-
Hiking in Hong Kong: the highlights
By Ellen Smith, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
-
Lunar New Year in Hong Kong
By Ellen Smith, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong The largest celebration each year in Hong Kong is Lunar New Year, usually falling between late January and mid February. It’s essential to check the dates a couple weeks in advance as most shops, restaurants and attractions will shut for a number of days. However, there are numerous other activities that are on during this time which cannot be missed. There are so many food and market stalls, spread out all over Hong Kong. If you’re living on the island I’d recommend going to Victoria Park, in Causeway Bay. This one is typically one of the largest and also includes a…
You May Also Like
Emotional aftermath
Hong Kong: Settling in and Moving Out
A Long Weekend in Taipei
-
An Accident Abroad
By Madeleine Dodd, Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong, Hong Kong As the beginning of my exchange drew near, the long checklist of forms, flights, visas and necessities weighed heavy. Ensuring everything is in line to avoid issues along the way, alongside the nerves of moving across the world encouraged me to rely on the help of the program staff. Months later, I paid a heavy price.
-
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.
-
Long Distance Relationships: overcoming the distance
By Madeleine Dodd, Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong, Hong Kong Leading up to my departure of 5,981.38 miles away, the reality of beginning a long distance relationship became a daunting and heavy feeling. You can only prepare yourself so much, but I will offer you some of my experience in navigating this difficult chapter. Although a hard decision to make, turning down an important life opportunity in favor of a more comfortable relationship is something I promised myself I would never do. And I’d never want my partner to either. Especially with today’s technology, it is not impossible and the growth and lessons learnt through such an experience will…
-
Settling into life in Hong Kong: the honest truth
By Anna Belsham, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong I have now been in Hong Kong for four weeks and have just completed my third week of studying at HKPU, it has flown by. I came to Hong Kong with a friend that is doing the same course as me and I had already lived with her for two years and we are sharing a room in Hung Hom halls, this took the pressure off a lot as we were in it together and I did not have to worry about meeting a new roommate, however, I have met so many other exchange students who came on their own and…
-
Travelling sustainably in Hong Kong
By Gemma Dignam (University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong) One of the highlights of going on exchange is getting to travel in your spare time, whether that be in your host country, or visiting neighbouring countries or cities. Due to Covid restrictions still being in place in Hong Kong, we are not able to travel abroad without hotel quarantining on our return- which is not an option on our student budget and schedule! Although this was disappointing to most of us exchanges who wished to travel to surrounding countries, we quickly realised the extent of travel options within Hong Kong itself- and most of them can be done in a…
-
First Few Weeks in Hong Kong – Initial Reflections
Anthony Bladen – The Chinese University of Hong Kong I have been at CUHK for almost three weeks now and while everyone at Manchester has just finished exam season, here at CUHK we only have one more week of classes until the Chinese New Year break – meaning I have a lot to talk about!
-
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 –…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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.…
A study abroad journal by students, for students.
