Living in Beijing as a Schwarzman Scholar

The building that defines your year

Schwarzman College is not a dorm. It is a self-contained residential college spanning 200,000 square feet, designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, the firm behind multiple buildings at Yale and the George W. Bush Presidential Library. The official site says the design evokes historic Chinese architecture as well as the residential colleges at Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Yale.

Inside you will find a well-equipped gym, a dining hall serving both Chinese and Western food, seminar rooms, an auditorium, study lounges, and filtered air throughout. Every scholar gets a private room. The air filtration is not decorative: Beijing’s air quality regularly hits hazardous levels, and the building’s system keeps indoor air clean regardless of what is happening outside.

By any objective measure, this is one of the finest residential academic buildings in the world. The problem, as we will get into, is that it is designed so well that you never have to leave.

The bubble problem

The most common criticism from alumni is not about the academics or the internet. It is about the isolation.

What the bubble looks like

Schwarzman College is a self-contained campus within the broader Tsinghua University. Security guards check everyone entering the building. Your meals are served inside. Your classes happen inside. Your gym, your pool, your social events, your speaker series — all of it happens within these walls. It is easy to go days without leaving the building.

The building’s facilities are significantly better than what the rest of Tsinghua’s 30,000+ students have access to. Regular Tsinghua students study in crowded libraries and eat in basic canteens; Schwarzman scholars have a high-end gym and a dining hall with Western options. The gap is visible, and it creates a low-level resentment from Chinese students that most scholars notice at some point during the year.

Why it matters

The stated purpose of Schwarzman Scholars is to prepare leaders to understand China and navigate a world shaped by its rise. Living inside a hermetically sealed building with 150 other international scholars, eating Western food and speaking English all day does not achieve that. Scholars who rely on the programme’s structure alone come away with a surface-level understanding of China at best.

Put simply: if you stay passive, you leave with little more than the credential.

The bubble is comfortable. The filtered air is clean. The food is good. But if you wanted comfortable, you did not need to move to Beijing.

Internet censorship and VPNs

This catches people off guard more than anything else about living in China.

What is blocked

China’s Great Firewall blocks Google (all services, including Gmail, Google Docs, Google Scholar and Google Maps), YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, WhatsApp, Reddit, most Western news sites, Wikipedia (intermittently), and essentially the entire Western internet ecosystem you rely on daily. If your workflow depends on any Google product, you will need alternatives or a VPN.

The Tsinghua campus network is no exception. You are behind the Great Firewall just like everyone else in China; there is no special academic exemption for Schwarzman scholars.

The VPN reality

Almost everyone in the programme uses a VPN. That is just the practical reality. Without one, you cannot access Gmail, submit assignments through Google platforms, or stay in touch with family through most Western messaging apps.

However, VPN use in China exists in a legal grey area that has been tightening, and it is increasingly risky. Fines are possible, and there have been reported cases of individuals being penalised. The government periodically cracks down on VPN services, especially around politically sensitive dates, which means your VPN may stop working at the worst possible moments.

The programme does not officially endorse or provide VPNs, and staff will not recommend one on the record. You are on your own to figure out the solution, which most scholars do within the first week.

Practical tips from alumni

• Download and set up your VPN before arriving in China. You cannot download most VPN apps once you are behind the firewall.
• Have multiple VPN providers as backup. When one goes down during a crackdown, you need a fallback.
• Set up a Chinese phone number and WeChat immediately. WeChat is the primary tool for everything in China, from group chats with classmates to paying for street food.
• Shift your email and documents to platforms that work in China where possible. Some scholars migrate to Outlook or local alternatives for non-sensitive communication.
• Accept that your internet will be slow and unreliable compared with what you are used to. Even with a good VPN, latency is high and speeds fluctuate.

Getting beyond the walls

The scholars who get the most out of this year are the ones who actively fight the bubble. Nobody is going to push you out the door.

Organised trips

The Student Life team organises exploration trips throughout the year, including visits to the Summer Palace, the Lama Temple and other cultural landmarks in Beijing, as well as longer travel throughout China. Deep Dive field trips take scholars to different provinces to study regional economic and political dynamics first-hand.

These are valuable, but they are curated experiences. You are seeing China through a programme lens, with translators, guides and pre-arranged meetings. That is useful, but not the same as navigating it yourself.

Internships

The programme includes an internship period, typically in the spring. Some scholars intern at Chinese companies, government-adjacent organisations, or multinational firms with Beijing offices. The quality and depth varies enormously: some scholars get genuinely embedded in Chinese organisations; others end up in token roles at international firms where everyone speaks English. The scholars who land meaningful internships are almost always the ones who started networking months before the internship period begins. More on this in the academic programme chapter.

On your own

The most transformative experiences tend to be the ones scholars create for themselves. Taking the subway to a neighbourhood with no English signage. Finding a local restaurant where the menu has no pictures. Joining a Tsinghua student club that operates entirely in Chinese. Volunteering with a Beijing-based organisation on weekends.

Beijing is a city of 21 million people with thousands of years of history. The fraction of it you will see from inside Schwarzman College is essentially zero. Getting out requires effort, but the city rewards it.

Your personal spending money for the entire year — approximately $4,000 (the official site confirms a personal stipend but does not publish the amount). Here is how far it actually goes.

What the stipend covers

The stipend is meant to cover everything beyond what the programme provides directly. Your tuition, housing, meals in the Schwarzman dining hall, flights to and from Beijing, health insurance and a laptop are all covered separately. The stipend is for personal expenses: eating out, weekend travel within China, things you need, entertainment, and day-to-day living costs.

