Beida or Tsinghua -- Which is the best university in China?
BEIJING-- Beida and Tsinghua are the two most prominent universities in China, a country of 1.35 billion people. (There are many other famous ones like Nanjing University, Renmin, or Fudan University, but for the scope of this article let us focus on these two.) Let's make no mistake, although Beida and Tsinghua are (just) ranked no 46 and 52 in the world according the THE rankings 2013 (Hong Kong University ranks no 35, but is listed separately [it's a British ranking, and HK was a former colony]), nevertheless these two are powerful global players.
The "Harvard of China"
Peking University(short: Beida, from "Beijing Daxue") is the center of China's humanities and often called "the Harvard of China" (or, from a Chinese point of view, Harvard is called "the Beida of America"), while Tsinghua is strongest in engineering and the sciences, and known as "the MIT of China."
Tsinghua is wealthier and looks typical American, at least the main campus. Beida has its beautiful lake and is home to China's greatest modern thinkers and philosophers like Gu Hongming, Lu Xun, Mao Zedong, Ji Xianlin, and Hu Shi. The list goes on.
Increasingly, the two are testing their prerogatives and are competing for China's top spot and for attracting best and brightest students in all the fields. They established their own business schools, language schools for foreigners, etc. [...]
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