Chinese students forced to queue for hours in sub-zero temperatures due to lack of library space

Not being able to get in the library to cram with final exams lurking is an undergrad's worst nightmare - but it was a chilly reality for hundreds of these Chinese students.

Ahead of crucial exams in China, these massive queues spilled out of the library at the Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, in the capital of eastern China’s Jiangsu Province.

The seemingly endless lines formed hours before the library officially opened at 8am, regardless of frost on the ground and the bitter -2C temperatures.

Officials even opened half an hour early to meet demand, but desperate students still formed lines for hundreds of metres outside.

Students want the Chinese government to provide more cash for library places, complaining of hour-long waits and time wasted to guarantee a place.

They say the universities themselves have been doing little to solve the problem, and instead have been cashing in by charging desperate students for reserving library desks.

Student Union spokesman, An Chang, said: ‘Students want to work hard but standing for hours to get a study place is a waste of everyone's time.’

Chinese children are taught from an early age to work hard and study if they are to be a success.

Students, however, say that making them wait for hours in the cold does not achieve anything and are instead urging more money for study facilities.

At the Jilin Agricultural University Library, in the city of Changchun, the University has converted several floors of its library to make private study rooms for the wealthy few.

The university even admitted it was a way of getting money, but those who failed to get a place in a cubicle have complained that there are now even fewer spaces available for the rest.

One, Hu Feng, said: ‘A library belongs to all students, the booths are a good service but only for a small number of students, and for the majority of us who can’t have such a booth, our public study space is reduced by the booths.’

One student who failed to get a booth said: ‘Everyday I have to get up early and line up to grab a seat, and sometimes I still can’t successfully get a seat, but those 169 students are treated as VIPs in the library. A university should not be a two tier society.’

[Parents of missing Mexico students clash with troops]
[Hong Kong Police Clear Democracy Protest Camp]
[Video Shows Boy Thrown Into Air By Sewer Blast]

The university revealed that there were 169 one-square-metre rooms that had all sold out in the first day, mostly by senior students preparing for postgraduate and civil service exams.

Spokesman Lu Hin said: ‘A good study atmosphere is important for students who are preparing for important exams. To save students the troubles of getting up early to grab a seat in the library and provide them a better place to study, the cubicles were set up.’

But as well as complaints from those who lost out, students who managed to get booths also complained that they could only be used by the student who took out the lease, and that the booths can not be sub-let or shared with friends.