Spread over the roughly 10.5 months in Beijing, that works out to about $380 per month. We estimate typical personal spending at $120 to $250 per month if you are not trying to live lavishly. China is affordable for basics: a meal at a local restaurant costs $2 to $5, a subway ride is under $1, and a weekend trip to another Chinese city can be done for $50 to $100 with trains and budget hotels.

Typical monthly breakdown

Bottom line: the stipend is tight but workable if you are not spending aggressively, and most scholars find it sufficient for a comfortable year. If you want extensive independent travel across China or Southeast Asia during breaks, you may want to supplement it with personal savings. The programme does not provide additional funding beyond the stipend.

Tsinghua University and Beijing

One of Asia’s most prestigious universities, set in former imperial gardens, in a city that is simultaneously ancient and futuristic.

The campus

Tsinghua University sits on the grounds of former Qing Dynasty imperial gardens in the Haidian district of north-western Beijing. The campus is expansive and genuinely beautiful, with traditional Chinese gardens, lotus ponds, and a mix of historic and modern architecture. With over 30,000 students, it is a small city in itself, complete with banks, post offices, supermarkets and dozens of canteens.

Tsinghua is often called the “MIT of China” and is consistently ranked the top university in Asia. Walking around campus, you are surrounded by some of the brightest students in a country of 1.4 billion people. That context alone should motivate you to look beyond the walls of Schwarzman College.

Location in Beijing

Haidian is the university district, not central Beijing. The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and the main commercial areas are a 40-to-60-minute subway ride away. This is not like studying in central London or Manhattan, where the city is right outside your door. Getting to the interesting parts of Beijing takes deliberate effort and time.

That said, Beijing’s subway system is extensive, cheap and efficient. The city is enormous and endlessly varied, from the hutong alleyways of the old city to the gleaming towers of the CBD to the art districts of 798 and Caochangdi. You could spend a decade exploring Beijing and not run out of new things to find. The question is whether you will bother to leave campus to do it.

Guest speakers and events

One of the genuine advantages of living in Schwarzman College: the speaker line-up is exceptional. Past guest speakers listed on the official site include Tony Blair (former UK Prime Minister), Condoleezza Rice (former US Secretary of State), Indra Nooyi (former PepsiCo CEO), Richard Haass (former Council on Foreign Relations president), Fareed Zakaria (CNN host and author) and Zhang Xin (co-founder of SOHO China).

These are not distant auditorium lectures. With about 150 scholars, the setting is more intimate than you would get at a major university, and some speakers do smaller sessions with groups of scholars. The networking around these events, particularly with the Chinese business and political leaders who attend, can be significant if you are proactive.

This is where the bubble actually works in your favour. Because everything happens inside the building, you are close to these speakers in a way that students at larger institutions simply are not. Take advantage of it.

Spouse or partner

If you have a spouse or partner, the programme’s support is essentially nonexistent. Partners may come to Beijing, but they may not live or stay overnight in the College, and the programme provides no funding, housing assistance or visa help for accompanying family members. Your partner would need to secure their own visa, find their own housing in Beijing, and cover their own expenses entirely.

Beijing housing near Tsinghua is not cheap by Chinese standards, though it is significantly cheaper than New York or London. A small apartment in Wudaokou, the neighbourhood adjacent to campus, runs roughly $550 to $1,100 (4,000 to 8,000 RMB) per month by our estimate, depending on size and quality. Your stipend was not designed to cover a second person’s living costs.

This is a meaningful consideration. Some scholars manage it, but it requires separate financial planning and the understanding that your partner’s experience in Beijing will be quite different from yours. They will not have access to the Schwarzman building, the events or the community.

What partners need to know

• Housing: must arrange independently. The Wudaokou area is closest to campus.
• Visa: no sponsorship from the programme. Tourist visas require exits every 30–60 days. A work or student visa requires separate arrangements.
• Funding: zero financial support from Schwarzman. Budget independently.
• Employment: working in China legally requires a work permit, which is difficult to obtain without employer sponsorship.
• Language: Beijing is not an easy city for non-Chinese speakers. English proficiency outside universities and international hotels is limited.
• Social life: your partner will need to build their own community. Expat groups and language-exchange meetups exist but take initiative to find.

Exploration and travel

The Student Life team organises cultural excursions and the programme includes Deep Dive travel. But the best discoveries are usually your own.

Beijing landmarks. The Student Life team arranges visits to major cultural sites: the Summer Palace, the Lama Temple (Yonghe Temple), the Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven and the hutong neighbourhoods. These are typically guided group excursions that give a structured introduction to the city’s history.

Travel throughout China. Deep Dive trips take scholars to different Chinese provinces to study regional economic development, governance and culture. Past destinations have included Shenzhen, Shanghai, Chengdu and Xi’an. These multi-day trips include company visits, government briefings and cultural immersion that would be difficult to arrange independently.

Independent exploration. China’s high-speed rail network makes independent travel remarkably easy and affordable. Beijing to Shanghai is 4.5 hours; Beijing to Xi’an is about 5 hours. Weekends and breaks are your chance to see the country on your own terms, without a programme itinerary.

The honest summary

Living in Beijing as a Schwarzman Scholar is comfortable in a way that can become its own trap. The building is world-class. The speakers are extraordinary. The stipend is enough. The internet situation is manageable with preparation. But the default experience, if you do not fight for more, is spending most of a year in a very nice building with 150 other international students and leaving China having barely scratched the surface of the country you came to understand.

The scholars who get the most from the year tend to be the ones who treated the building as a base camp rather than a destination. They joined Tsinghua clubs, found local friends, travelled on weekends, and engaged with Beijing on its own terms. The scholars who found the year underwhelming usually let the bubble define their experience.

Next: scholar life and community — clubs, speakers, mentorship and the 1,500+ alumni network.