No.1 Senior High School of Ürümqi

No.1 Senior High School of Ürümqi
乌鲁木齐市第一中学
ئۈرۈمچى شەھەرلىك 1-ئوتتۇرا مەكتەپ
No.1 Senior High School of Ürümqi; 乌鲁木齐市第一中学; ئۈرۈمچى شەھەرلىك 1-ئوتتۇرا مەكتەپ
	Logo of Ürümqi No.1 Senior High School
Address
	Toutunhe District; Urumqi; China
Coordinates	43°47′53″N 87°37′10″E / 43.79798°N 87.61942°ECoordinates: 43°47′53″N 87°37′10″E / 43.79798°N 87.61942°E
Information
Type	Public
Motto	厚德、砺志、博学
Established	1891
Principal	Li Zhigui (李志贵)
Staff	155[1]
Number of students	2132[1]
Color(s)	Blue, White
Nickname	Yizhong (一中)
Affiliations	Key high schools in Urumqi
Website	Official website

The Front Gate of Urumqi No.1 High School, Lvgu Campus

The No.1 Senior High School of Ürümqi (simplified Chinese: 乌鲁木齐市第一中学; traditional Chinese: 烏魯木齊市第一中學; pinyin: Wūlǔmùqí Shì Dìyīzhōngxué, Uyghur: ئۈرۈمچى شەھەرلىك 1-ئوتتۇرا مەكتەپ, Үрүмчи Шеһерлик Биринчи Оттура Мектеп‎, ULY: Ürümchi Sheherlik Birinchi Ottura Mektep ), literally Ürümqi No.1 High School, colloquially abbreviated as "乌鲁木齐一中" or "乌市一中", sometimes called No.1 Middle School of Urumqi, is a prestigious public high school in Ürümqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, under the jurisdiction of the Urumqi Municipal Education Bureau. Founded in 1891 during the Qing Dynasty, it is the oldest school in Xinjiang.^[2]

Located in the downtown Bei Men (北门) at Jiankang Road (健康路) and North Jiefang Road (解放北路) in Tianshan District, Urumqi, the school is the accredited top-ranking high school in Urumqi city and in Xinjiang, and is considered a typical instance of local secondary education.^[3] All of the courses are in Chinese. The students are predominantly Han Chinese, with other ethnic groups including Hui, Uyghur, Kazakh, Mongol, etc.

Starting from August, 2017, the school begin using the new campus located in the Bei'er Street(北二巷) of Kanasihubei Road(喀纳斯湖北路). With an investment of more than 551 million yuan, the new campus covers an area of 14.5547 hectares and contains two Teaching Buildings, two Science Buildings(with three floors of Library), one Office Building, one Art Building, one Astronomy-Music Integrated Building, one Stadium, three Dormitory Buildings, one Standard Soccer Field, and one Dining Hall Building. ^[4]

History

The institutional predecessor, known as Bo Da Academy of Sinkiang (simplified Chinese: 新疆博达书院/博大书院; traditional Chinese: 新疆博達書院/博大書院)(lit. Sinkiang Academy of Erudition), of the high school was founded on August 14, 1891 by the then Qing Dynasty, when it was 20 years before the establishment of the Republic of China.

Xin Gui Ruo Gui (心规若晷) sundial presented by the 1981 graduates

Symbolic front gate, exposed to North Jiefang Road (解放北路) side, Urumqi

In the early ROC period, many well-educated Chinese intellectuals and political figures, converged on the school to pursue their studies in Xinjiang. The former school president Yu Xiusong (Chinese: 俞秀松) (in office in 1936), came around and taught in the school as the then leader of the CPC Shanghai Leading Group and one of the founding members of the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC). In 1938, Li Yunyang (Chinese: 李云扬), one of the CPC members dispatched by the Central Politburo, became president of the school. Other major figures, such as the revolutionary martyr Lin Jilu, along with Shen Yanbing (writer), Zhao Dan (artist), have lectured in the school. These people who had intensive revolutionary backgrounds affected the students deeply in their minds, bringing in Marxist ideology. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, some of them also contrived to enlighten the students and the young generation and propagandized ideological guidance in an effort to help the country. Their efforts contributed to the peaceful liberation of Xinjiang and created a hopeful atmosphere among the youths.

