GUIDELINES FOR WRITING THE EXPERIENCE REPORT
Please write this report in English
The student report will be published on the:

Study Abroad website (under “Experiences” from partner universities)

TSH study abroad blackboard page
I am fine with my report being published online: YES
ANR: 683073
Name: Bart van der Lee
E-mail: b.e.c.vdrlee@tilburguniversity.edu
Exchange semester:
Academic year: 3
Fall, 2015
Host University: The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Country: Hong Kong
I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (I will refer to this as CUHK) is about an hour outside the central district in Hong Kong which seems kind of far. However, I experienced this as a good thing as CUHK is a very green university and it is very spacious. The campus of CUHK is quite widespread and build on a mountain (for a dutchie)/Hill (for the rest of the world). On the campus, all the different student hostels are located; each with its sport accommodation and restaurants. I thought that the campus looks really nice and it was the best choice for myself to stay in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong is the most amazing clash between east and west that I have ever found. It was so remarkable that the city is bigger than you can imagine (not joking), that there are so many people living in such a small area and you can see the Chinese and western way of doing and living clearly in the city. Basically, Hong Kong is divided in 3 areas: Kowloon, Hong Kong
Island and the New Territories. CUHK is located in the New territories (Sha Tin), but actually everything which is not Kowloon or HK island is referred to as New territories.
Kowloon is the eastern side of the city with its typically Chinese way of doing, living and eating. Also, if you look up Hong Kong on google images you will find the lightened advertisements boards above the streets, well …. that is a big part of Kowloon.
Hong Kong Island is the western side of the city where it is cleaner, the buildings are higher and everything is way more expensive. You can find anything in Hong Kong and in every price range. However, the western food in HK island is really good if you do some research about where to go.
Everyone who goes to Hong Kong on exchange ends up in Lan Kwai Fong (LKF) which the neighborhood where all the international students go out and believe there is a lot of them. It is a nice street with pubs and a 7/11. However, going out in Hong Kong is different from the
Dutch way (any other way actually). You buy beer at 7/11, drink it in front of it, go in a pub to dance or stay outside and chat, and when you want a drink you again go to 7/11. You will get used to it! Secondly, Wan chai is where all the expats go, you will find Typhoon on a
Wednesday very amusing over there as the place to be for all the expats and international students.
Regarding the food and drinks, I can give three main recommendation which you should visit at least once on exchange. First of all, Mr. Wong’s is the place to be for all exchange students. It is a place where your pay 60 HKD (7,5 euros) for unlimited food and beer. Believe me, you will go there almost every week and sometimes twice a week. However, the problem is that he moves his restaurant through Hong Kong. So if you cannot find him on an address in google, find him on Facebook under Treebo Wong and ask him yourself.
Secondly, there is a restaurant with a Cantonese name in Sham Shui Po which is truly amazing. It is the ultimate local spot above a market where you will find no other westerners.
The family who runs it are very kind and their son went to the US so his English is very good.

