Study Program:FiscaalRecht
Exchange semester: Spring 2016
Academic year: 2015-2016
Host University: Chinese University of Hong Kong
Country: Hong Kong SAR
I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is located in Shatin, in the New Territories of Hong Kong, the outskirts of Hong Kong away from the busy inner-city life. Hong Kong is a city of 7 million people and consists of multiple islands and ‘mainland’ Hong Kong that consists of the well-known Kowloon and the New Territories. The main island is Hong Kong Island, where a big part of the beautiful skyline is located and which is basically the centre of the city, with the metro station ‘Central’ as its main hub. It’ll take you around 45 minutes to go from the University metro station to Central, the University is really located outside the busy city centre. It’ll take you some time if you want to go there, but it definitely has its upsides too. The city centre itself is really busy and crowded but therefore really vibrant as well and the atmosphere never feels hostile or overly crowded, but it can be a little bit overwhelming if you’ll have to through the swarms of people every day, although you’ll get used to it pretty quickly. But still, it’s quite nice to be able to get away from the business if you want to and therefore it’s not that bad that the campus is located outside the city.
Campus
The campus is huge, hilly, super green and has spectacular views. The University has 9 colleges where students are affiliated, you’ll stay in a student hostel/dorm of the college you belong to where you’ll share a room with 1 or sometimes (not that often) 2 roommates or you’ll get assigned to the International House (i-house) where you’ll share some sort of apartment with around 6 people. Because it takes some time to get to the city, the dorm/college life is really nice with lots of people always on campus and with all the buildings on campus there are enough rooftops and common areas where you can chill, watch a movie or have some drinks.I think every college has its own gym and sport facilities like basketball and tennis courts, table tennis tables and big sports hall. There’s also the main sports fields with football fields and running tracks. There are shuttle busses that’ll take you anywhere on campus for free, a sensible choice if you want to get from your hostel to the metro station or vice versa, but you can walk just as easily between different colleges and student hostels. Every college has its own canteen and as you can expect some are better than others. The canteens are all heavily subsidised so compared to the rest of Hong Kong the food and drinks are rather cheap. The campus has a supermarket (that sells alcohol) as well, but there the prices are the same as everywhere else and that means pretty expensive. You’ll notice that almost every local student eats in the canteens daily, it’s just cheaper and once you know where to go the food can be pretty good.
Food and drinks
You can definitely cook for yourself if you want to, it’s a bit more expensive but if you stick to basics like pasta and eat with a group you’ll be able to manage, especially if you go to the local markets for fresh vegetables, fruit and meat. You can also go off campus to eat if you want to, Shatin is a 10-minute metro ride away and has a big shopping mall, Ikea (with the typical restaurant and prices) and lots of restaurants. In MongKok, about 35 minutes away, you’ll find lots of cheap street food and also Mr. Wong’s, a restaurant that’s just made for exchange students: it serves unlimited food (western style Chinese food) and beer for the grand total of 60 HKD, which is around €6,80 with the current conversion rate. Mr. Wong will arrange a table and seats for anyone that comes in and it’s therefore perfect for big groups. If you’ve had your dinner and are done with pre-drinks it’s not that far anymore to go to Wan Chai (on Wednesdays: lady’s night) or Lan Kwai Fong (in central, you can go there any day of the week basically) to enjoy the nightlife. Next to central you’ll find Soho, a trendy/hip area with lots of restaurants and bars. I wouldn’t say it’s cheap but if you’ll go to one of the many happy hours around 5 pm you’ll find deals with free flow wine and tapas for around €12. Just check online which restaurants have deals on certain days.
Sightseeing
Everyone will probably know the famous Hong Kong skyline and the beautiful pictures you can take of it at night when the lightshow is playing. You can also go up the Peak, this will give you a spectacular view of that same harbor and skyline. On Lantau Island, where the airport is located as well, you’ll find the ‘Big Buddha’, supposedly the biggest bronze Buddha in the world. I’d say this is Hong Kong’s main attraction with loads of tourists visiting every day and it’s definitely worth it to check it out yourself sometimes. Another nice thing to do is to go to the horse racing on Wednesday night, this takes place in a big stadium and you’ll find lots of Western expats here enjoying their beer and occasionally betting on a horserace. On Hong Kong Island, you can take an old-school tram across the whole island, this way you’ll get to see a lot of the island. There are so many things to do in Hong Kong, so I won’t list anything else, it’s more fun if you find it out for yourself.
