The Diamond Tour

By Monica

On 19^th October, I conducted a tour of the Engineering facilities for a delegation of visitors form Qinghai University in China. It was my pleasure to show our university to other university members; especially because these delegates are from my country. More importantly, this tour gave visitors a brief introduction of what UK’s teaching environment looks like and the difference we two countries have at a tertiary level. In the meantime, as an international ambassador, this was my first time as a tour guide; this activity enhanced my several skills, including communication skill, cooperation skills with others, and translation skills, which I proved myself through this opportunity.

During this tour, I showed them around the engineering department, and the major part of this tour was to show them around the new building which is The Diamond building. Based on my preparation for this tour, I would hereby like to give a summary of this fantastic building.

在前不久的19号，我作为一名工程学院的国际大使向一群来自青海大学的教授和老师介绍了我们工程院的部分建筑，特别带领他们参观了我们的新建筑-钻石大楼。通过这次的工作，我向大家展示了我的工作能力，同时也提高了我自己的工作技能，特别是在沟通和翻译方面。下面我用文字为大家简单介绍一下钻石大楼。

This building took around 2 year to construct and prepare for opening. It costs £81 million which is the largest ever investment for the University in teaching and learning. The Diamond is now officially opened and is our new 24-hour learning space and since it is able to offer 1000 additional study spaces to all students in all departments. So as well as being a specialist engineering teaching facilities, the building also houses a range of lecture theatres, seminar rooms, open-plan learning spaces, library services and social spaces, including a café. The Diamond is partially open to the public and there is no swipe access to enter the building. It has 4 floors besides a basement, in which there are 6 big lecture theatres. These 6 lecture theatres are response for offer space that let all first year engineering students study in. And the lecture theatre 1 should be singled out as it has a 3D screen for interactive lectures using 3D software and glasses. On the ground floor, the main entrance will be greeted by the reception desk and a large public café locates on left. Next to this are windows into the upper half of the double-height, 400 seat lecture theatre, rising from the basement. On upper levels, there are several different labs to be provided to different usage, including EEE, chemical and biological engineering, biobacterial and so on.

这座建筑耗资8.1个亿人民币（约），耗时接近2年完成，是一座兼课程教学与实验教学为一身的大楼。同时，作为一个24小时开放的大楼，其中还有许多自助学习的教室和空间，也提供了电脑等学习设备，所以它也是一座和IC一样的学习室。这座大楼一共有4层，还包括了一个地下室。地下室中有6个教室，其中教室1含有3D的大屏，可以让老师展示3D的模型，给学生配有专业的3D眼镜。1楼是进入大楼的主要入口，可以简单餐食的食堂也同时在1楼。1楼以上是不同的实验室和自习室，给很多不同专业的学生用于实验和学习。

More details, I advise you to attend the tour guide running officially by staffs from The Diamond.

To book a tour click here. 

The event will be held on the following days:

如果您想得到更多关于这座大楼的资讯，您可以参加由学校提供的专门的导览，时间列表如上，预定导览请点击上方的链接。

Last but not least, it was my honor to be invited as tour guide, and hope those visitors are all satisfied my work.

最后我想感谢来自青海大学的访问学者们，他们给了我这次机会展示自己，同时我希望他们对我的工作表现满意。附上我们在IC入口的合影留念，以此。