My new home – HONG KONG

                           First two weeks

Uusi opiskelupaikka, uusi kaupunki, uusi kulttuuri ja uudet ihmiset. Saavuin Hong Kongiin aamulennolla 8.tammikuuta tiedostaen sen, että tulisin viettämään vähintään seuraavat puoli vuotta kyseisessä paikassa. 24 minuutin pehmeän ja rauhallisen Airport express MTR (Mass Transit System = Paikallinen metro) matkan jälkeen todellinen Hong Kong avautui silmien edessä samalla kun ovet Hong Kong Central asemalla päästivät minut tutustumaan uusiin hoodeihin ja normaaliin MTR-järjestelmään. Pikaiset vaatesulkeiset pienen lämpötilaeron johdosta ja itseohjattu kierros keskustan ihmistörmäilyautoissa. Ihmisiä, paljon ihmisiä. Mitä, kuka, häh?

Hong Kong

Onneksi kahden viikon intensiivisen ohjatun ja itsenäisen orientaation jälkeen en ole enää niin ulapalla, mutta myönnän että ei tätä metropolia kokeneena matkustajanakaan ihan muutamassa päivässä kartoiteta ulkomuistiin. Chinese University of Hong Kongin mieletön kampus ja IASP (International Asian Studies Programme) ihmiset ovat tehneet startin hyvinkin helpoksi. Ei huonompi mesta tämä Hong Kong muutenkaan. Tästä lähden avaamaan kokemuksiani ensimmäisiltä viikoilta uudesta kodistani.

Korean BBQ

My morning flight to Hong Kong arrived on time. I finally reached my new home! This sweet city is going to be my home for at least 5 months from now on. I will go through some of the moments from the first two weeks. During the first week on campus I participated in orientations for exchange students as well as did some orientation by myself. Classes began this week and we had some time to explore Hong Kong by ourselves and meet other international students in a welcoming party. Let’s go!

WEEK 1:

Arrival to Hong Kong was really nice since the former exchange students from Finland were waiting for me in the IFC mall for dinner. We ate some great Tim Ho Wan dim sum (Michelin star dim sum) and I prepared myself for the semester to come by asking a ton of questions from these people. After this short introduction I took a taxi to the campus that is located more than 20 kilometers from Hong Kong Central. Tall towers and the endless concrete jungle turned into green hills while we got closer to CUHK. This is the point where I realized my hall is going to be located higher than I thought. I had seen the map and some pictures but didn’t think it’s going 2 kilometers of stairs until reaching it. I ended up climbing the hills with my luggage…I was soaked. Fortunately half the way up the hill some local student advised me where to go to take an elevator to make the journey more comfortable. The trip takes quite long even though you use two elevators inside tall buildings located on campus. Buses didn’t run that late anymore. The other surprise of that night was that I didn’t have a blanket or a pillow so I ended up sleeping in 12C with all my clothes piled up to make a little nest for me.

Over 7 million people and 7700 skyscrapers

The next 5 days were full of different orientation activities and a lot of paperwork. The lectures included music videos from former students, security briefing, IT-information and CUHK history and future. The university turns 50 years this year so I picked a good time to come here! A lot of special events and things will take place while I’m here! We also had an academic advising session and a meeting with the Finnish consulate. Already some Finnish chocolate and salt liquorice?

I also visited IKEA to buy all the needed things to my little room in Chan Chun Ha hall. Personal space got a new meaning from the moment I opened my door. I have one roommate. I think United College is a great place to live on campus though. The dorm or hall has floors for boys and girls and rules are quite strict. There is always boiling water for your noodles and tea though!

My Crib in Chan Chun Ha

On Friday night it was time to enjoy the Welcoming dinner with some 12 dishes or more. I lost the count…

Saturday was the first day when we really got to explore some Hong Kong sights. I participated an arranged city tour with all the other IASP students. We headed to Victoria Peak and saw Jackie Chan’s house. Very touristy but fun…our guide was the best comic I’ve seen in a long time. I’m not sure if all of his comments were supposed to be funny but we found them awesome with the other students.