You can order almost every Cantonese dish you can imagine, the place looks shitty as hell, but the food and the experience are definitely worth it. If you go, do not walk away when you enter it. To go there you should go to Sham Shui Po mtr exit C2, walk straight ahead and you will find a market after 2 blocks or so on the left side. Go to the top floor with the escalators.
Finally, Mum’s not home in Yau ma tei is a little café which is one of the nicest places I have been to: Amazing tea, coffee, pie and it is all homemade. If you want relax or study, you should go there and also the couple who runs it are so super sweet and kind.
Regarding sports, at CUHK you will be in a so-called colleges and you can play a lot of sports for the college teams like soccer, tennis, swimming etc. If you want to play sports, this is the best way to practice it and get in touch with the locals.
As Hong Kong is the ultimate clash between east and west, you will find tons of stuff to do and to see in both styles. Anything you want to do in Hong Kong you can find it such going on a Wednesday to Happy valley which are the horse races, here are a lot of temples such as
Man mo temple or Wong tai sin which are worth a visit and of course there is Victoria Peak.
Finally, you should go to Hong Kong if you are a fan of hiking as there is a ton of cool hikes around the island.
II PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Information before you left
CUHK will already give you notice of their plans right after the announcement of where you will be going on exchange in Tilburg. We received our first information around the 15 th of
January or so. Almost everything they ask you to do is quite clear and not hard to figure out.
The whole process starts in January and ends just before you go. Notice: they will ask you to do a lot in August so if you are going on vacation, please try to be back the 1st of august otherwise things can become messy.
Visa procedure and arrival
It takes you about a 2 hours to fill in the form and provide all the relevant information if you have prepared it. You need in total probably around 10 passport photos of yourself in Hong
Kong format (ask the photographer) and you need your medical records as well. The visa itself costs not much, but I do not know anymore how much it was.
I (together with a friend) arrived 5 days before we had to be at the university to explore the city which ended up as being a good idea. I posted a message in the Facebook group and we ended up meeting around 15 people the same day which also became the group I hang out with at CUHK. Going to the university on your own on the arrival day is quite easy, you can go either with cab or MTR. I think if you arrived on the arrival day, there were people at the airport helping you. When you enter the university, you already know which orientation hostel you will stay at (this is not the actually hostel) and you go there by bus and everything is clear and everybody is helpful. Everything regarding the orientation and so was quite clear and you will have no problems.
Orientation/Introduction activities
There was sort of a program at CUHK regarding mostly academic introduction. However, this was only a minor part of the week so there is still tons of time to go exploring yourself. The biggest part of the week is basically meeting exchange students and going out with occasionally having a minor mandatory program.
Housing
As soon as you filled in your visa application for Hong Kong, you also immediately sign up for housing at the University. You will have a 100% guaranteed housing at CUHK if you go there.
At CUHK, you will stay in a room with in total 2 or 3 people (depends on which college you are in) and I was in a room of about 15 M2 with 1 other guy I knew from Tilburg. It may happen, although unlikely, that you will be in a room with another exchange student, but most will stay in a room with a local. My housing was quite fine: we had a kitchen, 4 showers, 8 toilets with 40 people which seems like a lot of actually most of the people will not be at their room and almost no one cooks.

Living Costs
I financed my exchange all by myself as TISEM does not provide any allowances for their own students who go on exchange outside Europe. I received a total of 386 euro’s per month regarding Studiefinanciering and an OV compensation. Furthermore, the biggest expense is either the travelling or the food as I eat quite a lot (oeps).
Housing: 650 euros per semester
Food: 200 euro per month
Transport: 20 euros per month
Books: once 30 euros
Travelling: trip to China around 700 euro’s and Malaysia around 400 euro’s
Going out/going home after going out: 80/100 euro’s per month (depends on where you go though)
What were your living expenses abroad like compared to Tilburg?
For me this is quite hard as I used to live at my parents’ house before I went to Hong Kong so this is kind of a hard approximation in terms of housing, food and transport
Academic Calendar
 Arrival day: september 1st
 First day of classes: September 8th
 Last day of classes: December 23th (incl. exam period)
 Mid-term break: I believe end of September during Mid-autumn festival you will have a 10 day break
 Examination period: starting December 1st
 Any special events: there are some holidays and days-off, you will receive a hand-out when you arrive at the University.
The International Office
CUHK does have an international office (EU student: Ms. Wynne Leung) and they help you with anything you require e.g. my name was too long for a domestic Chinese flight so they called the Chinese airline for me to fix it. The office is open from 8am-5p. I am truly satisfied with the international office at CUHK
Exchange promotion
I promoted Tilburg through mostly talking with local students. Once I said that I was from the
Netherlands, they were very interessed and I told them about Tilburg and about the university.
Besides talking with students, there was no real other opportunity to promote Tilburg in terms of events or such.
Social Activities
Almost every week, there is a social activity arranged by the international office to visit touristy things such as Victoria Peak, the Big Buddha and Tai O fishing village. However, the colleges themselves also try to involve exchange students by inviting them to their own social activities which are being held almost every week or two and include sports events, cooking, joining cultural events and joining cultural dinners to learn from each other etc.
I did have contact with some locals, but it is really hard to get in touch with them as most are quite withdrawn. However, students who went on exchange themselves are really open and want to get to know you. During my exchange, I mostly had contact with the exchange students as they are the main group I hanged out with. Everyone is in the same position so it is really easy to meet new people.
During my exchange I (sadly) made only two trips. The first is a 10-day trip to China where I visited Beijing, Xi’an, Pingyao and Shanghai which has been the most amazing trip of my life with an amazing group of people. Secondly, I have been to Kuala Lumpur with 2 friends which was also a nice but again totally different experience.

