Living in Hangzhou Past Review
By A student (Wellesley College) - abroad from 08/30/2014 to 06/01/2014 with
Middlebury Schools Abroad: Middlebury in Hangzhou
I loved living in China. The way the program was run was actually the part I was most often dissatisfied with. Studying abroad was definitely a worthwhile experience. My Chinese improved a lot.
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 6 months+ |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
Classes aren't as interesting as Wellesley, teaching methods aren't great, but you get a lot of individual attention and your Chinese will improve for sure. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
By the end, I was pretty unhappy with the way administrators ran the program. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
The dorms were really gross -- think cockroaches coming from the walls and floor, bathroom and the pipes emitting nauseating smells of death/decay, holes in the wall, general and inescapable dirtiness and grime that will seem to cover your very soul. It's China, so a lower living standard should be expected, and I guess you can tell yourself you're ~experiencing~ what it's really like to live as a college student in China. But then again, Midd was still charging over $2,000 a semester for housing (which is about 4,000 yuan a month) for a shared room in a dorm on a campus about 30 minutes away from downtown Hangzhou. Yeah, that's outrageously exorbitant. The housing was what I was most unhappy about with this program, and you don't have any choice but to live in the program dorm. The wifi is slow and shuts off at midnight on weekdays as well. |
| * Food: |
No meal plan, so you pay for everything out of pocket. The school cafeterias are really cheap (think 50 cents - $3 a meal) but low quality. Lots of tasty food of questionable origin at restaurants/street vendors near campus. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
My experience with Chinese hospitals wasn't good (think waiting 3-4 hours for a 2 minute visit with a hassled doctor while people crowd into the room). Though the program did send the assistant director along with me to help translate. There's good health care to be had in China if you speak fluent Chinese and have money/time/connections to see the best doctors, but for a study abroad student, it's likely going to be a very frustrating experience trying to get competent medical treatment. |
| * Safety: |
I felt safer walking around at night than I would in an US city. Just mind your purse/cell-phone on the bus or in crowded areas, and don't accept a ride in an unlicensed taxi. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
No
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Finances
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* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget?
(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost) |
If you ride the bus everywhere (1-2 yuan a trip), and eat at the school cafeteria or nearby restaurants (3 - 20 yuan a meal), you will have minimal expenses. Trying to live a western lifestyle and traveling a lot is what will make you broke. |
| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | ~$30 a week, not including the traveling I did. |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | Traveling by train rather than plane saves a lot of money. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
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How much did the program encourage you to use the language?
0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language |
We had a language pledge. |
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | Intermediate |
| How would you rate your language skills at the end of the program? | Advanced |
| What was the highest level language course you had completed prior to departure? | Chinese 202 at Wellesley. |
| How many hours per day did you use the language? | |
| Do you have any tips/advice on the best ways to practice the language for future study abroad participants? | Just being in China taking nothing but Chinese classes is going to be sufficient practice. |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
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A Look Back
| * What did you like most about the program? |
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| * What could be improved? |
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| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | The Kunming program is considered by Middlebury students (who of course are much better informed) to be a better program than Hangzhou. |
