STUDENT EXCHANGE REPORT NATIONAL CHENGCHI UNIVERSITY - TAIPEI, TAIWAN - SPRING 2012

1. PREPARATIONS Documents and Permits The school will send you application forms and course registration instructions well in advance. You need to fill in the forms, add a couple passport photos and deliver them to the office of international affairs in Aalto. After approval, you will get the confirmation letter from your school in Taiwan and an information package with info on everything you need to do next. For vaccinations you will get information from the university medical staff (YTHS). A thorough health check will be later on carried out in Taipei by the school, NCCU. Visa to Taiwan It is up to you whether you want to apply for a Taiwanese visa beforehand or not. Finnish citizens get a 90-day on-arrival tourist visa when entering the country, which means that one should make at least one trip out of Taiwan during the exchange period in order to renew that 90-day period. As most of the exchange students go traveling outside Taiwan at least once during the semester, it is not necessary to apply the visa beforehand. If you decide to apply for the visa beforehand in Finland, you may extend it to 180 days in Taiwan, meaning that it is not necessary to leave the country during the exchange period. Note that there are some benefits of having the visa to Taiwan. It may come in handy (as in faster and cheaper) if youre applying for visas to other countries while in Taiwan (ie. Chinese visa). Applying the Visa is simple. Taiwan has consular representative office in the centre of Helsinki. The price of visa varies from 47 Euros to 74 Euros. It takes only two days to get it. I strongly recommend the multiple-entry visa. For the Visa you only need the acceptance letter filling a basic visa form and two pictures.

Visa to China Having a Chinese visa is not necessary in Taiwan, but if you want to travel to China before/during/after your stay in Taiwan, you need a Chinese visa. Due to the current political situation between Taiwan and China, there is no Chinese embassy in Taiwan. Applying the Chinese visa is possible, yet really expensive (100-150EUR), in Taiwan, since you will have to apply through a travel agency and your passport and documents will be sent to Hong Kong for processing. The cheapest and easiest way is to get the visa from Finland before leaving, but note that the visa is valid from the date of application - not from the date of entry and you will have to make sure that it is valid for a long enough time especially if you are planning to travel after the semester. So dont apply for it too early. If youre planning to visit Hong Kong during your trip, do it there, since you will save a lot of money by doing that. This last option is the most recommended one by us. Traveling and arriving to Taiwan There are several options for getting to Taiwan; Finnair has some direct flights and several other airlines fly there usually via Hong Kong or with a transfer somewhere in Central Europe. One possible and usually pretty cheap option is to book the flights from Kilroy travels. They have great discounts for youth and students. If you book your flights early (3-5 months) you can find round trips flights even for around 600 !. The more you spend the less changes you have to make. For 600 ! you can get a flight with two changes. When booking the flights remember that Finnair has 23 kg as the upper limit for luggage but most of the airlines only have 20 kg. This is important especially when travelling back home. It is possible to send stuff back to home but it is pretty expensive because theres no possibility to shipped it by sea. One possible option is to ship it to i.e Netherlands and from there again ship it onwards to Finland. The school has a buddy program and each exchange student will usually have 2 local students assigned as their buddies

(sort of international tutors). Your buddies will contact you beforehand by e-mail and help you if you have some questions about Taiwan. They will meet you at the airport when you arrive and take you to the university to check in for your accommodation (whether its the i-house or the dorms). The buddies are really helpful especially during the first days, when you need to settle in the new country. Ask for their help in getting your students ID, SIM-card, bus-card, etc. Possible issues Along with the acceptance confirmation, the school will send you a letter explaining (in English and Chinese) that youre coming to Taiwan for student exchange for one semester. Keep this letter with you when you travel, as you might need it when you arrive to Taiwan. There were some stories that people arriving to Taiwan without a return ticket (or another flight to some other country) had problems getting into the country. Most of us didnt have flights out of Taiwan, but still had no problems entering the country. Also, we flew in to Taiwan several times during the semester from different countries and never had a ticket out of Taiwan. Only once in Hong Kong the airline asked us to show the ticket out, but still allowed to enter after explaining the situation to them. However, one of us flew from London to Taipei and they made him book another ticket because the return flight was on the same ticket and his multiple entry visa 90 days period expires before that. It was just an extra issue nothing too serious. It is difficult to give advice on what to do about this, as we do not know why some people were asked to buy tickets out of the country, while some werent. The letter from the school might help in this case. If you find yourself in the situation that you need to buy the ticket out, usually the cheapest flights out of Taiwan are with Cebu Pacific to Manila (usually around <40!). Just book one and cancel it/suffer the cost if it comes to that - no need to panic and book a 600! flight back home at that point.

