Taiwan.

Taiwan gets slept on because it sits next to louder neighbours, and that is exactly why you should go. It's one of the safest places on earth, your euros stretch a long way, and the whole island, bullet trains, metros, a 7-Eleven on every corner, just works. You get real Chinese-speaking Asia with almost none of the friction that scares first-timers off.

It's for the curious student who wants more than a stag-do semester: someone up for a bit of Mandarin, hiking a gorge on Saturday and eating things they can't pronounce on Sunday. If you need everyone to speak fluent English and the party to never stop, look elsewhere. If you want to come home genuinely changed, this is your place.

Campus life here is studious, locals grind hard and cram culture is real, but the social side sneaks up on you. Exchange students cluster tight, so you'll have a group chat, a hotpot crew and a karaoke habit within two weeks. Universities run buddy programmes that pair you with a local, and clubs (everything from lion dance to climbing) are an easy way in.

Nights out revolve around night markets, cheap beer at FamilyMart tables on the pavement, KTV karaoke rooms rented by the hour, and Taipei clubs that don't fill until 1am. It's less about getting hammered and more about long, food-heavy hangs. Locals are shy but genuinely kind, smile, try your three words of Mandarin, and doors open.

Taiwan is comfortably cheaper than Western Europe, especially on food and transport, though Taipei rent is the one line item that stings. Budget roughly €700-1,100 a month all-in: at the low end you're in a dorm in Kaohsiung or Hsinchu eating night-market food, at the high end you've got a private room in central Taipei and a travel habit.

The trick is that eating out is often cheaper than cooking, a full night-market dinner runs €2-4, and your kitchen may be a shared afterthought anyway. Where it adds up is imported beer in bars, taxis and weekend flights. Live like a local and you'll bank savings; live like a tourist and Taipei will find your wallet.

• University dorm: €60-180/mo
• Private room in a shared flat: €230-440/mo
• Night-market dinner: €2-4
• Monthly TPASS transit pass: €35/mo
• Bubble tea: €1.20-2

Most exchange students take a university dorm for the first semester, it's cheap (€60-180/mo), on or near campus, and saves you fighting the local rental market in Mandarin. The catch is dorms are basic, often shared two to four to a room, with curfews or gender-split floors at some schools. Apply the second you're accepted; spots go fast.

If you want your own space, hunt on 591.com.tw (the big local site, run it through Chrome translate) plus Facebook groups like Taipei Rentals and exchange-student pages. Expect €230-440 for a room in a shared flat, more for a Taipei studio. Scam rule: never wire a deposit before viewing, be wary of prices well under market, and get a written lease. A local buddy or the international office can vet a landlord for you.

• Uni dorm: €60-180/mo, apply early
• Shared flat room: €230-440/mo
• Taipei studio: €440-730/mo
• Search 591.com.tw + Facebook rental groups, view before you pay

Taiwan's transport is a genuine highlight. Taipei and Kaohsiung have clean, cheap MRT metros where a ride is under €1, and you tap through everything, metro, buses, YouBike share bikes, even convenience-store snacks, with one EasyCard you buy at any station. In Taipei, grab the monthly TPASS (about €35) for unlimited MRT, bus and YouBike across the metro area.

For intercity, the HSR bullet train blitzes Taipei to Kaohsiung in about 1h45 (around €43, watch for student and early-bird discounts); the slower TRA regional trains are cheaper and hug the coast. Scooters rule daily life, but you need a valid licence and they're lethal in the rain, most exchange students skip them and stick to trains and bikes.

• Single MRT ride: €0.60-1.20
• Monthly TPASS (metro + bus + bike): €35
• HSR Taipei to Kaohsiung, ~1h45, ~€43
• EasyCard, buy one day one, it works everywhere

Taiwanese universities run on a credit system, and exchange students typically take around 15 local credits a semester; one Taiwan credit maps to roughly two ECTS, so confirm the exact conversion with your home coordinator before you sign your learning agreement. Grading is on a 0-100 scale: 60 usually passes undergrad, 70 for postgrad, and coursework can feel more memorisation-heavy than back home, with regular quizzes and high attendance expectations.

