In a glimpse, the formal universities or colleges in the Chinese mainland have their names in the format of location + college or university, with some more words that can highlight the features added, for example, “Normal”, “Petroleum”, “Forestry”. In terms of location or places, there seems a connection of the school name and the name of the place, for example, Guangxi University means the institute is located in or hosted by Guangxi. But there are some names that are misleading, for example, Peking University or Beijing University, is not a college run by Beijing, but one run by the national educational authorities, only those who live in Beijing (or to be exact those who have Beijing household registration) have got the much larger percentage of benefits of the college than their fellow countrymen in other parts of the nation; Sichuan International Studies University is not located in Sichuan either, but in Chongqing. Some may argue that previously Chongqing was under the jurisdiction of Sichuan, but it has been quite some time that the two administration bodies have been independent from each other, so now the unwillingness of the university to change its name or its address is absolutely unjustified and dishonest. But the case of Xizang Minzu University is far more ridiculous because it is not located in Xizang (or Tibet) but in Xianyang, a place most of Chinese don’t even know where. Yes, Xianyang is part of Shaanxi Province, a central China province, quite a long distance away from Tibet and both provinces do not have subordination or similar geographical or close cultural relations. The names of other universities in China are implying larger territory their influence reaches, such as Central China Normal University, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, University of Science and Technology of China.

But in my opinion, the most ambitious name of university is that of the former Qinzhou University which is located in Guangxi, after the approval of China’s Ministry of Education, it is now named Beibu Gulf University. The Beibu Gulf is also known as Bay of Tonkin, which doesn’t belong to any single country, but is shared by the seven nations around it and the world public. So that is why no other Chinese colleges can surpass this institute in terms of name. Perhaps only the Nanyang (means South Ocean in Chinese) Technological University in Singapore and the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand can outdo Beibu Gulf University by name only.