2. STUDYING IN TAIWAN The classes in the spring of 2012 officially started on February 20th. However, there was an orientation day for exchange students on February 16th, when all of us were expected to have arrived. The orientation day included an information session at school where we for example got some general info, our Taiwanese student cards, and got to know each other a little bit. After that there was a cultural trip to a city nearby, which was optional and subject to a charge (2000 NTD = ~50 Euros). The trip itself wasnt all that amazing and we thought it was maybe a bit expensive considering its content, but it was an excellent opportunity to get to know the other exchange students in the first days. There were a few public holidays during the semester when there were no classes, but NCCU will send a detailed list of the dates with the exchange info package. If those match your chosen course days nicely it might provide some time to go traveling. However, it is good to notice that IMBA courses are never cancelled even though there would be a public holiday. NCCU has two exam periods. Mid-term exams were held in mid-April, and final exams were held in June. The last classes and exams of the semester of spring semester were held between June 24th-28th. However, for some it was already earlier, as not all of the classes have final exams (some might have final projects etc. that end sooner). The first ones were done with school already in the beginning of June or midJune. Courses The course selection changes from year to year. The selection period with the course list was available online in the beginning of January 2012 we were informed of this via email. Unless one is fluent in Chinese, there is not much possibilities to participate to the courses taught in Chinese. However, there is also a sufficient list of courses taught in English to choose from. All of us this year were masters students, so all the courses we chose were either graduate

level or IMBA courses. Course Selection for Mandarin Chinese Chinese Language Center offers a wide variety of courses in Mandarin Chinese: a conversational course for beginners, a special course for beginners, a special course for nonbeginners, a one-to-one course and a regular course. In special courses both conversation and writing/reading skills are practiced. The three first ones are taught twice a week in 10-weeks period and the tuition fee (refundable) is 10100 NTD. One-to-one class is charged on hour basis whereas the regular course lasts 12 weeks and is held every weekday forenoon (tuition 27500 NTD). I selected the conversation course (6 ECTS/60 hrs), which took place between March 5th and May 9th. The classes were held twice a week on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. The class comprised weekly tests, one presentation and a final exam. The policy of refunding the tuition is strict especially in relation to absence. Students are allowed to be absent less than 90% of classes and grade have to exceed 80%. The course material (about 400 NTD) was impractical for beginners and thus the Language Center has much to improve. From Western touchstone for quality and contents, I would not recommend the conversational course but students who took regular courses were contented. Asset Securitization: Theory and Practice (6 ECTS/Graduate level) An IMBA-course on Asset Securitization taught by professor Hu was by far the best course I had. The course was based on professor Hus 30 years of experience working in the asset securitization market on Wall Street. The class was held once a week and encompassed two take-home exams. Attendance was mandatory and professor Hu was very strict on that (more than two absence and you were out of the course). Professor Hus lessened the theory part by spinning personal experience from working at S&P, Salomon Brothers, Fannie Mae,

Oppenheimer & Co among others. The course did not require strong financial insight or mathematical skills and thus can be recommended to anyone who is interested how the process of securitization assets works. Chinese Culture and its Management Mindset (6ECTS/Graduate level) This graduate level course is designed to give you more insight into the Chinese Culture and their mindset in doing business. During my semester this was a popular course among exchange students. The teacher is very passionate about the Chinese culture and history and is able to explain this very well. He tries to give the students more knowledge about why Chinese (and Taiwanese) people think and act the way they do, of which much is based on their history. By the end of the course the teacher tries to combine all of what he has taught us about the Chinese history into a business perspective. This way you can learn how to behave when you would do business with a Chinese company. New Media Technology (6ECTS/Graduate level) This graduate course is designed to discuss and learn about technological opportunities in todays business, especially in the context of social media. The course is held by professor Michael Tang, who is known to be successful, opinionated and controversial lecturer. Mr. Tang is more flexible on the attendance policy than some other professors, if needed. Students are graded based on their active participation to class discussion, assigned presentations and the final paper. The course does not demand as much work as many of the other courses, as the professor designs his courses to be a platform for learning about todays issues and critical thinking rather than overloading his students with work. Communication Policy and e-Applications (6ECTS/Graduate level) This graduate course is designed to discuss and learn about the power of media, both in terms of traditional media and social media. It should be noted that the course content is actually very similar to New Media Technology. Taking both of

