Staff Canteen Lunch

There are numerous cafeterias and snack bars around the BNU campus, to serve the large student and staff population. Today we tried out the Staff Canteen for lunch. It is very busy and hectic, but quite efficient. There are about a dozen serving stations around the edge of the large room, serving a wide variety of complete meals, noodle bowls, snacks such as dumplings, and other things. You get a plastic card and charge it up with cash, and then whenever you choose something from one of the serving stations, you put the card in a machine and the server charges the appropriate amount (making it easy for non-Chinese speakers). Much more efficient than at Caltech!


Staff Canteen
The food is very cheap by US standards - the full meals are around 5 yuan (60 cents US), and the plate of dumplings I had were 3 yuan (40 US cents).


My Lunch
The soup (or gruel) is free, and they serve it from the biggest tureen I have ever seen!


Serving Soup


Biggest Soup Tureen I Ever Saw!