Peking University (Chinese: 北京大学), colloquially known in Chinese as Beida (北大, Běidà), was established in 1898. It is one of the most famous two university in China and it is regarded as one of the best and the most selective universities in China. Peking University is the first formally established university, and the first national university of China. The university policy has mandated the use of Peking University in English rather than Beijing University[citation needed] due to tradition and the desire to avoid confusion with Beijing Normal University and other similarly named institutions.
History
Peking University was established in Beijing in December 1898 during the Hundred Days Reform and was originally known as the Imperial University of Peking (Chinese: 京师大学堂). In 1912, following the Xinhai Revolution, the Imperial University of Peking was renamed the National Peking University (国立北京大学). The famous scholar Cai Yuanpei was appointed president on January 4, 1917 and helped transform the university into the country's largest institution of higher learning, with 14 departments and an enrollment of more than 2,000 students. Cai, inspired by the German model of academic freedom, recruited an intellectually diverse faculty that included Hu Shih, Chen Duxiu, and Lu Xun. In 1919 students of Peking University formed the bulk of the protesters of the May Fourth Movement. Efforts by the Beiyang government to end to protests by sealing off the Peking University campus led to Cai's resignation. In 1920 Peking University became the second Chinese university to accept female students, after Nanjing University.
After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 (and the resulting expansion of Japanese territorial control in east China), Peking University moved to Changsha and formed the Changsha Temporary University along with Tsinghua University and Nankai University. In 1938, the three schools moved again, this time to Kunming, and formed the National Southwestern United University. In 1946, after World War II, Peking University moved back to Beijing. At that time, the university comprised six schools (Arts, Science, Law, Medicine, Engineering, and Agriculture), and a research institute for humanities. The total student enrollment grew up to 3,000.
After the People's Republic of China was established in 1949, Yenching University was merged into Peking University and Peking University lost its "national" appellation to reflect the fact that all universities under the new socialist state would be public. In 1952 Peking University moved from downtown Beijing to the former Yenching campus.
In 2000, Beijing Medical University was merged into Peking University and became the Peking University Health Science Campus