Location from remembrance-of-earths-past by
Beijing's premier scientific university — the campus where Ye Zhetai was beaten to death in a struggle session, where Ye Wenjie taught physics for two decades after returning from Red Coast, and where almost every key scientist in the trilogy holds a degree.
Tsinghua in the trilogy carries two intertwined memories: the catastrophic Cultural Revolution era when its physics department was destroyed and the post-Reform era when Ye Wenjie quietly taught the children of her father's killers. Both halves coexist in the same paths. Frontiers of Science recruits drink coffee in the same courtyards where struggle sessions were held. Ye Wenjie's lectures were always full.
A walled campus in northwest Beijing, gray-brick gates and willow-shaded paths winding between Republican-era brick halls and bright modern labs. Bicycles racked everywhere. Pine trees, lotus ponds, a famous old library. In summer it is leafy and humid; in winter the trees are bare and the wind funnels between buildings.