Experience report
ANR: 363573
Name: Tom Rieff
E-mail: tomrieff@gmail.com
Exchange semester: autumn
Academic year: 2014 - 2015
Host University: Peking University
Country: China
TOPIC: Admission, arrival, housing
How was your arrival organized? Did someone pick you up from the airport/station? Was an
orientation or introduction activity organized? How was accommodation organized? Does the
university provide you with accommodation? What kind of accommodation does the university
provide? Did you have to book your accommodation in advance or did you have to search for a place
to live after you arrived?
Peking is a world city with all the public transport in English which makes the arrival pretty
easy. Because the university doesn’t provide any on campus accommodation you will have to
look for accommodation yourself. Finding an apartment on the internet is either impossible
without knowing Chinese or is not recommendable because you are unable to bargain. This
might be quite a hassle but I might have some helpful tips. Almost all exchange students live
in Wudaokou. I recommend getting an apartment here. It’s a great neighborhood and is perfect
for students. There are a lot of restaurants, bars, shopping centra, supermarkets, and
coffeehouses (none of those are obligatory to go to, but it is nice to have them close by).
Beijing buddy is a helpful site which provides you with apartments online (no bargaining
possible) and with a contact person (in English) who will meet you and take you to other
agents. However, do beware for the agency fee of the Beijing buddy agent. When she helped
you she will suddenly charge you a high price. Make sure you agree on her fee before you
meet and make sure to bargain. You could also go to one of the agents who rent the
apartments without the help of Beijing buddy. My agent was a woman called Monica. Her
WeChat number (the WhatsApp of China, make sure to download it) is 186 1115 7663. She told
me that future students from Tilburg could go to her immediately (without Beijing buddy) and
therefore skip the agency fee. The whole process of finding an apartment took me only 1 day
but it made things a lot easier that I booked a hostel in the neighborhood where I could stay as
long as necessary.
TOPIC: Location of university/city
Please describe the city you lived in. Where is the university located in the city? What is the best
place to go to eat/drink/dance/do sports/etc.? What are interesting things to see and do in your host
city? What was different than in Tilburg?
Beijing is a huge city. This is what you have to keep in mind when imagining the city and the
place where you are going to live at. Most exchange students live in the neighborhood called
Wudaokou which is 3 kilometers away from the university. Wudaokou is the place to go out
and have dinner each night. Furthermore the university campus itself is so large that it
provides you with almost everything you need. This is why you will see most exchange
students commuting between Wudaokou and the university campus.
TOPIC: Academics
Which courses did you take and why? Which courses would you recommend? What did the courses
add to your program at Tilburg University? How does the university compare to Tilburg University
concerning the level of the courses, use of extra material, level of English, workload, etc.? Overall,
were you happy with your academic achievements during your exchange? Please describe the
campus of your host university.
I chose to take five courses, of which four accounting/finance courses and one language
course Chinese. The language course is called Primary Business Chinese 1 and is taught by a
Chinese woman who tries to teach you Chinese at your own pace. The course is great if you
are interested in learning a bit of Chinese but not really interested in talking to the Chinese
people. Chinese is an extremely difficult language and she will teach you the basics as
expected. The course marketing channels is taught by a really nice professor that tries to
teach the exchange students about how Chinese channels work and how the Chinese
population thinks. Those courses are relatively easy to pass relative to the Netherlands. The
only hard course I experienced was the course Financial Statement Analysis. Generally the
professors don’t really like to give exams and like to provide group work and presentations to
examine you. However, due to the rules they have to examine by a written exam. These exams
are normally a lot easier to pass because facts from the slides are literally asked. For two
exams, I was allowed to bring a ‘cheat sheet’ on which we could write the facts from the slides.
This naturally makes it quite easy to pass.
Do beware that the level of courses is not lower per se. The exams may be easier but the
content in class will be on a similar level. The content covered does differ from the content on
the UVT. The classes emphasize how things work in practice and when I mean in practice, I
mean Chinese practice.
TOPIC: Social life
Which social activities organized by the university or students? Did you have contact with local
students? Did you have contact with other exchange students? How did you get along with the local
students and other exchange students? Did you travel to other places/countries during your
exchange?
The student organization welcomes you to the university and provides a couple trips to
companies and fun places nearby. I joined in a couple of the activities and they are great to get
to know your fellow class mates. Most exchange students live in Wudaokou and will be seen in
and around the restaurants and the shopping mall in the center of Wudaokou. I myself got to
learn a couple foreign class mates before university actually started and we used to hang out
every day. An exchange kind of forces you to look for fellow exchange students to exchange
thoughts and experiences about China. This creates special bonds with your fellow exchange
students and makes that you feel at home in a relative short while.
I got to know some really nice people from all over the world and although there were some
fellow Dutch students in my exchange class, I didn’t really hang out with them (not that they
were not nice, but I was just having such a great time with my friends that I felt like don’t even
needing the Dutch people).