VICTORIA PEAK - HK skyline

The Peak Tram

The next destination during the city tour was Aberdeen floating village. We also did a little sightseeing with a sampan boat there. Some 6000 people live in their boats in Aberdeen. I think it is nice how people lead their daily life inside this huge city in these boats.

Aberdeen 

The last place we visited was Stanley market which is just one of the places to get some cheap goods in Hong Kong. Bargaining is fun here! There are many restaurants next to the market and expatriates like to come here to drink a beer or two.

The tour ended downtown where we went to see the symphony of lights that is the world’s largest permanent light and sound show by GWR. It was somewhat crazy to see how full Hong Kong downtown is…more than 7700 skyscrapers leaving NYC behind with ‘’only’’ 5800. 7 million people packed in this megalopolis. (With only 1104km ²  land area though)

WEEK 2:

My classes began with some Chinese for beginners. I really liked the course even though still confused about those tones and the whole language. It will get better I’m sure. My goal is to learn the basics and some simple expressions. Maybe I’m able to get around Beijing by using Mandarin the next time? I’m sure the pronunciation is easier for a Finn than an American based on the first lectures.

Good Morning CUHK!

I also got into my Marketing and Management courses and we began with some very interesting lectures. An elevator pitch during the first lesson of organizational behavior and structure was quite nice! I find it really interesting that everyone has an English name here…very random names for some people. They will first introduce themselves with the Chinese name and after that they might tell that you can call them Jennifer without the Jen –> Nifer. I will get my Chinese name next week and it will probably be somewhat random for them as well :D

The facilities here are great. There is a learning garden with some sunrays blazing through the glass roof that is actually the bottom of the central campus pool.  Classrooms are well equipped and the view from the ones I have is amazing (not on a foggy day though). There are also 12 canteens that provide a large variety of local and non-local dishes. The area is like a small city inside a city. What university has it’s own subway stop only meant for the Uni. Campus?

''The Pool'' @ New Asia College

CCHH rooftop terrace

The learning garden

The local students and their student associations are very active in promoting and marketing their events and new cabinet here. It is a CUHK speciality to do these clapping/singing routines...also during lectures. 

Wednesday included a welcoming party for all the exchange students (not organized by the school) living in Hong Kong. This was a great networking possibility and I also met some friends from Finnish universities here. A lot of glow paint in this networking event :O On that Wednesday I also ended up waiting in the supermarket line for 35 minutes…apparently it’s not the best idea to do your groceries at that time (7pm).

Uni. Supermarket Line

 

On Thursday we took the MTR to go to Mong Kok for the night market. The amount of lights and people is overwhelming once you have been studying in Oulu for the past year. This is another place to bargain for some nice stuff (also a lot of fake stuff that is not so nice). Can’t stop noticing that Angry Birds is copied everywhere. You can probably get anything with that red chick! Also went to a Hot Pot fast food restaurant. Hot Pot is kind of like fondue but with lots of different things. So good!

Hot Pot Fast Food

Second weekend started off with a trip to Lantau Island to see Big Buddha. To get there you can take a bus or the cable car. We chose to see the sights from high up and took a gondola for 8 people. This multinational group got to do High Fives with the Buddha and also walked the wisdom path…will we be wise after that? This island has some great hiking routes like many places in Hong Kong but this time we didn’t have time to hike too much. I will do some serious hiking in the coming weeks for sure! 9 hours after we returned to campus and this time I took the bus up the hill.

Cable car to Lantau

Tourist group 

High Five Buddha!

To wrap up the first two weeks I’d say we got a very good group of students here to experience Southeast Asia and that the time here has been somewhat hectic but rewarding.

Guarding the city

I will also provide a very interesting link to see how people here live. Go to http://hongwrong.com/michael-wolf-hong-kong/ to see 100 Photos of 100 Rooms of 100sq ft.

Hong Kong is tall and for that reason apartments are not cheap…not cheap at all. Restaurants and barbershops can easily be located in the 6th floor (or a lot higher) so they are not the easiest things to spot since the amount of billboards is quite amazing. 

HONG KONG STYLE

                                                                        - Niklas -