Culture and Language
I did experience a culture shock on my exchange but not a direct one. The shock from
Holland to Hong Kong was much smaller than the shock when I went to China from Hong
Kong. Basically, Hong Kong is Eastern (not Chinese) but with a western flow. It is very hard to describe, but the people still have their own traditions, fashion style and so on but it is highly influenced by the West which somehow did not give me a culture shock. However, I did have a culture shock entering China where no one speaks English and the way of living is just totally different in terms of eating, hygiene, infrastructure, and politics and so on.
I have learned many cultural things about the eastern way of living, the morals and values and they value in life itself. The biggest two things are probably respect for one another and personal hygiene. First, the locals have a lot of respect for each other and the elderly which might be something the Dutch are starting to forget. Secondly, the personal hygiene level is very high in Hong Kong and I learned a lot about this as you always wash your hands before and after dinner for example.
I did not follow any language courses on my exchange because then that would be an extra courses on top of my five courses and they were only on inconvenient times for me. However, if you have the time to follow Cantonese classes, please do as I have heard that they are a lot of fun and you learn a lot about Hong Kong.
Personal Development
I have learned many things during my exchange in terms of different social and political views. This mostly ended up in taking a totally different perspective on things which was not easy at first. As said before, I also learned a lot in terms of respect, cultural values and hygiene. Furthermore, I somehow had some social insecurities before I went on exchange which have been completely vanished as you will learn and talk to many new people and I really developed myself socially and have become way more open. Feeling socially insecure is a thing almost everyone has to deal with but it is something that will go away during your exchange. My best experience in Hong Kong is either the China trip or going for food with some of the locals. My worst experience is going to Shenzhen without addresses which made it almost impossible to communicate with the locals as they don’t speak English. The most important lessons for me on exchange is how much you can achieve in life if you just go out and grasp life by the horns, if you want to do something just do it and finally, try things you have never done before.
III ACADEMIC INFORMATION
Academic level at a host university
 In what language(s) are the courses offered at a partner university? Most of the courses are in English but you can look up in the course description in which language the course will be given and you should because there were exchange students enrolled in
Cantonese taught classes.
 Did you follow any courses taught in the language of the host country? no
 Which courses did you take and why? Culture and business (anthropology), Chinese
Economy: heritage and Change (economic history), Sustainable development, Business environment of China and Human Resource Management
 Which courses would you recommend? I would definitely recommend Chinese
Economy: heritage and Change because you will learn about Chinese history until the communist party and secondly, Business environment of China as you will learn a lot about Chinese history and social problems from the communist party till now. Basically, these two courses are excellent if you want to learn more about Chinese and Hong Kong history.
 How would compare the academic level at your host university to the academic level at
Tilburg University (e.g.: level of the courses, use of extra material, level of English, workload, etc.)? I think that the difficulty of the courses is slightly lower than in Holland as
I feel that Tilburg is more structured and the professors know everything about their course which is not always the case in Hong Kong. The courses are okay in the sense