By 1953, the State Education Commission labelled the school as the sole key middle school in Xinjiang. However, the Cultural Revolution inflicted heavy losses upon it; almost all stored books in its library totaling approximately 40,000 were rifled during that time. With the resumption of the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE, or CEE) in the late 1970s right after the Cultural Revolution, the school had been achieving progressive success in CEE results of the students. In 1982, it was labelled once more in the first list of the country's best-run key schools. Since 1995, the school has permanently ranked at the top places by CEE evaluation. Through the public assessment, it was chosen as a city-level unit of spiritual civilization in the year 1995, and sequentially as the autonomous region-level one in the end of the same year. Over the nearest past four years, the school's rate of matriculation (ROM) to college reached over 99% steadily. The high school consolidated its top rank in Xinjiang high schools exposed by the CEE result.

The New Campus

In 2004, a civil North School of the No.1 Senior High School of Urumqi (乌鲁木齐市第一中学北校) was founded by the school authorities and their collaborative company known as Xinjiang Jun Fa Industrial & Investment Co. Ltd (新疆俊发实业投资有限责任公司).^[5]

Starting from August, 2017, the school begin using the new campus located in the Bei'er Street(北二巷) of Kanasihubei Road(喀纳斯湖北路).^[4]

Facilities

Urumqi No.1 High School buildings on campus

The school is currently composed of the Teaching Building (Yifu Building) (逸夫教学楼), Gymnastics-Art Integrated Building (体育艺术综合楼) and the Science Building (科学馆). General programming construction was completed in 2002, and at the same time the school systematically revamped the teaching equipment, experimental apparatus and basic facilities. The GA Integrated Building was built in 2005. It has 34 so-called Special Classrooms, including Telecasting Room, Learning Room, Room of Celestial Phenomena and Computer Rooms. School buildings also contain auditoriums, a studio and Chamber for Academic Report (学术报告厅) used for conferences. In addition, there is a plastic field underground and overground (for basketball and track and field), a basketball gymnasium and rooms for fine arts and music education.

Teaching building seen from front-gate

Panorama of school playground in 2007

The school administration had been highly concerned about the audiovisual means conducive to multimedia education. In 2007, the school leadership invited tenders. Eventually, it chose Anliang Technology Co., Ltd (安良科技公司) for the operation of the multimedia installment around every corner in the school.^[6] All the classrooms were fit with computer systems and projectors. The computers are embedded in the platform desks and are linked to the entire school's networks. Bidirectional closed-circuit television (CCTV) system is available. As every classroom is accessible to Internet, it has proved to be very convenient when such demand exists during some classes.^[7] The school has operated its own campus website since 2005, on which it can release campus news and issue circulars to the public.

The Science Building (sometimes referred to as the Experiment Building), built in 1989, is the oldest existing building still in use at present. It contains the school library, laboratories, the biological specimen room and computer rooms. From July to August 2007, the Science Building was extensively renovated, with a budget of 1,760,000 yuan.^[6] With a variety of experimental instruments in the Science Building, the school is capable of fulfilling all required experimental curricula in physics, chemistry and biology. It has procured many latest and advanced instruments, such as new-styled microscopes, EMD timers, and multitesters.

The new Dining Hall has three floors, capable of serving 3,000 people at the same time.

In 2017, the school moved to the Green-Valley Campus(绿谷校区). With an investment of more than 551 million yuan, the new campus covers an area of 14.5547 hectares and contains two Teaching Buildings, two Science Buildings(with three floors of Library), one Office Building, one Art Building, one Astronomy-Music Integrated Building, one Stadium, three Dormitory Buildings, one Standard Soccer Field, and one Dining Hall Building. ^[4]

Library

Science Building before renovation, September 2006

The school library is set in the Science Building and has over 90,000 books in store, offering thousands of magazines and newspapers in nearly 520 kinds. The former school library was the oldest high school library in Xinjiang. According to the school chronicles, the library had 5,641 books in 1931, making one of the most famous in the province (Xinjiang was formerly a province during ROC period). In 1966, the number of stored books turned 40,000; however, the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) made an end to it, all its stored books having been looted.

Computer-installed platform desk

In the late 1970s, the library was reestablished and underwent massive development during the 1980s. The present school library was built in 1989. The library currently occupies 802.12 m² in area, with 195 seats in the reading room, available for 2 classes at the same time.^[8] It provides Senior 3 students with a room for individual study (RIS)(自习室). Three librarians are in charge of the library.