these two courses was at times repetitive. Also this course is held by professor Michael Tang, who is known to be successful, opinionated and controversial lecturer. Students are graded based on their active participation to class discussion, assigned presentations and the final paper. Similarly to New Media Technology, the course does not demand as much work, as the professor designs his courses to be a platform for learning about todays issues and critical thinking rather than overloading his students with work. Global Leadership (6ECTS/IMBA course) This course is held by professor George Tseng. It is based on a book called Leading at a higher level and Mr. Tsengs personal experiences. You are divided to 3-4 four different teams in the first session. During this course you and your team will do couple of different presentations. Overall the workload for this course is quite modest. You and your team have to come up with a project and execute it during the course. The project can be anything that gives you and your team an opportunity to lead. The amount of work is related to the difficulty of your project. Theres no exam in the course just a final term paper that youll do once the semester is over. Overall the course was the most interactive. Youll receive penalty points if you dont show up to the class. Marketing Research (4 ECTS/Intensive IMBA course) Intensive IMBA course taught by Mr. Brodowsky a visiting professor from California State University San Marcos. The course only lasted for 4 weeks and we had three-hour classes on every Wednesday and Friday plus one additional 8 hour class on Sunday. Mr. Brodowsky is a very likeable and energetic professor he keeps the atmosphere light and interactive. The course itself is more or less getting familiar with statistical analysis surveys etc. For students coming from our school it pretty easy course. Also in this course youll learn how to use SPPS. The class was useful for everyone and I highly recommend taking a course where Mr. Brodowsky is the professor. There was a 5 exercises and exam that was the basis of your grade. If you paid attention during the class the exam was pretty easy.

3. LIVING IN TAIWAN AND FREE-TIME ACTIVITIES Taiwan is relatively cheap to live and travel in. The Finnish government tuition will get you far, but if you have some savings or student loan you can get even more out of the experience, depending on what you want to do. But even though investing in traveling or dining while youre there might set you back a few extra Euros or NTDs, it will definitely be worth it. Taipei has most likely hundreds of thousands of restaurants. Food is cheap and as there isnt much possibilities to cook your own food (even locals always eat out, every meal), we strongly recommend experimenting with different types of restaurants and dishes. There are quite traditional Taiwanese places around NCCU, but from downtown Taipei one can find basically any type of restaurants and food. Clubbing is also strongly recommended and thoroughly tested by authors of this report. It can be also quite cheap-ish, depending on where you go and on which day (vice versa, it can be also quite expensive-ish). Generally Friday and Saturday are the most expensive days, when the finest clubs will set you back from entrance fee alone from 500-1000 NTD, but Wednesdays and Thursdays are significantly cheaper in the same clubs (entrances about 0-300 NTD, including 2-3 drinks). On the other hand, there are also Sundays in Baby18, when the entrance is free for women and 200 NTD for men with open bar all night. Also there are some good and more laid back bars and pubs in Taipei. There only place nearby NCCU and the iHouse is Hoydea, a small but cozy pub. Other than that all nightlife is found from the centre (around Zhongshan Dunhua and 101-area) and Gongguan area. Accommodation There are three main options on where to live. You can opt to live in the dorms on campus which are cheap (350 Euro for a whole semester) but the quality of the rooms are low and the

facilities are very basic and old. Just outside campus is the newly constructed international house (iHouse) that will set you back 300 Euro per month for a single room and 200 Euro per month for a double. Even though the iHouse is offcampus, it is still very close to school and will take you only a few minutes to get to class. The best part of the iHouse is that youll live together will all other exchange students (approx. 120) in one building. There are some pretty strict rules and it can be noisy at times but it is all worth it. The last option is to find your own apartment/studio anywhere in the city. It will most likely be cheaper than living in the iHouse but finding an apartment might take a while. Whichever is the best option all depends on your interest. Most of us stayed at the iHouse and would most likely happily stay there again. However, the following is good to take into consideration in the future regarding the iHouse: We heard that they will be changing the payment system of the iHouse in the future, so that the entire semester (i.e during the fall from 1st of September - 31st of January) will be charged beforehand. This would also mean, that if you choose to leave Taipei before the end of contract (as some people did), you would have to request for a refund, and we do not know how complicated that might be. This can be an issue as most courses most likely will end quite some time before the actual end of the term. But this information we cannot confirm 100%, so please check it from the iHouse. Traveling around Even though Taiwan is a relatively small island, it has beautiful and very varied nature and landscapes. It has sandy, sunny beaches in the south tip, high mountains and gorges on the eastern side, huge Taipei metropolitan area in the north, lakes and rural areas in the centre and small traditional towns all around, especially visible in indigenous peoples islands such as Green Island and Orchid Island. Taiwan is also an excellent base for traveling extensively throughout Asia. South Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand are all relatively cheap to get to (check flights from airasia.com!). An exchange at NCCU offers a unique

