Exchange in Hsinchu | Taiwan

🏠 Housing

What kind of place was it?

Coliving / Shared House

How much was the rent per month?

150€

Where was it located?

on the campus

How can someone find this place?

university website

Would you recommend it?

yes it’s nice and cheap

🍻 Social Life

What are some top bars, clubs, or events you recommend?

cool bar

🎓 Uni life at NYCU

Which classes do you recommend… or not?

esay classes

Do you have some tips?

yes so cool

✈️ Travel

Best trips to do?

the south !!

🌆 Hsinchu vibe

What do you absolutely need to know to live your best life in Hsinchu?

you will be far for the réal city

Talk to Elsa

Need advice? Got questions?

💬Message Elsa

🏠 Housing

What kind of place was it?

Student Residence

How much was the rent per month?

598€ the whole semester, so 120€ for 4 months

Where was it located?

In the Guangfu campus, directly above a Family Mart, 7/11, and in front of the building where I had most of my classes. The others classes were just a few minutes away.

How can someone find this place?

Upon being accepted on the exchange, they will ask you whether you want to apply for the dorm or not on their website during all the inscription procedure.

Would you recommend it?

I would definitely recommend doing it but it has some benefits and drawbacks. - The rent is pretty cheap compared to other housing in Hsinchu. Also you have a few not really expensive restaurants just across dorm, so I never had to cook during my stay. (That and we lacked a proper kitchen and tools.) - If you are en exchange student staying for a short period, like a semester, you will probably be provided the Graduate dormitory 3, which both the best and the one I had. This specific dorm has rooms for 2 and AC. Toilet and showers are directly in the room.You also have washing machine on the 1st floor. Should you're not in dorm 3, other dorms are not that great. I had friends in 2 other dorms, each dorm had small rooms of 4 with no AC, and only shared toilet and showers. People staying for long exchange tend to be in one of these dorms, though you might get lucky. - Honestly I would recommend it if you're in for a short exchange. If you're not, you might have to ask or read for another exchange student opinion on the matter... My opinion is that I still would pick the dorm. You're close to everything so the convenience is just unmatched. However I personally hated my only roommate, so living with 3 others seems like a difficult bet to make for me !

🍻 Social Life

What are some top bars, clubs, or events you recommend?

Social life was the main problem for a lot of exchange student. I rated it 4/5 because I focused on befriend the local students, in order to get out of my comfort zone, so I wasn't really bored. I got the occasion to speak with a lot of other foreign students, and each of them thought there's not much to do in Hsinchu, and honestly they're right. I'm not interested in bar, nightclubs and such so I did not had that problem, but they had to form groups and go to Taipei together to have fun. Now I did had a lot of fun on my social expérience because of 2 things : - I joined a club on the campus. You got a lot of them, music, archery, taekwondo, kickboxing and so on...and I made friends with the one in my club. - NYCU sometimes organizes some activities for exchange students, like cultural exchange event with the nearby highschools, or a conversation circle and so on...and I made friends along the way. In terms of activities, upon joining the school, you pay a small amount and have access to all the sport equipment and location, like a gym, a pool and so on...but that's about it. Outside of the campus, there's a small night market on which you can eat some tasty food, but I think that's all. If you wanna have fun, you might have to go outside of Hsinchu.

🎓 Uni life at NYCU

Which classes do you recommend… or not?

I had 3 types of classes. - English with Mike - Political/Global problems classes - Law classes English were the best I had, the teacher was super friendly and the workload was extremely light. These classes were the one who allowed me to befriend some people. The global problem classes were fun and interesting, especially when you're an exchange since you can provide deeper insights on some issues regarding your country. Law classes were the most workload intense of all. Really interesting though. By "English classes" I don't mean English learning classes, but classes where you practice your English, like "Networking in English" or "English in the workplace". However, most students had either very mathematical oriented classes or scientific oriented classes. I was one of the rare fews who didn't, so my experience here isn't really what you can expect, except for English classes. Also, if your school allows it, definitely sign for a Chinese learning class. From what I remember, one of the student told me you were put in pairs, so it helps with getting to know someone.

Do you have some tips?

