Beilin Hotel (and the taxi fleet headquartered there).
Beijing Linye Daxue owned and operated a hotel (Beilin, “North Forest”). And a taxi fleet. And a gas station.
Useful services for faculty and students? Hardly – they were pitched at the public. Which begged the question: how did they relate to the mission of a university? Money. The university had capital; why not use it to bring in extra revenue through business? Wasn’t that what capitalism – no, a “socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics” – was all about? (For a successful model they needed look no further than American college sports.)
Midway through the year, Lin Da began renovating apartments in its Foreign Experts Guesthouse. Coincidentally, it also contracted fewer foreign teachers, freeing up more units. Leasing apartments to outsiders turned out to be quite lucrative.
Further, side businesses served as “perks,” reflecting the Chinese principle of guanxi: whoever had the pull got the favors. Ranking university officials enjoyed owning a hotel to accommodate visiting family and friends, as well as a taxi fleet to transport them around the city. When they took the university car for a spin, their own gas station could give them a free fill-up.
And with access to such services, officials could grant favors to others, thereby amassing still more guanxi.
Foreign Experts Guesthouse. My apartment was on the fourth floor on the right, facing the other direction.
