Founded in 1962 specifically to teach Chinese language and culture to international students, BLCU — students nickname it "little United Nations" — is the institution most responsible for the cosmopolitan, and especially Korean, character of Wudaokou. Tens of thousands of foreign students have passed through, and the cafés, Korean barbecue houses, and cheap bars around the campus exist largely to serve them.
There is little to "see" on the working campus itself, but it explains the neighbourhood: the mix of languages on the street, the foreign-student bars, and the concentration of Korean and other Asian restaurants all radiate from here. A useful orientation point for understanding why Wudaokou feels different from the rest of Beijing.