Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center

Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center (HEMC), Guangzhou University Town or Guangzhou University City (Chinese: 广州大学城) is an area featured by higher education institutions, located on Xiaoguwei Island (Chinese: 小谷围岛) in Panyu District, Guangzhou, China. It was opened in 2004. With an area of approximately 17.9 km² and 3.53 millions square meters of indoor space, the complex is capable of accommodating 350 to 400 thousand people.

During the phase I of the project, ten local higher education institutions set up new campuses on the Xiaoguwei island with a total of 120,000 students. All except Guangzhou University (which was relocated to the Mega Centre) maintain their old campuses within the city. In the phase II of the project, two local higher education institutions set up new campuses on the Xinzao town. The twelve institutions are:

Phase	University	Chinese	Est.	Type	Location
Phase I	Sun Yat-sen University	中山大学	1924	National	Xiaoguwei Island
	South China University of Technology	华南理工大学	1952	National
	South China Normal University	华南师范大学	1933	Provincial
	Guangdong University of Foreign Studies	广东外语外贸大学	1995	National
	Guangdong University of Technology	广东工业大学	1995	Provincial
	Guangzhou University	广州大学	2000	Provincial
	Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine	广州中医葯大学	1956	National
	Guangdong Pharmaceutical University	广东药学院	1958	Provincial
	Xinghai Conservatory of Music	星海音乐学院	1932	Provincial
	Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts	广州美术学院	1953	Provincial
Phase II	Jinan University	暨南大学	1906	National	Xinzao town
	Guangzhou Medical University	广州医科大学	1958	Provincial

Transportation

The island can be accessed through the toll Nansha Port Expressway, which links the island to Haizhu District to the north and Panyu District to the south. A two-section cross-river tunnel provides alternative free of charge access to the island, linking it to the Luntou (Chinese: 仑头) area in Haizhu District via the planned Biological Industry Island (Chinese: 广州国际生物岛). In addition, a bridge connects the island to the southeast part of Haizhu district near the Yingzhou Ecological Park.

Two Guangzhou Metro stations are located on the island. The Higher Education Mega Center North Station (Chinese: 大学城北站) and South Station (Chinese: 大学城南站) of Line 4 provide access to Guangzhou's convenient metro network.

The island is covered by a dozen of bus routes, with buses mainly running between the university town and the city centre. In general, there are two types of bus service provided: Regular buses that operate like buses in the city, making frequent stops and it takes longer to ride, and commuter express buses dedicated to serve the university town, with buses mainly running on expressways and making several stops. Many of these express buses travel between the old and new campuses of the universities. There are also shuttle buses provided by some universities which travel between their own campuses. However, these buses are reserved for the university faculty and staff, therefore can not be used by the public or students. Within the university town, students and teachers usually walk or cycle to classes, and ride a bus to farther locations like the other universities or the shopping malls on the island. The most heavily used bus route is 381, which runs along the middle ring road that connects all ten universities and two metro stations.

Sports facilities

All ten universities have their own sports facilities while other venues were built by the government and intended to be shared by all the universities, including the central stadium, which is one of the largest in Guangzhou.

External links

• Guangzhou University City (Chinese)