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Best Food Spots Near PolyU Halls
By Anna Belsham, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong One of the biggest adjustments when moving to Hong Kong was having to eat out for most meals. In Hong Kong the groceries are super expensive and at PolyU halls there are limited kitchen facilities, so it works out cheaper to eat out for most meals. There are 1000s of restaurants in Hong Kong and it can be overwhelming, after living in halls for a year I found some great nearby places to eat that are not too expensive. Here are a list of my favorites:
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Exam Season at PolyU, Hong Kong
By Madeleine Dodd, Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong, Hong Kong Exam season is always a stressful time, especially if it’s in a different country with different teaching styles and grading systems. Whilst the majority of other exchange students only faced a pass or fail outcome, my results contributed 20% to my degree and were to be later translated to the UK grading system equivalent. This only added more stress to the ambiguity of a different country’s exam style. But, like many of the host universities, PolyU was supportive and attentive to my worries. Workload Throughout the term time, lectures covered the content that will eventually be tested in the…
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Review of PolyU Student Halls of Residence (Hung Hom)
By Anna Belsham, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong When deciding to do an exchange year one of my main concerns was going back to living in student halls, especially as most of the exchange options were shared rooms, which is unheard of in the UK. But I have ended up having a very positive experience and I would not let this put you off doing a study abroad, I think it is a great experience and very character building. Price: Hong Kong is known to be very expensive to live in, with extremely high renting prices. However, the price of PolyU halls is extremely cheap (in comparison to anywhere…
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Top Places to Visit Whilst on Exchange in Hong Kong
By Anna Belsham, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Out of any place I have been to in my life, I would say that Hong Kong has the most things to do! From such a vibrant city full of museums, temples, parks, shopping, food, to endless beaches and hikes and even islands, it can become very overwhelming when you first arrive, it is hard to know where to begin. This blog post will hopefully give you somewhere to start, but there are still endless amounts of places in Hong Kong that are still on my list to go to, that are not included.
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Where has the year gone?!
By Alex Ure (Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong) “Hong Kong is a city of paradoxes, where bamboo coexists with concrete, and temples are neighbours with Gucci” – Hong Kong Coconuts. I read an article about a foreign photographer, Kyra Campbell who really captures the true essence of Hong Kong. The article has already initiated my reminiscence of Hong Kong, and I haven’t even left yet! I really will miss the diversity of this culture. Superimposing the ‘old’ and ‘new’ juxtaposed features of Hong Kong together in one photo is really representative of life here. Below is one of my favourite photographs of hers, merging skyscrapers with dried fish –…
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Chinese New Year – Gong Hey Fat Choy!
By Alexandra Ure (Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong) I cannot believe that February is drawing to a close, now the Chinese New Year festivities are over and mid-terms are around the corner, I need to get my head down (I’m writing this post first though, as it’s much more fun!). Spending Chinese New Year in Hong Kong has been amazing; many exchange students took the week off as an opportunity to travel. I was intending to travel to Borneo, but had so many issues with booking flights that I couldn’t go. This has been somewhat a blessing in disguise as I’ve been able to experience the CNY festivities in…
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Bring on Semester Two
By Alexandra Ure (Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong) I cannot believe that I am now halfway through my study abroad experience in Hong Kong, which is constantly shaping up to be the best year of my life. Semester two commenced a few days ago so I’ve been settling back into the Asian lifestyle after spending the past few weeks back in the UK over the Christmas period. I am excited to be back in Hong Kong to continue to explore and immerse myself in this vibrant, colourful city and to complete my bucket list. Although it has been somewhat bittersweet returning as the majority of exchange students were only…
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Academic Differences – UK to HK
By Alexandra Ure (Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong) SUBJECT CHOICES Despite choosing and finalising subjects before arriving in Hong Kong by utilising the online subject choice information for PolyU, which was both informative and useful, I still ended up changing a few modules in the Add/Drop period. Unlike Manchester, you can choose any subjects from an inbound exchange list and change your subjects in the Add/Drop period, which is the first two weeks of the semester. I attended my scheduled classes and additional subjects that I thought I might be interested in, in case I did not like or find the modules I had already chosen to be suitable.…
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Settling into life in HK
By Alexandra Ure (Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong) So Hong Kong has been my new home for two weeks already, I have no idea where the time’s gone! It feels like so long since my departure from the UK and I’m surprised at how easily I’ve settled in and how welcoming the country is as a whole. There is perfect marriage of East-meets-West here which I think has made the transition of moving here so easy! I really cannot stress enough how amazing and intriguing I am finding Hong Kong is, I absolutely love it and can’t wait to really start immersing myself in the culture. The locals are…
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Ni Hao Hong Kong!
By Alexandra Ure (Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong) After a jam-packed summer of catching up with family and friends, holidays, interning and celebrating my birthday on Friday, I am finally about to commence my study abroad year in Hong Kong. Tomorrow I embark on a gruelling 20-hour journey to Hong Kong with a stop-over in Doha; this was my cheapest flight option but you can fly direct for around £100 more if you’re not the best flyer! I am in disbelief that this is actually happening and at how fast time has passed since handing in my very first Worldwide Exchange applications; it feels so surreal that I will…
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POST POLY U!
By Roopa Hathi (Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong). Hey there! So, it is actually the time that I have finished my studies at PolyU! So so strange that this year has flown by!! So, firstly I am going to begin with a brief account of what I’ve been up to since my last blog post! My exams went well, I passed them all which was good! And even passed my Chinese exam – which I am not definitely going to take in final year using the Manchester LEAP program! (Everyone research this if you are keen to carry on your study abroad languages! It’s a program UoM offer to…
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The struggle of learning Mandarin Chinese…
By Roopa Hathi (Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong). 你好，很抱歉, 我很忙！我学中文，很难，也很有趣！ Hello, I am very sorry, I have been very busy! I study Chinese, It is very difficult.. but also very interesting! So my time at Hong Kong Polytechnic University is shortly coming to an end, and I have absolute no idea how this has gone this fast! I have been stuck down recently with 3 mid term exams, 3 presentations and 4 reports! And also the focus of my blog entry today- my Level 2 Mandarin Chinese final! I am sure those of you looking to come to Hong Kong to study, are most likely wanting to learn a bit…
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A study abroad journal by students, for students.
