Details

• China
• MAEXINT-24
• Graduate
• WS 2025
• Time spent at the partner university: 4 months

1. Preparation

For my preparation, I did not do too much beyond the required steps. I am already well insured through my mother, so this point was not especially relevant for me. Still, I would recommend checking your insurance situation early and, if needed, taking out travel insurance. For accommodation, I would suggest checking different platforms. In the end, Airbnb still had the best offer for me. It is also important to carefully fill out and submit all documents required by the Chinese University and to follow their instructions very closely. I would also recommend bringing long clothes, because there are a lot of mosquitoes in Hong Kong. Apart from that, yCheck whether your passport is still valid long enough and book your flights. For flights, I can recommend Qatar Airways. I booked my flight only two weeks before departure and it was still very affordable. I do not know whether this has changed due to the current situation in the Middle East, but for me, Qatar Airways was the most affordable and comfortable way to get to Hong Kong. I also planned a 3–4 day stopover in Doha, which worked out very well, especially because I am a bit afraid of flying.

2. Accommodation

As already mentioned in the previous section, I focused quite strongly on Airbnb, because Airbnb offers monthly discounts. There is also one host who offers a lot of accommodations that look extremely nice and clean in the photos. However, when you look at the reviews, you can already assume that the photos do not reflect the reality 100%. I still decided to rent one of these rooms because the location was the best. I lived in Wan Chai, right next to the Central District, and had a wonderful view. I was really in the middle of everything. The only downside was that the room was much smaller than shown in the pictures. But for four months, I managed to make it work. I had a desk and a bed, and I paid relatively little money for such a good location. The connection was perfect. I could get to Kowloon very quickly, walk to the Chinese University Business Faculty in Central, and even walk to the horse races. Within around ten minutes, I could also reach nature. I lived on Hennessy Road at the time and can honestly recommend the area. I can also generally recommend Airbnb, but I would definitely pay close attention to the reviews and make sure that the room is actually big enough. For several months, a very small room can become quite exhausting. In the end, I also received some money back because the room was shown very differently from reality. At first, I wanted to ask about accommodation on campus, but we were told that this was not an option for MBA exchange students. I do not know whether this also applies to bachelor students, so you should definitely check this yourself. But at our time, it was not allowed for us, so we had to look for other options. Many students also found accommodation through student apartments, which also sounded quite nice, especially because there seemed to be a stronger community feeling. I personally stayed in an Airbnb. I had a few flatmates, but we did not really know each other that well. In return, I had an extremely good location for relatively little money, although the room was small. Regarding location and safety, I would say that Hong Kong Island feels extremely safe, especially as a woman. You can wear the shortest skirts without being treated disrespectfully or being approached in a weird way. Even when I walked home at 2, 3, or 4 in the morning, I never had any problems. Sometimes there were drunk tourists, which made me a bit nervous, but even then I never had a bad experience. Overall, everything felt very respectful and comfortable. For people doing the MBA courses, I was incredibly lucky that I chose an apartment on Hong Kong Island and tried to live close to the campus. In the end, the Business Faculty of the Chinese University was mainly in Central. Around 70% of my classes were in Central on Hong Kong Island, so I could simply walk there in about 25 minutes. I also had some classes on the main campus, which took around 30 to 40 minutes by train, but that was also fine. Still, most of student life and daily life takes place on Hong Kong Island. You also have direct access to beautiful beaches and hiking trails. Kowloon is also cool, but it felt a bit more run-down to me. It is also a bit cheaper, and many people found Kowloon more authentic because it has an even stronger Hong Kong feeling. But for my personal taste, I chose the best district. Central would have been too crowded, while Wan Chai still gave me the chance to walk into one or two side streets without immediately being surrounded by thousands of people. I was also very close to Victoria Park. Overall, I was extremely happy with my choice and can really recommend living around Hennessy Road in Wan Chai.