experience to travel a lot. Dont try to arrange anything before coming to Taipei, there is no need for that. You meet so many great people that you want to travel with so wait until you meet them. This we found was one of the most appealing sides of Taiwan, as we all loved to travel around (Taiwan and Asia in general) and strongly recommend it for others too. Travelling we did in Taiwan: - Kenting beaches - Taroko Gorge - Scootering the Eastern coast highway - Sun Moon Lake (central Taiwan) - Fulong beach (North-coast) - Jiufen (near Taipei) - Islands: Matsu, Green Island, Orchid Island, Penghu Travelling / sights nearby Taipei: - Elephant Mountain (centre of Taipei, famous views especially during sunset of the 101) - Hiking the highest peak in Yangmingshan, Qixingshan Mountain (north side of Taipei) - River trekking in Wulai (south side of Taipei) - Formosa Fun Coast waterpark near Bali (north side of Taipei, on the coast) - Maokong Hill, gondola and Taipei Zoo (right next to NCCU) + a lot more...

4. ADDITIONAL COMMENTS Why to go to NCCU and Taiwan? Taiwan can be considered as soft landing to Chinese culture. Its a bit less hectic and more people speak and understand English. Even though Taiwan can be considered much more western than the Mainland China it is still very Chinese in comparison to, for example, Hong Kong. Speaking English will get you by, but learning a few words and phrases in Chinese will make your stay much more enjoyable. So if you want to experience Chinese culture, but youre not certain whether it might be too much for you, Taiwan is a good choice to

introduce yourself to the culture. In everyday life it is a bit easier to get by and slightly easier to get to know local people, since the language barrier is lower. Also, as we already stated above, Taiwan is excellent for those who want to travel a lot and see different places, landscapes and cultures, as we did. That was one of the main reasons too why Taiwan was so great as an exchange place. If you went there again, what would you do differently? Learn more Chinese. Learning Chinese is probably the best way to make your stay more enjoyable. It is very difficult and time consuming, but if you can find the time, it will pay off. The Confucious Institute in Helsinki offers free Chinese courses (http://www.helsinki.fi/confucius/studyandresearch/language/c ourses.htm) and if its your first visit to Asia/China, you can also learn about Chinese culture there. Once youve learned a little bit, try to find a local person to practice it with. The locals are very keen on improving their English, so having a lunch with your classmate is a good way to practice your Chinese and for them to learn more English. Climate Prepare yourself for the Taipei and Taiwan climate. Taipei is very rainy and during the winter months (Dec-mid-Mar) it may also be quite cold. So bring some warm/waterproof clothes with you as well, since especially the rain will be an issue from time to time. On the other hand, from April onwards the weather can be very hot and humid. Things learned during the exchange semester The more time you spend within Chinese culture, the more you come to understand how little you actually know about it. The culture is very old and rooted into the people and the Chinese language. Learning the language is the key to understand the people and the culture, but in the case of Mandarin Chinese, the task may seem overwhelming. If you cannot grasp the language, you may concentrate on observing and enjoying the immense cultural difference between Finland and Taiwan. You may wonder how differently

the society is organized, but yet how functional it still is in its own way. Exchange is not only about learning about the local culture, as very often due to the cultural and language barriers the exchange students tend to socialize with each other a lot more than with locals. You probably end up learning also more about different European cultures during your exchange. Interacting with people from various cultural backgrounds in an environment unfamiliar to any of them, often teaches a lot about the special characteristics of these cultures. When the culture shock or homesickness strikes, the main values of your home culture tend to surface. As a final word we - all five of us - very, VERY strongly recommend Taiwan as an exchange place. We enjoyed it a lot and hope next exchange students will too!!