Chaos reigns - taxis and private cars jam roads leading to the august and imposing group of buildings, distracted youngsters struggle under loads of books and belongings, flustered parents and family members jostle in the midsummer melee.
A few enterprising and independent young ones are rewarded with 100 yuan (HK$114) by administrators for braving the throng alone.
It sounds like enrolment day at a sought-after Hong Kong kindergarten, but it's not. It's matriculation day at your average university on the mainland, where the event has become notorious for turning respectable campuses into heaving circuses.
Last week in Hubei, one first-year student required three taxis to transport seven relatives and 10 bags of personal belongings as she started her new life at Wuhan University of Science and Engineering.
Entrances to campuses are constantly blocked by streams of new students arriving with their families in cars. At Central China Normal University in Wuhan , 400 parents were allowed to stay overnight in the campus gymnasium.
Now Beijing's China Youth University of Political Science is offering a 100 yuan sweetener in an attempt to rein in the spectacle and encourage students to become more independent. The bonus is the first of its kind, and Li Geng , director of the university's department of student affairs, said there was no reason students shouldn't arrive for their first day at university on their own.