Details

• China
• BaWiSo-23
• Undergraduate
• WS 2025
• Time spent at the partner university: 4 months

1. Preparation

As I haven't had any contact to CUHK before being accepted, I wasn't really able to prepare for the application process at WU. I wrote the text we had to hand in and informed a bit about Hong Kong, to be able to tell something about the culture and the universities. When getting accepted I informed a lot what the most important things are, the weather, etc. I recommend to already download the octopus tourist card as you pay with it in most of the restaurants and for the metro, take things for really hot weather with you (up to 35 degrees) as well as a few long pants/jeans and 4-5 sweater for the air conditioning and the last month ( around 20 degrees is the highest). Take a raining jacket for trips with you and a thin jacket, I needed one for 1-2 weeks in the night. Take sport clothes with you as you can do every sport on campus, it is amazing. Joining the WhatsApp group of CUHK as early as possible after they created it and try to connect with some people beforehand. Look at the accommodation of CUHK if you really want to life in a shared room, for me it was the funniest thing ever, but it depends on the person. All in all, just inform yourself about the weather, the culture, the countries around so that you don't go there with no knowledge haha

2. Accommodation

I wasn't looking for an accommodation as I lived at the student residence. I applied for the international housing but gut affiliated to Shaw college which is building wise the worst one on campus. I was living on the 10th floor with an amazing view and was lucky to have an Italian roommate who made my stay at Shaw amazing. Without him in my room I wouldn't have enjoyed staying there at all, as the rest of my friends all stayed at I-house, which was a lot better. The good thing is you don't really stay in the dorm for a long time per day as you are always going somewhere with friends. I would recommend staying on campus because it's annoying going every day from town to campus and the people who stayed in town weren't really along with us everyday which made it difficult for them to keep contact. They missed a lot of activities on campus. Living in such a small room is an experience you have to like, but I loved it as it's completely different to any European accommodation. When you apply for you college's I would recommend I-house 100%.

3. Academic life at host university

The campus is really big, there are around 8 bus lines which take you around the campus. You will need a few weeks to get to used to it but it's completely fine after. I wouldn't recommend walking as the campus is on a hill so it's really exhausting. The last bus drives from the MTR at around 11:30 after that time like coming from clubbing take a Uber because the MTR from town is not driving after 1:30 anymore. The academic culture is a bit different to ours, half of the classes were with attendance, half of it not. When there is no attendance no one is going there and most of the time it was useless to go. I would recommend taking the courses with small capacities as the grading is better and you will have more assignments during the semester and not just 1-2 exams. Teaching is similar, they want in a few that you say something to get points. It is a got mix between our VUEs and LVPs. I wouldn't recommend taking finance courses as they are really difficult and as the grading is curved is literally impossible to get a good grade, because the finance students are really smart at CUHK. I was not the biggest fan of the classes at CUHK as they didn't explain the grading, not really the course structure. Of course it depends what you take but for me the WU courses are better organised. The language courses at CUHK are really good, I took Spanish I and it was probably the best one I took. The focus of most of the courses is on writing a lot, so look before taking a course in the description and ask people from WU who took it how it was.

5. Every day life in the host country

The public transport in Hong Kong is really easy and probably one of the best I have ever seen. You can always go by MTR everywhere! There a is always one every 3 minutes. Even the small buses to the beaches are always on time and easy to find. In total the public transport is amazing. It is everywhere really clean and you can always feel really safe. There are no disturbing or weird people just talking to you. Of course there are some places in Kowloon where it's not that clean but for an Asian country it is really clean, especially in Central it is really clean. Political wise there is no problem you can always feel safe but I recommend not to talk about Mainland Chinas politics in Hong Kong as some people could feel offended by it. Activity wise Hong Kong offers a lot, join the CUHK WhatsApp group and the Hong Kong group as people text there what's going on and which parties are where. There are a lot of student organised parties especially in the first weeks, go there! There are always sport events like LIV golf or tennis tournaments. In august there are preparation games from e.g. Manchester United, so you can do a lot there. One of the coolest activities are the horse races, go there on Hong Kong island as everyone is going there. Sport wise you can do a lot there are run clubs, a lot of gym and public football fields. Just google it, but while being in Hong Kong you will be informed what's going on or just talk to other exchange students what they do. I did with my friends a football game against some other exchange students. Just talk to others in town, everyone is open to do sports.

6. Testimonial

My exchange was the best time of my life, I met really cool people and traveled a lot. Hong Kong is the best town where I have ever been, you can really look forward to go. I saw so many different cultures of Asia: Thailand, Vietnam, Mainland China, Japan and of course Hong Kong. In Hong Kong are more than 3000 exchange students and everyone is really open. The parties are insane, go LKF into Iron fairies or Fayy and before that there is Mr. Wong, there will be all exchange students. Make the most out of the time in Hong Kong, you can do everything there. Go hiking, go to all the beaches, drive with the ferry to Macao, go by train to Shenzhen. The thing what will make Hong Kong the most special are the people you will get to know, there are people from all around the world. Travel with them and just enjoy the time!