Sichuan University Wangjiang Campus

This guide to Sichuan University's Wangjiang Campus in Chengdu is a tour of student life rather than a single event: the eight cafeterias that fill by noon, the prepaid cards that buy a tray of rice and a hot dish for less than a coffee back home, and the seven o'clock closing rush that turns the queue into a stampede. It follows that campus economy out through the gates too, where Chengdu's booming coffee scene has crowded the streets with cafes competing for the same students. Look around as you walk: red-brick halls with Western-style windows, a whale-shaped gymnasium, and an avenue of ginkgo trees that turns gold each autumn.