A gym at Northwestern Polytechnical University in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province lays out hundreds of bamboo mats each with a pillow for incoming freshmen and their parents on August 26, 2019. Photo: screenshot of the video posted by Pear Video

It may look like an emergency shelter for people displaced by a natural disaster, but in fact it's a gym at Northwestern Polytechnical University, where hundreds of bamboo mats, each with a pillow, have been neatly laid out for incoming freshmen and their parents.

The school, in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, is calling it a free "hotel" that can accommodate at least 380 people, according to Pear Video on Sina Weibo. 

The video shows only a couple of people in the gym and no personal belongings are seen in the seven rows of 15 side-by-side mats.  

According to a staff member surnamed Wu from the school's logistics department, the gym is divided into two parts, one for mothers and the other for fathers of students.

Stories of parents and even grandparents are often seen in newspapers and on TV accompanying their children to university during their first days away from home.

The video received a lot of comments, with many netizens praising the university's thoughtfulness. Others wondered why parents of young adult children wouldn't let their kids settle into school on their own.

Pear Video