Cities / Beijing / Beijing Royal School
Beijing Royal School
Large private school in Changping established in 1996, around 3,000 students with roughly 1,000 Chinese and 100 foreign teachers.
In brief
Large private school in Changping established in 1996, around 3,000 students with roughly 1,000 Chinese and 100 foreign teachers. Full IB plus A-Level, AP and the Ontario OSSD, and the only AP Teaching Demonstration School designated by the College Board in China.
BRS is set up as a college-prep route to top-tier US and UK universities, with a published list that includes Harvard, Princeton, Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial. The school is WASC and NEASC accredited, and senior students are encouraged to board on campus to build independence ahead of studying abroad. Annual tuition runs around 200,000 RMB.
Two practical caveats families raise consistently. Location is the first: Changping is roughly an hour and a half from central Beijing, with no metro access, which makes day attendance hard from most expat compounds. Behavioural management has shown up as a friction point at this scale. The school suits families who buy into the boarding-plus-AP machine and want a serious overseas-university pipeline at a price point well below the central international schools, rather than parents who want an expat-style day school.
Reviews
A long-running Chinese private school in Changping with an international high-school track that leans heavily on the US side. AP was the founding overseas curriculum here and remains the broadest on offer in the country; IB, A-Level and an OSSD pathway sit alongside it. The campus is large and well-resourced, with boarding from junior high. Reputation among Chinese parents is solidly positive on outcomes and facilities and more mixed on day-to-day school life. The recurring practical issue is the location, an hour and a half from central Beijing with no subway link.
Positives
- AP and university outcomes. The first AP school in mainland China and the broadest AP subject menu in the country, with College Board demonstration status. Strong placement record into US and UK universities is what most Chinese parents come for.
- Facilities and resources. Large Changping campus with full sports infrastructure, swimming pool, science and arts facilities. Resourcing is consistently flagged as a strength by staff and families.
- Curriculum breadth. AP, IB (PYP, MYP, DP), A-Level/IGCSE and OSSD all run on the same campus. The breadth suits families who want to keep options open into the senior years.
Considerations
- Location and commute. The Changping campus sits roughly 90 minutes from central Beijing with no subway access. Boarding from junior high is partly a response to that distance, and most senior students are encouraged to live in.
- Management and communication. Teachers describe long days, frequent last-minute meetings and uneven communication from leadership. The pattern of complaint is consistent enough across years to be a feature of the place rather than a one-off.
- Student culture and discipline. Chinese parents and former students describe a wide spread of motivation in the student body. Outcomes for engaged students are strong, less so for those who drift. Discipline policies (including device confiscation) draw some pushback.
- Domestic orientation. The student body is overwhelmingly Chinese passport-holders preparing to study overseas, not expatriate children. Instruction is in English in the international streams, with Chinese curriculum compliance through compulsory education years.