General Library Integrated System (GLIS) was adopted and put into service in September 2004.^[8] The library opens to all students during school time, and periodically, different classes commence their reading lessons in the library's reading room. Every student in the school has been given a bar-coded card for borrowing books, able to be recognized by computer. The school authorities spent 80,000 yuan annually for the library on the purchase of approximately 2,000 books, 60 kinds of newspapers and copies of magazines in 500 kinds.

Daily maintenance

A classroom

In order to lighten the burden on students in daily maintenance and to enhance security of the whole campus, the school employed a group of cleaners as well as security guards from Xinjiang Baihuacun Estate Management Company Limited (新疆百花村物业有限公司) in 2004, making it one of the few schools with such high campus life standards. The act is believed to reduce the labor intensity of students, whose de facto sanitary work is thus limited within the classrooms. School cleaners are responsible for the whole school except internal classrooms (public classrooms and auditoria excluded).

Inside the New Campus

School administration

The administrative group (行政组) of the No.1 Senior High School of Urumqi is divided into General Office (办公室), Pedagogy Office (教学处), Teaching and Research Office (教研处), Student Office (学生处), General Affairs Office (总务处) and Financial Office (财务室). Each office is normally in the charge of a director (主任) and a vice-director (副主任). The offices are mainly located in the Teaching Building and the Gymnastics-Art Integrated Building.

School leadership

Principal Li Zhigui (李志贵) Vice-PrincipalYan Jingxia (闫锦霞)
Gao Yueqing (高月清) CPC General Branch Secretary Liu Jianjun (刘建军)

Teachers and staff

Gao Xing, physics teacher and notable astronomy amateur

The No.1 Senior High School, with a group of high-qualified teachers, performs eminently in teaching and schooling to cultivate all-around students. The school has 8 (de facto 4 at present) special-class teachers (特级教师) and 77 high-class teachers (高级教师). Many of them give lessons and coach students in curricula for the College Entrance Exams (CEE) and for the national academic contests. The school has already raised the standard of employment, employing personnel with master's degrees or higher qualifications. English teachers are routinely sent abroad to attend further studies.

Averagely 20 theses by the school teachers are issued on the national publications, and their authors regularly win prizes every year. In addition, it is estimated that around 15 incumbent teachers are affiliated to different local academic associations, which are at the city level and the province level (autonomous region level). Some of these teachers undertake association assignments, or permanently assume office in the associations, such as Urumqi Chemistry Society (乌鲁木齐市化学学会), Xinjiang Physics Society (新疆物理学会), and Xinjiang Education Association (新疆教育学会).

teaching and research groups

Chinese teaching and research group
Mathematics teaching and research group
English teaching and research group
Physics teaching and research group
Chemistry teaching and research group
Biology teaching and research group
Politics teaching and research group
History teaching and research group
Geography teaching and research group
Physical education, Music and Fine arts teaching and research group
Information technology teaching and research group^[9]
Mental health teaching and research group

Students

Students' silence tribute for deaths in Wenchuan earthquake, May 19, 2008

The school mainly enrolls junior middle school graduates of junior high schools in Urumqi, and a few excellent students from the other parts in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The top students who passed its self-standardized difficult science-oriented tests (including Chinese, Mathematics, English, Physics and Chemistry) will form several Scientific Strong-point Classes (理科特长班).^[10] Other students who are not adept at studies but have conspicuous abilities in athletics, basketball or fine arts can be also admissible if they pass the selective tests.

Statistics indicates that the school ranked 6th in 2006,^[11] and 2nd in 2008 on a nationwide ranking list by number of the number-one scholars (#1 scholar or No.1 scholar) (Chinese: 状元; pinyin: zhuàngyuán) graduates in the College Entrance Examination (CEE) every year. As of 2008, it had totally developed 10 number-one scholar graduates.^[12]

In 2007, 31 students of the 2007 graduates of the No.1 Senior High School are set to be exempted from standardized exams (保送), or to be admitted 10 or 20 scores lower than the standard to different universities, 13 among whom passed the assessments conducted by the universities, known as the Independent Recruitment Tests (IRT) (自主招生考试). In 2008, 53 students of the to-be-graduates acquired the same privileges.

