Inside Jack Ma’s luxurious and expensive new entrepreneur training school

When it comes to running a startup, few in China have done it as successfully as Jack Ma. And now if you want to learn to do things the way he did, there’s a university for that. Lakeside University, located near Hangzhou’s scenic West Lake, is an entrepreneur training school founded by Jack Ma and seven other high-profile Chinese CEOs and scholars. The school aims to, through a three year program that includes instruction and lectures from many of China’s top business figures, train the next generation of socially-conscious entrepreneurs.

Not just anyone can enroll at Lakeside, though. Only 30 students were admitted into the school’s first enrollment class, and the tuition is RMB 280,000 (US$45,000) for three years (although each university session lasts just a few days at a time). Accepted students are mostly founders of already-successful Chinese startups, like Moman Camera app founder Ren Xiaoqian.

Classes kicked off for the first time ever on Wednesday, but just before then China News got a peek inside the elite school:

Ritzy digs, to be sure. But if you want to walk through these freshly-hallowed halls, you’d better have US$45k to spare and a buzz-worthy Chinese startup ready before the next enrollment period.

See more: What is Jack Ma’s net worth?

(Source: Sina Tech and Baidu Baike)