Study
According to the University’s numbers there are 19,861 students enrolled, around 16,400 undergraduates and 3,400 postgraduates. This excludes incoming exchange students. The total number of incoming exchange students for the whole year is 1,487. For Law majors the study structure is basically the same as in Tilburg, the courses will have 100% finals most of the time, sometimes combined with a paper or essay during the semester.
II PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Visa and arrival
There were no difficulties whatsoever receiving the pre-departure information from the host University and it was all in time. You’ll have to supply a decent amount of information and some passport photo’s for your visa application, once you’ve sent it, it’ll take around 2-3 weeks to get the actual visa. CUHK will help you along the course of this process and will encourage you to hand your application in before a certain deadline to be able to receive your visa before you leave to Hong Kong. It’s not a problem if you didn’t receive your visa before you left, you can enter Hong Kong as a visitor and pick up your visa at the University. If you have the visa you can leave Hong Kong and go to Macau and return to Hong Kong, but now as a permanent resident with your student visa. The visa will cost you around €35-50, I’m not sure of the exact amount. CUHK will give you information how to get to the campus from the airport, they don’t arrange pick up from the airport. You can get to campus from the airport either by taxi, bus or metro, but if you have really big luggage a taxi is the most convenient way and they’re not that expensive in Hong Kong, just make sure the ride is on the meter. If you’re luggage isn’t super big you can take the A41 bus that’ll take you to the Shatin metro station and from there it’s just two stops to the University station or you can take a taxi from there if you want. This is considerably cheaper than taking a taxi all the way or taking the metro (normally the metro system is pretty cheap, especially once you’ve acquired your student discount card, but from the airport you’ll have to pay an extra fee). If you want to travel during the semester and need to go to the airport, the A41 from Shatin is your best choice. It costs 22 HKD (€2,50) and takes about 40 minutes. Once you get to the university you can go to your assigned hostel, register yourself and get the keys to your room. The mattresses are quite thin so for your own comfort it’s advisable to go to the Ikea as soon as possible to get a mattress topper or a complete new mattress if that’s what you want.
Orientation/introduction
There is a nice introduction that will get you accustomed to the campus and life on campus and all study related matters. A lot of local students are involved and will help you with basically anything. You can apply for a buddy program and most of the colleges also have cultural integration programs in the first weeks where you can get used to local food, customs and people. While you may be jetlagged the first couple of days and don’t feel that great because you’re just so tired, it’s good to put in some effort and get to know some people. The best thing about exchange are all the people you meet and become your best friends in a matter of minutes, so the best thing is to get to know these people as soon as possible so you’ll be able to spend a lot of time with them.
Housing
Housing is completely arranged on campus by the University and they’ll advise you not to look for your own housing in the city as it’s super expensive and hard to find. Everything will be arranged before you arrive and you can fill out your preferences in what kind of hostel you want to stay. The housing will cost you around €750-800 per semester, which is really cheap of course. The university hostels really vary in quality, there are newer ones which have nice and clean rooms and nice common areas, but there are older ones as well where the walls can get moldy during spring/summer. I stayed in one of the worst ones and it’s not too bad, yes you can get mold if the weather gets really humid, as it tends to do in Hong Kong, but you can easily clean it yourself and make sure none of your stuff gets moldy. I wouldn’t say the accommodation is great, but neither are the accommodations in the other Universities in Hong Kong.
Living costs
Apart from the study abroad allowance you get from Tilburg University, I financed my exchange with my studiefinanciering and some money from my parents. During the whole semester, the total amount of money I spend was around €3000, this includes traveling during and after the semester. While Hong Kong is a pretty expensive city, with the on campus meals, great price for housing and some money saving methods you’ll be able to have a not too expensive and great exchange. My advice is to spend your money on traveling and especially traveling during the semester as you’ll be able to travel with all your groups of friends you’ve met on your exchange. This is harder after the semester where a lot of people have different plans and it’s hard to coordinate if everyone has already booked their flights etc. I didn’t buy any books for studying, they weren’t necessary to pass the courses I took there and you can always get them in the library if you want to. Transport costs basically consist of metro costs and taxi costs, the metro will get you everywhere till around 1 am and is really cheap, with the student discount you’ll get it’ll cost you around €1 to get to central (45 minutes), but if you want to get back to campus after a night out, you’ll have to take a taxi. There are taxis you can share with 5 and to get back from central to your hostel will cost you around €3-4 per person. Monthly costs:
-Housing: €150
-Food: €250
-Transport: €75
Academic Calendar
The arrival period was between the 5th and the 7th of January. The first day of the semester was the 11th of January and the last day (last possible exam) was the 13th of May. During the spring semester you’ll have the Chinese New Year break which is a week and as a law student you also get a reading off during ‘reading week’. There are different local holidays as well, most of the time they’re celebrated on a Sunday and you’ll have the Monday off. You’ll also have Easter break. The examination period for finals is from the end of April till the 13th of May.