3. Academic life at host university

The campus of the The Chinese University of Hong Kong was honestly like a little paradise. There were several ponds with fountains, and at the very top of the mountain you had this beautiful view towards the giant Buddha statue. There was also a swimming pool and tennis courts, and you could use both basically for free. I think for the pool there was maybe a very small fee, but it was less than one euro. I had my girls group there, and we used to play tennis together once or twice a week. You could borrow all the equipment for free, which was really nice. Afterwards we usually jumped into the pool and swam a few lanes there. So in terms of campus facilities, The Chinese University of Hong Kong is honestly world class. There was also free water available almost everywhere, and from time to time there were events where you could get free food as well, if you were a bit smart about it. There was a Subway on campus and several cafeterias, but since I am vegetarian, I unfortunately could not eat there that often. But that was generally also the case in all of Hong Kong. Vegetarian food was just not super common, except at Subway where they also had vegetarian options. The whole MBA program I did reminded me a lot of my studies at Vienna University of Economics and Business, because it was mainly lectures combined with smaller assignments. Usually, your final grade was made up of several smaller exams or submissions, mostly two written assignments and one or two presentations. Depending on the course, there were sometimes other kinds of assignments as well, for example a Power BI project or prepared Excel tables where you first had to search for and extract the data from a database. In general, people also used a lot of AI tools, and the professors mostly tolerated it. Honestly, some students did not even try that hard to hide that it was AI-generated. I do not know how their grades turned out in the end, but it definitely did not seem like people got into huge trouble for it. Overall, the atmosphere was very pleasant, and especially our professors were super nice and very accommodating. I honestly cannot think of a single professor who was rude, unfair, or tried to make students feel bad. They were all very student-oriented. The teaching style depended a lot on the professor, and sometimes the courses felt completely different from each other. Participation usually counted towards the grade, or at least in most courses it did. That meant the professor usually stood in the front, held the lecture, and from time to time students were asked questions spontaneously or had to answer ad hoc questions through cold calling. Sometimes that was a little stressful, but overall it was completely fine. And if the professors noticed that somebody did not know the answer, they usually did not try to embarrass that person or anything like that. They would just move on to the next student. So in that sense, the atmosphere stayed very relaxed. That was also one of the bigger differences compared to Vienna University of Economics and Business. At WU, I feel like participation grades are not really that common, and in general the classes there were usually bigger. One thing I would maybe also mention regarding academic culture is that I would not necessarily recommend starting discussions about politics there. My absolute favourite course by far was Selected Topics in Finance. One reason was that it focused a lot on digitalization, which is something I am very interested in. But mainly it was because the professor was my favourite professor overall. He was a speaker at many events and conferences, and me and a few of my friends also attended many of his additional talks outside of class. He was definitely my absolute favourite professor. I also really loved Managing Family Business. The professor had such a cool personality, was super lively and genuinely kind. He did not really treat us like students, but more like friends or close friends. He was honestly just such a cool person and the whole class was really fun. That was also the course where we suddenly had to answer some oral questions from time to time, but even there he stayed very relaxed about it.

5. Every day life in the host country

Public transport in Hong Kong is very good overall. However, as an exchange student, there is unfortunately no possibility to apply for the official student transport card. I already tried that, but because exchange students are not considered fully enrolled full-time students, it does not work. I would honestly say: save your time and just get the normal transport card. In general, I would also say that taking the bus is often cheaper, especially the double-decker buses. It is just much cooler to drive through Hong Kong like that because you get such a nice view over the city. If you are in a hurry though, I would always recommend the train. Everything feels very safe and it is extremely punctual. Regarding safety, I would say that you do not really have to be afraid of other people there. Most people are very kind, and especially as a woman, I always felt safe, even walking alone at night. Maybe the only thing I would keep an eye on a little more is the infrastructure around buildings. During the time I was there, there was the big fire in Hong Kong, and in general you can notice that there are different standards compared to Europe, for example with cables sticking out in some places. I would be a bit more careful with things like that, but overall it is still safe and you do not need to worry about something extreme happening. Still, being a bit cautious is always a good idea. My university organized a lot of social activities, and there were also many different student committees from different top universities in Hong Kong trying to connect students through parties, events, talks, conferences, and similar activities. In that sense, the social life was honestly extremely good. Apart from university activities, we also did a lot ourselves. Horse racing was always very popular in Hong Kong, and we also spent time at the beach, in bars, rooftop bars, and watched fireworks together. There is basically always something to do in Hong Kong. There were also many sports options. I would personally recommend mainly using the sports facilities on campus because everything there is free and you do not have to rent extra equipment. Outside of campus, there are still many activities though. Around Victoria Harbour, for example, you can rent pedal boats or do stand-up paddling. I would not necessarily recommend going into the water there because it is often very algae-heavy and does not always look that clean, but apart from that there are many sports activities all around Hong Kong. There are running groups, hiking groups, a lot of tennis, and similar things. In the end, you will always find something to do.

6. Testimonial

My exchange was special because I met two amazing friends and we did many cool things together, from playing tennis to trips to Shenzhen, horse races, conferences, and other events. Since my year group was not very big, everyone knew each other quite well and there was almost always someone to do something with. It was also very nice that many of my friends from my year were in Asia too and sometimes visited me in Hong Kong, so different friend groups came together and got along really well. Besides the social side, Hong Kong itself made the exchange unforgettable because it felt like a completely different world, with this amazing mix of a huge metropolis and extreme nature.