that provide some challenge but not a real challenge. I feel that in Tilburg we have to know the theory and the exam is practical and applying while in Hong Kong the exam is highly theoretical or the practical questions are really easy and basic. Furthermore, the
English level is about the same.
 Is the teaching style primarily practical or theoretical? I thought that the teaching style is highly practical in a sense that they try to make it practical, but somehow they get stuck in being flexible and combining different theories together
 What teaching method is practiced by the host university: case studies, group work, seminars or lectures (or a mix)? Most of the courses are lectures only or tutorials without group work. Mostly, you will sit in class and the theory will be explained. The tutorials are a repetition of the lecture. However, the biggest proportion of the courses have a present and participation grade so it is recommended to go there.
 How would you describe the relationship between the students and the teaching staff?
This is quite distant I think but all the professors are really happy when they see exchange students in their classes and they always want to help you with the courses
 In general, were you happy with your academic achievements during your exchange? I was really happy with my achievements as I scored an A, 2* A-, B+ and B- during my exchange.
Exams
 What types of exams did you have to sit?
’
I had 4 exams and one take-home exam.
Other
 Can students easily access the library and its resources? Yes, you will receive credentials when you arrive at the university. However, I always had my laptop with me as it is really easy
 Were there public computers available on campus/in university buildings? No, they were not, but the colleges themselves had learning spaces and own libraries as well so you can access computers everywhere.
Description of Courses
Please list all courses you have taken at a partner university in the form below:
 Course title and code
 Course level (BA/MA)
 Prerequisites, if any
 Form of exam
 ECTS credits you have obtained in total:
 Comments: Relevance, Difficult/easy, Practical/theoretical, Enrolment problems
Course Name Prerequisites Exam Major at Tiu Approved as
(minor/ elective
/ extra)
Comments
Chinese
Economy:
Heritage and
Change
(ECON3250)
Business
Environment of
-
-
Written
Written
Economics
Economics
Minor ( obtained
(all) 6 ects)
Minor ( obtained
(all) 6 ects)
Takes quite a lot of time at the end of semester due to the paper, but I thought it was my best course.
It can be hard if you do not put effort in taking notes or doing research your paper for
Highly relevant as it discusses

China
(ECON3370)
Human Resource
Management
(MGNT2040C)
Sustainable development
(GRMD2401)
Culture
Business
(ANTH2510) and
Marketing 1
-
-
Written
Written
Take-home exam
Management
Geography
(business related course)
Anthropology
Elective ( obtained (all) 6 ects)
Minor ( obtained
(all) 6 ects)
Minor ( obtained
(all) 6 ects)
Please fill in all the courses you have taken
T ips for the future students:
 Would you recommend an exchange period? Yes definitely, exchange will be the best period of your life. I am back Holland for about 2 weeks and I already miss the people and
Hong Kong. An exchange semester puts you out there in the real world without your comfort zone and pushes your to meet people, explore the world and do stuff you have never done before
 Would you recommend your host university? Yes, CUHK is a great university outside the city which is widespread, green and a great place to spend the semester
 What should prospective students absolutely not forget before going on exchange? Be ready to go out there, do research about the country and the city you are going so you are not completely unknown about it.
 How can they better prepare before going on exchange to this destination? Make sure that you have everything prepared and double-checked in terms of the visa and the information they provide you. Do not bring too much gear to HK as there is IKEA where you can buy everything so you have more space for stuff to bring back.
 Was there anything you should have arranged before departure that you haven ’t? No  all the current problems and policies in
China, really easy but you will learn a lot during class
Most practical of the courses I took. In the end more difficult than I thought but it gives you the chance to work with the locals
Very fun teacher, not difficult if you go to the lectures and put effort in the assignments
Very fun and practical courses. You have to read to materials otherwise you fail, but the course is not difficult
A picture is worth a thousand words
Please look at my fb for all pictures: https://www.facebook.com/bart.vanderlee.3

Blog
I did keep a blog for a while https://bartvanderlee.wordpress.com/
Contact details:
Can the International Relations Office share your e-mail address with prospective exchange students, so that other students could contact you for more information? YES