Curricula

The school provides three types of curricula: basic curricula, outreach curricula (electives) and practice curricula, though it is still a constitutionally CEE/contest-centered school similar to most other ordinary and key senior high schools in China. Coaching for contests (竞赛辅导) is commonly carried out in the Scientific Strong-point Classes (SS Classes) (理科特长班), as SS Classes are specially set to major in the academic contests in the first 2 school years.

Basic curricula

Subjects that all the students need to study for CEE:

Chinese (6 classes per week in Senior Grade 1 and 2, 7 classes per week in Senior Grade 3, have extra classes on Saturdays and in holidays, have two morning readings per week)
Mathematics (6 classes per week in Senior Grade 1 and 2, 7 classes per week in Senior Grade 3, have extra classes on Saturdays and in holidays)
English (6 classes per week in Senior Grade 1 and 2, 7 classes per week in Senior Grade 3, have extra classes on Saturdays and in holidays, have two morning readings per week)

Subjects that Natural-Sciences students need to study for CEE and Social-Sciences students need to study for the Qualifying Exam of the Academic Proficiency Examination for Senior High School Students:

Chemistry (5 classes per week in Senior Grade 1 and Natural-Science classes of Senior Grade 2, 6 classes per week in Natural-Science classes of Senior Grade 3, have extra classes on Saturdays and in holidays for Senior Grade 1 and Natural-Science classes of Senior Grade 2 and 3)
Physics (5 classes per week in Senior Grade 1 and Natural-Science classes of Senior Grade 2, 6 classes per week in Natural-Science classes of Senior Grade 3, have extra classes on Saturdays and in holidays for Senior Grade 1 and Natural-Science classes of Senior Grade 2 and 3)
Biology (3 classes per week in Social-Science classes of Senior Grade 2, 5 or 6 classes per week in Natural-Science classes of Senior Grade 2, 6 classes per week in Natural-Science classes of Senior Grade 3, have extra classes on Saturdays and in holidays for Natural-Science classes of Senior Grade 2 and 3)

Subjects that Social-Sciences students need to study for CEE and Natural-Sciences students need to study for the Qualifying Exam of the Academic Proficiency Examination for Senior High School Students:

History (3 classes per week in Senior Grade 1, 5 classes per week in Social-Science classes of Senior Grade 2, 6 classes per week in Social-Science classes of Senior Grade 3, have extra classes on Saturdays and in holidays for Social-Science classes of Senior Grade 2 and 3)
Geography (3 classes per week in Senior Grade 1, 5 classes per week in Social-Science classes of Senior Grade 2, 6 classes per week in Social-Science classes of Senior Grade 3, have extra classes on Saturdays and in holidays for Social-Science classes of Senior Grade 2 and 3)
Politics (2 classes per week in Senior Grade 1 and Natural-Science classes of Senior Grade 2, 5 classes per week in Social-Science classes of Senior Grade 2, 6 classes per week in Social-Science classes of Senior Grade 3, have extra classes on Saturdays and in holidays for Social-Science classes of Senior Grade 2 and 3)

Subjects that the students need to study for the Qualifying Exam of the Academic Proficiency Examination for Senior High School Students:

Information technology (Computer) (1 class per week in Senior Grade 1)
General technology (1 class per week in Senior Grade 2)

other subjects^[13]:

Gymnastics (PE) (2 classes per week, students of the same sex from two classes have PE classes together)
Music (1 class per week in Senior Grade 1)
Fine arts (1 class per week in Senior Grade 2)
Mental health (1 class per week sometimes)
Inquiry-based learning (1 class per week sometimes in Senior Grade 1)
Reading (1 class per week in Senior Grade 1 and 2)
Physical activity (1 class per week in Senior Grade 1 and 2)

Electives

For contests (i.e. High School Academic Contests, Chinese: 高中学科竞赛)

Natural-Sciences contests:

other contests:

For hobbies (titles of the groups)

A Peking Opera lecture during the Week of Culture on Campus, May 2008

Chinese literature society (国学社)
Astronomy group (天文小组)
Fine Arts group
Basketball team
Track and field team
Calisthenics team
Photography club (摄影小组)
Music group

Practice

Community service
Social practice
Association activities
Activities of technological innovations
Creation of Class Culture (CCC) (班级文化创建)

