Graduating with a degree of difficulty

Brief encounter

Yang Liu, a third-year graduate student at Peking University, returned to campus on June 10.

From June 6, the university started to allow students preparing to graduate to gradually return to school.

However, due to the cluster cases in Beijing, the university stopped the practice on June 17, by which time Yang was already back on campus and allowed to stay.

"I was really happy that I could return to the school after spending almost five months at home," the 25-year-old said. "Everything looks more or less the same as it did in January when I left the school, yet the number of students in the school is significantly less than before, which is a reminder about the pandemic."

Students are not allowed to leave the campus and the school does not permit large gatherings of people, she said.

They can stay in the dorms after their health codes and nucleic acid test results for COVID-19 are verified. Each dorm room accommodates two students, compared to four to six before the outbreak, she said.

Yang's graduation trip has been canceled and she is scheduled to start work at a Beijing company after she tidies up her affairs at the university later this month.

"It feels like I have not properly celebrated my graduation before I have to leave the ivory towers behind and enter society," Yang said.

"Although I am disappointed, it is comforting to know that I am going through this with millions of other students."

Zhou Lihua in Wuhan contributed to this story.