The Guangfu campus (the Hsinchu's one) is the best regarding NYCU'S campus. It's big and has a lot of beautiful green space and even a small lake. The Taipei one (yangming campus), from what I've heard, is pretty small and even a bit far from the interesting points. Someone in my school joined the Boai campus and was very disappointed in how there was nothing to do in this specific campus. I've never been to both, but I can still say Guangfu is a big campus and probably the best one amongst the others. Now, registering for the school wasn't difficult since it has a partnership with my school, but choosing the classes was a nightmare. There's 2 website, the one where you can view all the classes and prepare some kind of potential schedule, and the actual website where you choose your classes. I hated the 2nd website. If you found classes on the 1st, you had to look through a lot of different tags to finally find them again on the real website, only to see maybe you can't access the course, or maybe it's conflicting with another course. That was a lot of stress, but the administration answered quickly all my questions so I was able to sort it out in the end. It also helped in how there were 3 periods in which you could choose your classes, not just one. So if you weren't able to choose your classes on the 1st, you still had 2 other chances. If I had to go to Taïwan for an exchange again, I would like to try something new, but apart from that, I would definitely pick NYCU again.

✈️ Travel

Best trips to do?

Travel opportunities are big if you intend to leave Hsinchu. There's a bus in the campus letting you go all the way to the train station, to which you can then access Taipei, Tainan, or other cities in 1 or 3 hours. If we're talking about trip in Hsinchu, you can easily take a walk or a YouBike and just explore the surroundings. You have a neighboring university, NTHU, with an interesting campus and a huge lake, you also have a pretty small zoo, and capybaras just besides it. You have one mall and the night market and I think that's about it... In short, good opportunities for trips outside of Hsinchu. Inside, not so much.

🌆 Hsinchu vibe

What do you absolutely need to know to live your best life in Hsinchu?

Hsinchu is known as the Wind city, because there's just so much wind, as someone with long hair, I think it's definitely worth knowing. Safety wise, it is extremely safe. Transport was a bit difficult for me to understand, buses in the campus were fine, but once outside it was difficult to understand which bus stopped where and so on... For the food, inside the campus you have some restaurants like Burger King, McDonalds and pre-cooked meals at 7/11 and family mart. Outside of the campus, I kept going to the same one "來來豆漿店" for their omelette, and a very small restaurant just across the street but I can't find it on maps...it's around 清大夜市臭豆腐. Oh and please try the Winter Melon tea (冬瓜茶), a very sweet drink from Taïwan and my personnal favorite.

Talk to Kyrian

Need advice? Got questions?

💬Message Kyrian

🏠 Housing

What kind of place was it?

Coliving / Shared House

How much was the rent per month?

150€

Where was it located?

on the campus

How can someone find this place?

university website

Would you recommend it?

yes it’s nice and cheap

🍻 Social Life

What are some top bars, clubs, or events you recommend?

cool bar

🎓 Uni life at NYCU

Which classes do you recommend… or not?

esay classes

Do you have some tips?

yes so cool

✈️ Travel

Best trips to do?

the south !!

🌆 Hsinchu vibe

What do you absolutely need to know to live your best life in Hsinchu?

you will be far for the réal city

Talk to Elsa

Need advice? Got questions?

💬Message Elsa

🏠 Housing

What kind of place was it?

Student Residence

How much was the rent per month?

598€ the whole semester, so 120€ for 4 months

Where was it located?

In the Guangfu campus, directly above a Family Mart, 7/11, and in front of the building where I had most of my classes. The others classes were just a few minutes away.

How can someone find this place?

Upon being accepted on the exchange, they will ask you whether you want to apply for the dorm or not on their website during all the inscription procedure.

Would you recommend it?

🍻 Social Life

What are some top bars, clubs, or events you recommend?

🎓 Uni life at NYCU

Which classes do you recommend… or not?

Do you have some tips?

✈️ Travel

Best trips to do?

🌆 Hsinchu vibe

What do you absolutely need to know to live your best life in Hsinchu?

Talk to Kyrian

Need advice? Got questions?

💬Message Kyrian

Hsinchu

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🏠 Housing

🍻 Social Life

🎓 Uni life at NYCU

✈️ Travel

🌆 Hsinchu vibe

Talk to Elsa

🏠 Housing

🍻 Social Life

🎓 Uni life at NYCU

✈️ Travel

🌆 Hsinchu vibe

Talk to Kyrian

🏠 Housing

🍻 Social Life

🎓 Uni life at NYCU

✈️ Travel

🌆 Hsinchu vibe

Talk to Elsa

🏠 Housing

🍻 Social Life

🎓 Uni life at NYCU

✈️ Travel

🌆 Hsinchu vibe

Talk to Kyrian