Before the Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo (EIT) was built, the site was home to several small villages, including Wangjia Village. Chenhao Li, a new student from Zhenhai High School, grew up in one of them.

Today, the village has given way to new academic buildings, and the boy who once left has now returned on the strength of his own efforts. He joins EIT’s 2026 entering undergraduate class, ready to begin a new chapter here.

Chenhao Li

The EIT Tower—Where the Old Family Home Stood

On registration day, Chenhao Li and his grandfather walked along the campus waterway. Light shimmered on the surface, and the channel curved past stately, classically designed buildings. His grandfather stopped and pointed toward the EIT Tower. "Your great-grandmother's old house," he said, "was probably right around where that tower stands now."

The EIT Tower stands 101 meters tall, making it the tallest tower on any university campus in China to date.From its observation deck, visitors can lean on the railing and take in a sweeping panoramic view.

EIT Tower

In Chenhao Li's memory, though, the old house was a modest two-story home with a small front courtyard. Every Spring Festival, the family gathered there, setting up two square tables indoors. The adults bustled about preparing the meal, filling the house with the warmth of home cooking. After dark, the courtyard became a playground for the children, alive with the crackle of firecrackers and bursts of laughter. "Those Spring Festivals at the old house were some of the happiest times of my life," he recalled.

In 2023, Wangjia Village was relocated to make way for the new campus, and the old family home faded into memory. At first, Chenhao Li felt a tinge of sadness. Then his mother pointed out that EIT was being built on the very land where their home had stood—a new type of research university—and that such a connection was something to cherish.

At the time, Chenhao Li longed to leave home and explore a wider world. The turning point came in his second year of high school, when Professor Shiyi Chen, President of EIT and Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, visited Zhenhai High School to give a talk.

The institute's defining principles—high-caliber foundation, compact yet distinguished, research oriented, globally engaged—along with its focus on fundamental research, cutting-edge interdisciplinary inquiry, and engineering, fundamentally changed the way he saw it and drew him to this university built on his ancestral land.

"That talk was an eye-opener. Some of the ideas were unlike anything I had heard before," Chenhao Li said. He came to realize that real growth is not measured by distance from home. Even staying in Ningbo, he could reach a much larger stage through EIT's undergraduate program: studying alongside professors who have returned from overseas, completing summer internships, spending a semester abroad, and more.

Three Generations of Zhenhai High School Alumni

From grandfather to father to Chenhao Li himself, three generations of the family have graduated from Zhenhai High School. Founded in the late Qing Dynasty, the century-old school is one of the most respected in Zhejiang Province and across China.

After graduating from Zhenhai High School, his grandfather worked in the Ningbo petrochemical zone. His father went on to East China University of Political Science and Law, then returned to work in Zhenhai. Now Chenhao Li has gone from Zhenhai High School to EIT, just eight kilometers away. 

This cross-generational educational journey is a distinctive family thread, one that has carried with it a grounded, pragmatic family ethos.

When it came time to choose a university, his parents had a simple, heartfelt wish. "They really wanted me to stay in Ningbo—close to home, so we could look after each other," Chenhao Li said. His grandfather, by contrast, was more open-minded and encouraged him to follow his own aspirations.

Chenhao Li with his grandfather and sister in primary school and junior high school

As a child, Chenhao Li was deeply loved by his grandfather, who showered him with care and attention. Too young to appreciate that devotion, he sometimes found the frequent visits "a bit clingy." It was only in primary and middle school, when his parents were busy with work and his grandfather took over the daily drives to and from school, that their constant companionship brought them much closer.

"He's the kind of grandparent who likes to have real heart-to-heart conversations," Chenhao Li said. Even as their time together became scarcer in high school, his grandfather—a man of wide-ranging knowledge—would draw him into thoughtful conversations at family gatherings, touching on current affairs, academic plans, and family life, gently guiding his growth along the way.

Yet his grandfather's affection was never indulgence. It was tempered by firmness as well as warmth, and he never wavered on matters of principle. When he caught Chenhao Li secretly using his phone during an online class, he spoke to him sternly and made it clear that he must pay full attention in every lesson. He taught by example as well as by instruction, helping Chenhao Li develop a disciplined approach to learning.

Up for a Basketball Game?

Yuxuan Yang, Chenhao Li's high school basketball teammate and one year his senior, had enrolled at EIT the previous year. Just before Chenhao Li submitted his college applications, he returned to his high school and ran into Yuxuan Yang, who had just finished an admissions presentation. The two headed to the basketball court, shooting hoops while catching up about university life.

"How's it been studying at EIT?" Chenhao Li asked. "It's been great. You can talk one-on-one with professors—they're more like friends—and the dorms are fantastic," Yuxuan Yang replied between shots.

That easy conversation on a midsummer afternoon dissolved whatever doubts Chenhao Li still had and left him excited about EIT. Yuxuan Yang also invited him to try out for the basketball team once he enrolled, so the two could play together again.

Chenhao Li(front row, left) at a robotics competition

That candid, firsthand account of university life cemented Chenhao Li's decision to apply to EIT. But his affinity for the institute's culture of innovation had taken root long before.

In primary school, he was captivated by mechanical LEGO building. He assembled robotic arms, wrote control programs, and guided robots through miniature architectural landscapes to complete one scenario-based task after another. Driven by that passion, he won second place in the Zhejiang Provincial Primary and Secondary School Intelligent Robot Competition, cementing his ambition to pursue robotics.

In the summer after his college entrance exam (gaokao), Chenhao Li joined the robotics lab of Assistant Professor Xiaocong Li at EIT's College of Information Science and Technology. There, he was exposed to cutting-edge research, observed ongoing projects firsthand, and even helped tune parameters and record data for a dexterous robotic hand.

"Want to play basketball?" Chenhao Li asked. He quickly bonded with the doctoral students in the group. "Sure!" came the reply, and before the words were even out, one of them pulled a basketball from under the desk and tossed it into the air. The easy, egalitarian atmosphere—where faculty and students interact more like mentors and friends—gave him a genuine sense of EIT's open and inclusive academic culture, further strengthening his resolve to pursue a career in research.

Chenhao Li (second from right) with his family in front of the EIT Tower

Not far away, the EIT Tower rises as a symbol of the pursuit of knowledge. Beneath his feet is the land that once held the warmth of family gatherings. Behind him stands a three-generation legacy of learning. Ahead lies a vast stage for scientific discovery and innovation.

For Chenhao Li, returning to this land as a student is both a reunion across time and the beginning of a new journey toward distant horizons.