The DUT campus has a west, east, and north gate. There is nothing on the south gate since it is the main entrance to the university and is on the far side of campus, so we never went out that way. Following are the locations of places we frequently went to and other useful places.

There are several places to play pool and ping pong. There is also a wide range of skill levels for these sports, so don’t worry about it if you are lacking. The place with the best-kept equipment is across the road from the PEPSI Place and across from the Donkey Restaurant, and they charge about 2RMB/30mins. Another place is on the second floor of the Bookstore, but their equipment is not the best. If you exit the office and walk towards you left until you see the first street, go up to the building on the corner and climb to the second floor. I can’t remember how much they charge. A third place that is a bit farther from the office is the one in the gym. I don’t have too much info on this one as we went only once at the beginning of the summer.

The bookstore sells textbooks, but it also has a small store that sells batteries to ping pong balls to pens and other things on the second floor next to the pool hall. I bought a small notebook for my research for 1RMB there. The bookstore is on the first corner you encounter if you walk left as you come out of the office.

You can play many kinds of sports here. They have indoor courts for badminton, basketball, ping pong, pool, aerobics classes, yoga, volleyball, etc. You have to pay a relatively small summer membership fee. To get there, make a left as you come in through the east gate and you will see a large building there.

The place I like the most is the one straight north from the PEPSI Place. You have to keep walking until you get somewhat close to the north gate. They have soccer and basketball pickup games going on during the early afternoon until about 8pm. Another site is outside the west gate where the undergrad dorms are at. There is only soccer on these fields and it is often harder to play here since it’s a bit more crowded than the one on the north gate. A third place to play outdoor sports is right next to the gym. They have basketball, volleyball, and tennis here.All soccer fields are turf so some locals wear pants when playing so as to protect their knees.

There are convenience stores scattered everywhere in and around campus. They sell drinks, Chinese snacks, and ice cream. Some are a bit larger and can be called supermarkets as they sell noodles, fruit, vegetables, bathroom items, yogurt, among others. There is one supermarket just outside the west gate and it has a bakery! There are also large stores like Trust Mart. This is a Chinese Wal-Mart and it’s where we got our stuff for our apartment. Trust Mart is located past the east gate on a 15-minue walk. Ask the grad students to take you there so that you know how to get there as this place was very important for us.