A visitor from Central China's Hubei Province surnamed An, who took his daughter, a pupil for a visit in Beijing following a travel agency was stopped from visiting Peking University at the school gate July 23, 2006.

"We travel with the agency for the sake of Bei Da (Peking University) and Tsing Hua (University) but we never expected that we were not allowed to get in," An, with his daughter was very frustrated at the ban.

Peking University, a hot tour site recent years for those who dream of famous universities issued a notice July 23, 2006 to the public aiming to control the number of visitors for the sake of normal order on campus. The notice says the university will not receive pupil and adult visitor groups but allow middle school student groups and education institutes, Beijing Morning Post reported.

According to a guard official of the university, the notice had come into effect. "Middle school student groups are only allowed in between 8: 30 to 11:30 a.m. and noon to 5:00 p.m," the official added. Individual visitors are free to visit.

A visitor from Southwest China's Sichuan Province said Peking University is unjustified to ban visits. "The money raised to build the university is from taxpayers, so why can't taxpayers get in?" the visitor wondered.

Gu Haibing, professor with Renmin University voiced his support to open the campus to public. "Bei Da belongs to people around the nation, not only to people in Bei Da," the professor said.

He added that the campus is huge enough to receive the visitors it now has so the university may want to save the money for hiring guards by controlling the number of visitors.

However, voices opposing "famous university visits" have their own reasons.

Students of Tsing Hua University complained that the campus overfull of visitors is not comfortable for them to study and live in. "Many of them jam into the campus dining-halls," one student said.

The defense office of Tsing Hua said though the campus had been divided into tour area and teaching area, visitors are nearly everywhere on campus.

Tang Jun, associate researcher with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said Bei Da should not be a tour site receiving visitor groups organized by profit-making agencies. "As a free-charging site, Bei Da has the right to refuse travel agencies".

According to CCTV Evening News, a travel agency charges 50 yuan per person for a Bei Da and Tsing Hua visit. It means the free-charging university services as the ready profit source for the travel agency.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Guan Xiaomeng in Beijing at guanxm@chinadaily.com.cn