Recently Peking University (PKU), one of the most prestigious universities in China, set a quota of 5,000 visitors per day to its campus during the summer vacation, to which scalpers responded quickly with money-making schemes.

According to a report from the Beijing News on Tuesday, several individuals identifying themselves as staff members of PKU declared that they could take visitors onto the campus, charging 10-20 yuan ($1.5-3) per person.

Visitors do not actually have to pay to enter the university.

“It would normally take you at least one hour to get through, while I can bring you into the campus right away for only 20 yuan ($3),” a young woman, identifying herself as a postgraduate of PKU, told visitors who queued up for a security check at the southeastern gate of the campus.

The faculty and students of PKU, with their student cards or employee gate passes, can take relatives and friends onto the campus without going through the security check.

A security guard, who asked to remain anonymous, said that some non-faculty had taken visitors onto the university grounds by using fake passes obtained after bribing the leaders of the security teams.

“Sometimes these people earn nearly 1,000 yuan ($154.7) in a single day,” the guard said.

The deputy director of the Security Department of PKU, surnamed Xing, admitted that the quota on visitors’ numbers had created some confusion.

“We have confiscated student cards and passes that were lent to people who were not faculty of PKU,” he said. The department will investigate the reported collusion of staff security with outsiders, according to Xing.

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