in all of urban Beijing."  Impressive, for a city of
nearly 23 million!  I swear our campus and facilities will
rival any small liberal arts college in the USA.

As you look across the soccer field from the stadium seating,
you can see the many red brick buildings of BNDS.  It looks a lot
 like the campus buildings of Purdue University, only different ;)

Our campus address is 66 Yuquan Lu (Rd.),
which is pronounced "You-tchwan- loo" 

From the street, you can see how massive the new Int'l
Dept. building really is!  It takes up the southwest corner
of the school campus. This photo was taken mid-day;
just wait until you experience crossing the road in the
rush hour gridlock and craziness!

Our campus is completely gated and secured.  I love chatting
with the security guards.  They practice their English on me;
I practice my Mandarin on them :)  Nice guys.

As I left school for the last day of the 2015-16 school year,
I was feeling all warm and fuzzy inside...excited about
the new building, and the new faculty coming aboard.

And then this happened.

I walked out the front gate, made a turn down the
sidewalk for home, only to see a Chinese little in his
split pants taking a piss on the sidewalk.  Oh, China.

G'nite, y'all!