English-taught options are expanding fast under the government's Bilingual 2030 push, but plenty of courses are still in Mandarin, so read the course list carefully. Standouts: National Taiwan University (NTU) in Taipei is the flagship; National Tsing Hua and Yang Ming Chiao Tung in Hsinchu are STEM powerhouses; National Cheng Kung in Tainan and National Sun Yat-sen in Kaohsiung round out the top tier. Many also run excellent Mandarin language programmes on the side.

This depends entirely on your passport, so treat the below as a map, not gospel. Most European, UK, US, Canadian and Australian students get 90 days visa-free on arrival, fine for a short summer thing, not for a full semester. For a proper exchange you apply for a student Resident Visa at your nearest Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) before you fly, using the admission letter your host university sends.

Once you land, you convert that into an ARC (Alien Resident Certificate) at the local immigration office within a couple of weeks, this is your golden ticket for a bank account, phone contract and re-entry. Start early: TECO appointments and document legalisation can eat weeks. Your host uni's international office will hand-hold you through most of it.

• Short stay: 90 days visa-free for many nationalities
• Full semester: student Resident Visa via TECO before you fly
• After arrival: convert to an ARC within about 15 days
• Exact rules depend on your passport, check your own TECO office

You will eat well and eat cheap. Night markets are the beating heart of dinner, Shilin and Raohe in Taipei, Liuhe in Kaohsiung, dishing out beef noodle soup, gua bao, oyster omelettes, stinky tofu (braver than it smells, roughly) and endless bubble tea. Breakfast is its own world of soy milk, egg crepes and scallion pancakes from tiny shops that open at dawn. Meals run early: lunch by noon, dinner from 6, and kitchens wind down sooner than you'd expect.

Norms that trip students up: take your shoes off indoors, don't tip (it isn't a thing), don't stick chopsticks upright in rice, and keep quiet on the MRT, eating and drinking there is actually fined. Time your semester around festivals: Lunar New Year empties the cities, while the Lantern Festival, Dragon Boat races and the Mid-Autumn barbecue season are pure joy.

Your host university decides your city, but it's worth knowing the character of each. All four Studcasa cities are well connected by HSR or metro, so weekends anywhere are easy.

• Taipei, the capital and default pick: best transport, nightlife and English, home to NTU and NTNU, for anyone who wants buzz and convenience
• Kaohsiung, sunny southern port city, warmer, cheaper and more laid-back, with a seaside campus at National Sun Yat-sen, for the beach-and-chill crowd
• Hsinchu, Taiwan's tech capital with Tsing Hua and Yang Ming Chiao Tung, quieter and windy but mountain-close, made for STEM and engineering students
• Taoyuan, the airport city with National Central University nearby, cheapest of the four and a quick hop to Taipei, for budgeters who fly a lot

Because the island is small and the trains are fast, you can see a shocking amount on a student budget without ever leaving Taiwan. Base yourself anywhere and a weekend of mountains, beaches or old towns is a cheap train ride away.

Save the pricier international hops, Okinawa, Manila and Hong Kong are all short, sometimes cheap flights, for reading week.

• Jiufen, misty mountain tea-house town, easy day trip from Taipei
• Hualien & the Taroko area, dramatic marble gorge and east-coast cliffs (check which trails are open after the quake)
• Sun Moon Lake, central Taiwan, rent a bike and ride the shoreline
• Tainan, the old capital, temples and the best street food on the island
• Kenting, southern beaches and the closest thing Taiwan has to a spring-break strip

None of this is hard, but a few habits will save you real money and mild embarrassment in week one.

• Buy an EasyCard on day one, it pays for transport, YouBikes and 7-Eleven snacks in one tap
• Carry cash: night-market stalls and small eateries are often cash-only and card acceptance is patchy
• Sort your ARC ASAP, no ARC, no bank account, phone plan or gym membership
• Befriend convenience stores, bills, parcels, ATMs, hot food and printing all live there
• Learn ten Mandarin phrases and keep Google Translate's camera handy, English fades fast outside Taipei
• On a declared typhoon day, class is off, check the city government announcement before trekking in