International Office
There is an international office, called the i-centre. The person responsible for incoming exchange students from Europe was Wynne Leung. The international office functions properly and will help you with anything you want.
Exchange promotion
I tried my best to make local and international students enthusiastic for the Netherlands and Tilburg in particular. It was nice to hear that a lot of them actually know Tilburg already from other exchange students they’ve met or just the university.
Social activities
As I mentioned before there are the introduction and the cultural integration programs. As Chinese and therefore Hong Kong people are a little shyer than Western people, it’s a little bit more difficult to establish contact with local students but if you put in some effort yourself it won’t be too hard. You’ll have contact with as many local students as you like, it’s really up to you. Some people get local roommates and you’ll hostel will have predominantly local students (except i-house). But the most fun people are the other exchange students of course, it’ll be easier to bond with them as they’re also on exchange and just want to get to know a lot of people and make a lot of new friends, which is really easy on exchange. So, of course you’ll meet tons of exchange students. With the different holidays and generally less hard study load you’ll be able to travel during the semester as much as you want and can afford. Macau and Shenzhen are just around the corner and are therefore easy and not too expensive to visit. Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, South-Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and of course China are all quite close and plane tickets aren’t that expensive if you look for occasional deals from budget airlines (HK Express and Jetstar for example).
Culture and Language
I didn’t experience a culture shock at all, I expected I would experience one in some degree because, well you are going to the other side of the world, with Hong Kong being so closely related to China as well. But Hong Kong is far more western than China and the difference isn’t as clear. Of course, the people and the culture are a lot different than here and you’ll need to be open minded and empathetic to be able to adjust well. The culture of Hong Kong and the Chinese culture are more focused on the group instead of the individual and there is a more evident hierarchy that you’ll see here. You’ll get to learn yourself and your own culture pretty well if you’re on exchange, you’ll see pretty early on that Dutch people are one of the most straightforward people in the world and can be brutally honest sometimes. This can definitely be a good thing, but not all people from different cultures tend to take this well and you should be cautious. But once you’ve made some good friends, you’ll see that people from other countries can be just as honest, they just won’t show it as early as the Dutch do. If you travel around, you’ll be able to experience a lot of different cultures. The Japanese culture is very interesting for example and while Shenzhen is just an hour train ride away from Hong Kong, you’ll notice the differences straight away. I didn’t have a lot of language problems during the semester, the level of English of exchange students is generally good and same goes for the professors and most local students. Locals that work in local restaurants for example may have some difficulties understanding you, same goes for taxi drivers. It’s a valuable asset to be able to pronounce ‘Chinese University of Hong Kong’ in Cantonese properly as it’ll save you a lot of time (drunkenly) pointing out your destination to your taxi driver after a night out.
Personal Development
Exchange will be a great way to develop yourself on so many levels. You’ll get to know yourself and who you are so well, you’ll be able to deal with situations you’ve never dealt with before, you’ll be flexible, you’ll be able to see many things through new and different perspectives, you’ll understand more about how the world works, you’ll get to see why different people do things in a different way, in short, you’ll really be able to develop yourself personally. The only thing I’d do differently is to try to travel more during the semester and try to meet more and different people at the start of the semester. One of the pitfalls of exchange is that you’ll establish a nice group of friends early on and that you stick with that group, you haven’t been able to meet a big part of the other exchange students but you don’t feel the need to because you already have a nice group of yourself. You’ll have to try to resist that urge and try to meet as many people as possible, as these people may become even better friends as they can turn out to be an even better match with you. To have some experience abroad is always a plus for your future career possibilities and shows future employees that you can take care of yourself on the other side of the world with a different culture.