Hi! I’m Yu (and you can also call me Lydia). I am exchanging in Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2024 semester 1.
Time flies. When typing this post, I am surprised to find that I have come to CUHK for 1 month. It feels like I have experienced nothing or everything, but I have to say I really like this university. In this blog post, I will introduce exchange students’ accommodation. I believe it is helpful to those who will come or still hesitate to come to exchange in CUHK.
I want to start with accommodation. As we know, renting a satisfactory apartment in Hong Kong is difficult and expensive, especially in the short term. Fortunately, to exchange students, on-campus accommodation is guaranteed, which reduces the trouble of renting an apartment. The Office of Academic Links (OAL) in CUHK provides two types of accommodation to choose from: staying in an International House (i-House) with other exchange students or living in college accommodation with CUHK students.
In this context, I have to mention an important point CUHK differs from UOA and most universities: the College System (書院制度 in Traditional Chinese). According to the official website, there are nine colleges in CUHK: Chung Chi College, New Asia College, United College, Shaw College, Morningside College, S.H. Ho College, C.W. Chu College, Wu Yee Sun College, and Lee Woo Sing College. (FYI: my affiliated college is United College) All undergraduates, including exchange students, will be randomly affiliated with a college. Each college has its unique activities, cultural characteristics, and features. Therefore, if you are interested in Hong Kong, CUHK’s local culture, and CUHKers’ daily lives, living in college accommodation is a wonderful choice!
Worried about cultural barriers with local roommates? Want to meet more exchange students? i-House helps! (FYI: I live in i-House now) It is warm-hearted that the management will assign students from similar regions or countries to be roommates, avoiding no common topics. CUHK has an abundant activity schedule for exchange students. i-House and OAL will hold many activities about Chinese culture and social chances for exchange students, such as coffee time, Chinese dessert night, and city traveling in Hong Kong. Therefore, living in i-House would help you to know friends from similar regions and avoid lonely going to activities. It also enables you to meet more exchange friends, and you can easily find partners to communicate about learning and living difficulties with similar identities.
To whom it may concern, there is no relationship between your classroom and college, so don’t worry that living in i-House will increase your commute time. Rooms in CUHK accommodations are shared rooms and shared bathrooms, and you will be assigned in double, triple, or quadruple rooms randomly.
That’s all of this sharing! If you like it, please give me likes or comments. You can also ask me questions in the comment area. I havn’t decide to introduce CUHK’s canteen or traveling in my next post. Why? Because there are more than 25 canteens in CUHK. I still haven’t gone to them all, and I want to introduce them after going to all of them. Hope I can finish my CUHK canteen exploration when I do my next blog post!
Thanks for your reading. I want to share a photo of Hong Kong’s night in the end. Taken by myself in CUHK.