You will get to know some local students and they are always really nice and fun to hang out
with. However, you do notice that they are not in the same situation as you are in. They are not
on exchange and generally the local students take a lot more classes to graduate as early as
possible. Because of the many classes, local students normally don’t have a lot of time. Still of
you ask them, they will make a day free for you to go out with you. This is of course very nice
and special but I knew that if I asked it too often they would get behind in classes and this is a
far bigger deal in China than in the Netherlands. You will meet a lot of local people and get
friends with them, but in my experience your best friends will be fellow exchange students
who are in the same situation as you are in.
Together with three other exchange students I made a trip to Shanghai and HuanShan
(Chinese people call it the most beautiful mountain in China) which was a lot of fun. One week
is perfect to get to know your friends even better and to get to know new friends that would
like to join you on your trip.
TOPIC: Living costs
How did you finance your exchange period, apart from the grant you received from Tilburg University?
What were your living expenses abroad like compared to Tilburg? What did you spend most of your
money on? What would you advice future students to spend their money on? Please outline your
approximate monthly budget whilst on exchange: housing, food, textbooks, etc.
On the one hand China can be a lot cheaper than the Netherlands but on the other hand it can
also be a lot more expensive. The largest expense you will make is in the start and this is
accommodation. Generally you will have to pay the whole rent for the half year in one time and
this will make you look quite poor only after a couple days of China. I paid 3000 yuan a month
which is approximately 360 euro per month for my room. I know people that lived a little
cheaper but also a lot of people that lived a lot more expensive. Housing is extremely
expensive in Beijing so prepare to spend money on it.
Food on the other hand is really cheap. Going out for dinner is a lot cheaper than preparing
the food yourself and that makes it just not worthwhile to cook. This however is also the thing
you will determine your monthly expenses on. In the canteens on the Peking University you
can get a meal for approximately 2 euros while in Wudaokou the meal will differ between 1
euro and 10 euros. A normal meal in a normal restaurant (like in Wudaokou) will cost you
around 3 to 4 euros. Because you will normally have to eat 2 to 3 meals a day (they don’t really
differentiate between breakfast, lunch and dinner) you can spend a lot each day but you can
also spend a lot less than you would spend in the Netherlands.
TOPIC: Culture
Did you experience culture shock while on exchange? How would you compare your host culture to
your own culture? What did you learn about your own culture while on exchange? What was different
about your host culture than you expected? What did you like and not like about your host culture? Do
you feel you learned a lot about your host culture, and if not, what would you like to learn more? How
would you describe your host countries culture? If you travelled to other cities/countries during your
exchange, were they different than your host city/country, and how?
I expected to have a bigger culture shock than I actually experienced. China, and in particular
Beijing, is a modern country and definitely not a poor third world country. I expected the city
to be relatively modern but it’s even more modern than that. Beijing is a city like Paris and
London but then with a lot of Chinese people walking on the streets. Beijing is crowded as you
have always heard but it is not that crowded that it started to annoy me. There are more people
but public transport and crossing roads (and other things like that) are organized for a culture
with more people in it. Beijing is definitely different than what you are used to but you might
be amazed about in what sense the city is different.
TOPIC: Personal development
What did you learn from the people you met during your exchange? Would you do things differently if
you had the chance, and what would you do differently? What was your best experience, and what
was your worst experience? What will you remember for ever about your exchange period? What was
the most important lesson you learned about yourself during your exchange period?
The thing I enjoyed most on exchange is realizing how different people are and how much our
life and thoughts are based on the education we have had. When you talk with people from
different countries (China and the countries your fellow classmates are from) you realize that
some things you have always seen as completely normal might actually be really strange. This
kind of realization and the exchange in thoughts with your friends does really open you up
about how ignorant you have been as an inhabitant of one country instead of being a world
inhabitant.
Moreover, in a country like China you will have to take care of yourself and you will have to
manage things on your own. Something really small and stupid is getting your train tickets
what might actually be quite difficult when you don’t speak the language. I think that dealing
with these kinds of things makes you more prepared for the rest of your life.
TOPIC: Tips for future students
Would you recommend an exchange period? Would you recommend your host university? What
should prospective students bring with them/leave behind? What preparation is required for going on
exchange to this destination? Was there anything you should have done in preparation that you didn’t
do?
I would definitely recommend going on exchange. I think I’m safe to say that it was the best
period of my life. I didn’t really know whether I was ready for exchange and whether it would
be something for me, but at some point you will just have to jump into the adventure. In my
case it turned out to be really great. Beijing is a really nice city and with the campus and
Wudaokou you can be with friends and people you know while you can take the subway to be
within 5 minutes in one of the best tourist cities in the world. Together with my friends we
made a lot of trips to go sightseeing in and around Beijing. Trips like going to see the city
walls, climbing a mountain near Beijing with sight over Beijing, the forbidden city, the
Hutongs, the bell towers, the many many parks and of course climbing the great wall.
Really convenient about Beijing is that there are so many spots to go to that you could go
sightseeing practically every weekend. This gives you opportunities to go out and meet other
exchange students (there was a whats app group for all exchange students where people
constantly posted about going somewhere while asking whether someone would join).
If you still have any questions, please feel free to mail me and will try to help you.
TOPIC: A picture is worth a thousand words
If you took any pictures or made any videos that you would like to share with future exchange
students, please include them (or e-mail them separately). Pictures that show your daily life or
symbolize your exchange period are especially interesting for future exchange students.