Exchange Student Page

Hello every new comer! Welcome to Hong Kong! I hope all of you do enjoy Hong Kong so far. It is easy to know that it takes time to get used to a brand new environment, so in this issue, we will try our best to help you out to have a very wonderful life in PolyU and in Hong Kong.

The university and student halls of residential:

1.     Polytechnic University

l   PolyU is positioned at a very convenient place in Kowloon near the Hung Hom MTR station.

l   There is a bus stop right in front of the main entrance of PolyU which connects you to almost everywhere in Hong Kong such as the Hong Kong Island, New Territories and even the Hong Kong International Airport.

l   PolyU is right next to East Tsim Sha Tsui which got different kinds of cuisine such as Hong Kong traditional dishes and snacks, Japanese food, Thai food, etc.

2.     Student Halls of Residential

l   Being located in Hung Hom near Whampoa and just 10 minutes walk away from PolyU, the halls are very convenient places to live in since everything you need is just around you.

l   There are two supermarkets near the halls which are just 5 minutes away and there is a big Japanese supermarket ‘JUSCO’ in Whampoa which is 15 minutes away from the halls, you can get almost everything you need there.

l   You don’t need to worry about what to eat every day, because there are plenty of cheap and delicious food around the halls

                     i.            HonDim (Korean Traditional food)

Ø  Must eat: spicy rice cake, spicy chicken with rice and beef with rice

Ø  Price: HKD30 – HKD40

                   ii.            Dumpling King (Hong Kong food)

Ø  Must eat: curry chicken dumplings, deep fried chicken wings with garlic

Ø  Price: HKD25- HKD35

                 iii.            ChuanYue noodle shop (Si Chuan and Cantonese food)

Ø  Must eat: spicy chicken slices with sweet potato noodles

Ø  Price: HKD 30-HKD40

*Remarks: there’s also McDonald’s, Starbucks around the halls, don’t worry!

l   Your student ID card is really important for you to live in the halls since you need it to get in and get out of the halls, to do your laundry, to turn on the air-conditioner and sometimes get access to the gym room.

l   It’s important for you to put money in your student ID card as long as you need to pay for the laundry, air-conditioner and printers in the halls by it. On 1/F east wing entrance and 2/F west wing near the elevator, you can find an automatic value-adding machine which you can put money in your student ID card.

l   The laundry in the halls is located on 2/F. For the washing machine, it’s HKD5 for 90 minutes and HKD1 for 8 minutes for the dryer.

l   There is air-conditioner in every single room in the halls, it’s normally HKD1.4- HKD1.8 per hour.

l   The transportation near the halls is convenient as well, there is a bus stop near the halls right opposite to ATICO which you can get no. 8A to go to Tsim Sha Tsui or no. 115 to go to Wan Chai and Central.

l   There are a lot of recreational activities you can enjoy in the halls such as the swimming pool which opens from 8:30am to 10:30pm in the summer. Snookers, gym, Karaoke room, table tennis, etc. which all located on 2/F and all of them are free. (Remarks: you can book everything by using your student ID card)

Places in Hong Kong:

l   There are a lot of places in Hong Kong that you really need to go such as:

n   Ocean Park, The Peak, Repulse Bay, Tai O, Ngon Ping 360 and the Big Buddha, Lan Kwai Fong, SOHO, Lockhart Road Wan Chai, Ladies Street in Mong Kok, Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui, Lantau Island, Cheung Chau, Lamma Island, The Stanley Market, etc.

So don’t hesitate to go everywhere in Hong Kong cause it’ll be so different from any other places in the world. Email us if you guys got any problems or questions regarding to the above information, we will try our best to offer helps! Hope all of you will have an amazing time in Hong Kong, enjoy!

Hong Kong International Exchange Student

Hong Kong International Exchange Student

I’m Jin, a junior student majoring in Logistics. I applied for the exchange program to Hong Kong Polytechnic University last semester and am currently enjoying my exchange student life in Hong Kong. About 2 months have passed since I got here and I’m happy to share my experience with readers of the PolyLife.

The main purpose I applied for an exchange program was to face diversity. It was my long long dream since I became a university student. The interest in new cultures and curiosity of what universities like in other countries made me look for opportunities to study abroad. A KAU student exchange program was the best chance for me, so I had no reasons to hesitate applying for this program. Also, in a globalizing world, I believe this experience will be helpful not only for my future career but also throughout my entire life.

After being selected, I enrolled in the Summer Program provided by the International Culture Education Institute before coming to Hong Kong. The lecture was given by an American professor and students from different nations also joined, so it was a good chance to experience exchange student life before actually going to Hong Kong.

The most memorable moment in Hong Kong was when all the Korean exchange students prepared for the culture sharing session “International Gala”. We prepared a small “Samulnori” performance, Korean food, and a booth decorated with pride in our country. With the true-hearted support from all exchange and full time students here, we successfully spread our culture and also won the first prize for the performance.

For the first few weeks, food was the hardest part. The food here is completely different from Koreanfood and was really new to me. But after a few weeks I was able to find the cuisines that fit my taste, and my body got used to the food here as time went by. The only problem I have here now is that I miss my family and friends in Korea a lot.

From 2 months into my new life I was able to make lots of friends with different backgrounds. There are around 400 exchange students in this school who are all open minded, so I was easily able to make new friends here. And by talking to them, I not only learned the basic information about them, but also their culture, how they think, and the ways they act. It is really interesting to find these differences, and these are the biggest gift I have gotten here.

Before I came here I set a few goals. The first goal was to meet many people and learn from them. This goal has been gone well so far. The academic goals were to learn Chinese and English as much as possible. It is part of my managing problem, but one thing I’ve realized here is that Chinese, specifically Mandarin, and English are both second languages to local people. Local people here speak Cantonese so it is different from learning English in America. It’s all foreigners speaking a foreign language. But overall I’m really satisfied with my life here.

Written by: Hyeon Jin Lim

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