Activities

Growing-up ceremony

Morning Gathering (晨会) is a plenary assembly held at 9:00 a.m. every Monday (during school terms) on the playground, lasting for near 20 minutes. The weekly on-duty class hosts the gathering, responsible for a flag-raising ceremony, a speech to the flag (国旗献词), a summary of the school's performance in terms of discipline for the past one week (上周值周总结), and more optional procedures, such as lectures by teachers on certain topics.
Sports Day (运动会) is held every year, lasting for two or three days in late September or early October, including mostly track and field events. All students of three grades are bound to participate in the events. The 2005 Games were cancelled due to the 50th Anniversary of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The 2017 Games were also cancelled.
Basketball Games are held annually in March and April, involving only Senior 1 and Senior 2 team members, since the Senior 3 students are busy with academic preparations for the CEE.
Military training is an indispensable yearly drill for the newly recruited new Grade (Senior) 1 students, taking place in August before their first term in a local military base (barracks) or at school. All the students are required to live in the military base or at school during the military training.
Poem recitation contest
Callisthenic exercises contest (广播操比赛)
Joint performance on New Year's Day (元旦汇演)
Growing-up ceremony (成人仪式)

Student organizations

Student Union (学生会), made up of students, is responsible for school affairs and activities. It is established through the yearly Student Congress (学生代表大会), and consists of Life Department, Study Department and Propaganda Department.
Student's Union (December 2011-December 2012)
- President of Student's Union: Zhang Rongrong (张容榕), vice president of Student's Union: Yin Ruizhe (尹锐哲) and Jiang Bowen (姜博文).
CYLC committee (团委), made up of teachers and students, is established annually via CYLC Member Congress (团员代表大会).
CYLC branches (团支部) are set in every class pertinent to the League members (mostly the students). Every class has an elected student as the secretary of the branch (团支部书记)
Astronomy group (乌鲁木齐市第一中学天文小组 ) routinely recruits students with enthusiasms about astronomy or astrophotography. It has conducted large number of astronomical observations. The group is headed by Gao Xing (高兴), a physics teacher and astronomy amateur who discovered several celestial bodies.^[14] It should be noted that this astronomy group is quite popular on Internet, and plays an active part within the school. The current school's astronomy group, founded in 1998 (the initial one founded in the 1950s was intermitted by the Cultural Revolution),^[15] was set to typically aim for observation activities for affiliated students (it was also once disbanded in 2002, but later reestablished), and has accomplished many astronomical observation programs.

Endowment

ODA Japan

The Nissan Civilian with ODA logo

Though a public school, the No.1 Senior High School has received plenty of endowments of mainly educational instruments and others. Sir Run Run Shaw (邵逸夫), a Hong Kong media mogul and philanthropist, donated a building (presently as the main building) in 2001.

It was also endowed with many teaching and experimental instruments, such as desks, chairs, microscopes, vernier calipers, and multitesters from the Official Development Assistance Japan. This was the sequence to the Japan's 3rd Program of Secondary Education Equipment for Minority Areas in the People's Republic of China (第三次少数民族地区中学教育器材装备计划) launched by ODA Japan in 1999; the No.1 Senior High School was one of those to have been endowed, while the equipment was put into service in 2000.

Events

On April 22, 2003, the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University officially granted the No.1 Senior High School of Urumqi the nominal brass plate, making it one of its students resources base schools.
Hundreds of selected schoolgirls of both Senior 1 and 2 of the No.1 Senior High School attended the performance on the 50th Anniversary of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on October 1, 2005.
During the One hundred academicians’ (experts’) visits to one hundred schools (百名院士(专家)进百校 ) in August 2005, Chen Ning Yang, the 1957 Nobel Prize recipient, paid a visit to the No.1 Senior High School of Urumqi,^[16] along with several other CAS academicians who later lectured at the school.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Northern Irish astrophysicist who discovered the first radio pulsar, lectured on Seeking the Universe and answered to the questions the students had asked.

Partnerships

The No.1 Senior High School is base school that provide candidates for the following cooperative colleges or universities:

Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University (清华大学美术学院)
National University of Defense Technology (国防科技大学)
Wuhan University (武汉大学)
Harbin Institute of Technology (哈尔滨工业大学)

Sister schools

Osaka Prefectural Moriguchi Higashi High School (大阪府立守口東高等学校)
Chengdu No.7 High School (成都市第七中学)
High School attached to Tsinghua University (清华大学附属中学)
Harbin No.3 Middle School (哈尔滨市第三中学)
Private Nanshan Senior High School (simplified Chinese: 新北市私立南山高级中学; traditional Chinese: 新北市私立南山高級中學)