Tickets help schools deal with summer crowds

A university in China has introduced an online booking system for summer visitors to its campus to cut back on long lines of people — many of them young students with parents hoping to encourage their children’s studies.

Visitors to Peking University will need to register their information on the school’s WeChat account or website seven days in advance starting on Saturday, said Xing Jingsong, deputy director of the university’s security department.

Summer visits are available from July 14 to Aug 20, Xing said at a news conference on Thursday.

The university allows a maximum of 3,000 visitors onto the campus daily between 8:30 am and 11 am, and between 2 pm and 4:30 pm. They can only visit the campus once during the summer, he said.

Each person who has made a reservation can bring as many as two other people. Children under 10 must be accompanied by a guardian, he added.

Some top universities in China restrict the public from visiting their campuses, and students and staff are often required to show identification before they’re allowed to enter.

During summer vacation, many parents from around the country take their children to visit Peking University and neighboring Tsinghua University. In the past, they have sometimes had to wait in line for several hours at the university gate to have their identity checked by security staff.

The sheer number of tourists wishing to enter the two campuses in summer has become so high in recent years that it has even prompted a controversial new business model, with students and staff charging people money to guide them around the campus. People with credentials, such as a student card, can bring as many as three people onto the campuses.

Although admission to either campus is officially free, both Tsinghua and Beijing universities have imposed a time limit on visitors.

A visitor needs to bring an identification card for admission to the campuses, and facial recognition software verifies that the photo on the card matches a real-time scan of the person’s face, Xing said.

The university’s security department will work with the police to crack down on ticket scalping, he said.

Tsinghua University will launch a similar online booking service on Monday to offer a better experience to visitors, according to the school’s WeChat account.

Student volunteers will provide free tours of the university’s famous scenic spots, the post said.