Beijing
Beijing Municipality Major cityThe national capital and the center of Chinese education, politics and culture, Beijing packs Peking University, Tsinghua and dozens of other universities into the Haidian campus belt alone. For international students it offers the widest choice of programs and scholarships in China, the largest foreign-student community, and unmatched access to embassies, international organizations, media and multinationals. Four thousand years of history — from the Forbidden City to the Great Wall — sit alongside a first-tier modern city.
- China's densest cluster of top universities and Chinese Government Scholarship seats
- Direct flights to nearly every major city in South and Southeast Asia, the Gulf and Africa
- Niujie Mosque quarter and a deep, centuries-old halal food scene
- Internship market spanning embassies, international media, NGOs and tech giants
- Forbidden City, Great Wall weekends and a year-round cultural calendar
Living here
Monthly budget
CNY 3,500–6,500 (USD 490–900) / month incl. dorm or shared flat
On-campus dorms are the affordable default; off-campus shared rooms near the Haidian campus cluster cost several times the dorm rate and usually need agency fees and deposits.
Getting around
Metro system in operation. Two mega-hubs — Capital (PEK) and Daxing (PKX) — with direct flights across Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
Halal food
Excellent: a centuries-old Hui community centered on the Niujie (Ox Street) mosque quarter keeps halal butchers, bakeries and restaurants citywide, and Lanzhou lamian shops are on every other block. Campus canteens all run halal windows.
Healthcare
The top of China's hospital pyramid (Peking Union Medical College Hospital and peers), with English-speaking international departments; routine care starts at the campus clinic under mandatory student insurance.
Climate
Four distinct seasons: hot rainy summers, dry cold winters that can dip below −8°C, and short, occasionally dusty springs.
Set up a local SIM and a mobile wallet (WeChat Pay or Alipay) in your first week — the city is effectively cashless. The subway is one of the world's largest, fully signed in English, and shared bikes blanket the campus districts. English is comfortable inside university international colleges and weaker in older neighborhoods, so a few Mandarin phrases go a long way.
Factual fields as of 2026-09-21 — editorial estimate, not official figures.
Universities in Beijing (38)
14 English-taught programs tracked in this city — see them.