James Pek En YAP

Student of The University of New South Wales, Australia
Exchange to The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

When people ask me how my exchange went, I always say that it was great! But then, I get a bit confused about how to continue. The reason for that is, there are so many reasons why I loved going for a student exchange to the Chinese University of Hong Kong. So… where do I start?

One reason is of course, Hong Kong. Hong Kong was a relatively new place to me, since I’d only gone there once before. There was so much in Hong Kong to explore and to do. The exchange office there organised trips for us to visit islands and museums, to see places we might otherwise overlook. Getting around was really easy as well… Travel costs were cheap, and public transport went essentially everywhere I wanted to visit. And for those hard to reach places, taxis aren’t that expensive either!

Food was a really big highlight for Hong Kong. The only real reason for getting bored of the types of food is if you don’t travel around. A really good starting place to look for food is the openrice website. Some of my highlights for food were: dim sum (especially those liquid custard buns), Chinese desserts, all-you-can-eat hotpot, and a rooftop BBQ.

Hong Kong is also so close to all these new and interesting countries. It was quite common for exchange students to make sure they have a long weekend scheduled, and hop over to China or Vietnam or Malaysia, or pretty much anywhere in the region. Taking the time out to travel (preferably with friends), and try out new experiences, sights, and foods was awesome. Around the end of semester, a group of us travelled to a place called Gui Lin (inside China). We spent time chilling out on the Li River while boatmen poled the raft downstream, shopping in the market place, and generally exploring a very beautiful place. We even managed to catch a Chinese opera!

Yeah, as you might have guessed, friends are also another (if not the major) reason for why I loved Hong Kong. At the beginning of semester everyone is out there on their own and wanting to make new friends, trying to find out where you come from, what it’s like back home compared with here. By the end of semester, you’re celebrating each other’s birthdays and planning trips all over the place (inside and outside Hong Kong), and throwing really emotional farewell parties, promising to either come visit or meet halfway in another country.

Running out of room, so last thing I’ll talk about is CUHK itself. The students there were really friendly, and it was great hanging out with them, practicing the Chinese I learnt in class (Beginner Cantonese). I especially recommend joining one of the clubs. I joined the UC Martial Arts club with some other exchange students, and we made so many good friends there. Apart from learning martial arts (a first for me!), they also took time out to show us how to perform a lion dance, and to eat Chinese desserts together (one of the older members actually made that for all of us).

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