Experience report
ANR: 232932
Name: Thomas Hordijk
E-mail: thomashordijk@hotmail.com
Exchange semester: Fall 2014
Academic year: 2014-2015
Host University: National Chengchi University
Country: Taiwan
In Oktober 2013 I decided that I wanted to study in Asia. I wanted something
completely different from what I’m used to in The Netherlands. Because of the nice
university, the perfect travel location and the affordability I decided I wanted to go to
Taiwan. This was I decision that I will never regret.
When I arrived, my assigned local buddies were waiting for me at the aiport in
Taipei. They had a large sign with my name, so I found them pretty quickly. After
that, we went together to my new room and they helped me to get some buy stuff I
was still missing. I already arranged my room on beforehand. we had to find rooms
in the city on our own, because the University campus had only space for 1/3 of the
exchange students.
Taipei is a very nice city to live in. It is not too big, like Hongkong or Shanghai. But
still big enough to have new experiences every day. The University lies in the far
south of the city, in the mountains. It took me around 40 minutes to get there. The
campus surrounded by restaurants filled with students is quite big. In size its
comparable to TiU. But the facilities are more diverse and complete. Lots of sporting
activities and other social clubs that are very active on campus
In Taipei itself are many things to do. There are many big really nice clubs, some of
them were a few euro’s to get in, and had an open-bar inside, where you could order
everything you wanted for no charge. The city also has a lot of night markets, which
are really nice to go to in the evenings. But there are also big shopping malls. One of
the things I also really enjoyed were the little cafes where you could sit all day with
your laptop to do some studying.
The courses I took were:
Investments – 3 hours a week. (pretty difficult course)
International Investments – 3 hours a week (really easy course, almost everyone got
a really high grade)
How to exploit innovativeness – 2 weeks intensive course, 5 hours a day – relatively
easy course)
Australian Foregin Economic Relations – 3 hours a week (average difficult course,
cost a lot of time to make the final report)
Industrial Economics and Competition Policy – 3 hours a week (pretty difficult
course, but the exam was pretty easy)
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific – 3 hours a week (easy course, only had to
write some summaries and comments)
The university itself did not organize many social activities, but there were many
opportunities to get in contact with locals. Some exchange students made the choice
only to hang out with other exchange students, and some liked it more to als hang
out a lot with locals. I had some local friends myself, but mostly I was around
exchange students.
Next to the university and student life in Taiwan, there was also a lot of time to travel.
I travelled through a lot of countries during my exchange, sometimes in the
weekends, sometimes I could also take more than a week off. The flights are also
not expensive, so this is something I would advise everyone to do!
Everything is relatively cheap in Taipei, but don’t forget that if you go out to eat 3x a
day. The costs will be pretty high at the end of the month. Beer will cost you a little
less than one euro and 20 minutes by taxi will cost you about 5 euro’s in total. Rent
was 290 euros. Breakfast including coffee: 1,50. 1GB of data: 3,50. Half hour metro:
1 euro. Juicy pork dumplingsx6 2,50.
The culture is very different from the culture here. People are less outgoing and bit
more shy. But on the other hand, they are really willing to help you and they really
like to have some friends from abroad. Locals are also not really used to western
people, which makes us pretty interesting for them. This results at local strangers
waving at you in the streets sometimes or asking you to take a picture with them.
My biggest personal development is being more open to other cultures. Also I have
become a lot more ambitious. And last but not least, I developed a new addiction,
Travelling. I want to see as much of the world as possible in my life!
I would definately recommend an exchange semester in Taipei! Taiwan is amazing!
Also other beautiful countries are fairly close. And because of the different cultures,
you also learn a lot about how that influences people’s behavior.
To round up, I want recommend everyone to not forget travelling around Taiwan
itself, instead of only going to other countries. Taiwan has many beatifull places and
has a lot of great hiking trips. From those hiking trips I have memories that I will
treasure for the rest of my life!