Studying Abroad – Marco Polo Report
Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China
Hyleco Nauta
S1912941
International Business
Table of content
A. General report
1. Host institution and exact dates of semester abroad
2. Contact with home faculty, preparation and journey
3. Residence abroad
4. Grant – Amount
5. Study
6. Summary impression
B. Specific report
1. Business in the Asia Pacific Region
2. E-business Systems
3. People Resourcing
4. Mandarin Chinese
A. General report
1. Host institution and exact dates of semester abroad
My first day in Suzhou, China was 23rd of August. I was picked up at the
airport in Shanghai by a transfer which was arranged by the host
university, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) in Suzhou. When I
arrived at my apartment and dropped of my stuff there I went to visit the
city center of Suzhou. The introduction week of the university started on
Saturday the 23rd of August and ended on Saturday the 30th of August.
The introduction week was my first encounter with XJTLU. In the first
week (the introduction week) they first helped us with registering
ourselves at the local police office. After this they helped us with registry
at the university. During the introduction week I also attended a couple of
plenary introduction lectures in which university representatives and
people from the XJTLU explained a few essential things about life in China,
the history of the university and the various university institutions and
office where you had to go to when you encountered certain problems or
when you had certain questions. The university also organized various
social events for international and exchange students during this
introduction week. I did attend a few of them but not all since I also used
the introduction week to make myself familiar with the campus and the
city of Suzhou. During this week I also went to explore the Suzhou
nightlife with the other exchange students from the RUG. Here I also met a
lot of international students from XJTLU.
XJTLU has approximately 7000 students and 400 academic staff members
from over 40 countries. The university offers a wide range of faculties but
focuses on science and engineering, although the business faculty is also
significant. Due to the strong involvement of the Liverpool university
XJTLU is a very internationally orientated university in China. On the
university campus there are a couple of coffee shops, banks and
convenience stores. Near the university (5 minute walk) there is a large
‘food-court’ with a large number of mainly chinese-focussed restaurants.
Some of them however also provide western dishes and there are also
western known fast-food restaurants like a KFC and a Mc Donalds.
The university and thereby the campus and the apartment where I lived
are located in the western part of Suzhou. You can take a bus for about 20
cents to the city center where the shopping streets, tourist attractions and
most of the nightlife is that takes about 45 minutes. You can also take a
taxi, which will take you 20-25 minutes and costs you 50 rmb
(approximately 6 euros). A taxi or a bus to Suzhou’s main train station
costs about the same and from there you can take (high speed) trains to
almost anywhere in China.
After five amazing months of resourceful experiences the semester
officially ended on the 14th of January
2. Contact with home faculty, preparation and journey
When traveling to China one needs a visa. This visa can be obtained in The
Hague at the Chinese Visa Centre. XJTLU provided me with all the
required documents for my visa in advance so that I had enough time to
prepare the visa application. Because of the fact that I was only studying
in China for one semester I, the documents provided by XJTLU only
allowed my to apply for a X2 visa which is valid 180 days after you enter
China. When studying and living in China with an X2 visa you are not
required to apply for a residence permit. The X2 visa however only
provides a single entry into China which means that if you wish to leave
China, you cannot enter China again without applying for a new visa. This
however stimulated me to see as much of China as possible when I was
able to fit traveling into my schedule.
Entering China does not require a medical check. You do however have to
visit the GGD in the Netherlands to get the correct vaccinations.
I bought my flight tickets to China in July in the Netherlands. A flexible
tow-way flight ticket (which means that you can change the date and
route of the return flight relatively easy and cheap) from the Kilroy travel
agency in Groningen cost me about 800 euros. On the way to China I flew
via Hong Kong (1 hour transit) to Shanghai with Cathay Pacific. On the
way back I also flew with Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong, the only
difference being that I arranged that I had a ‘stop-over’ in Hong Kong of 5
days which allowed me to elaborately visit Hong Kong on my way back to
the Netherlands.
Apart from the arranging of the visa, vaccinations and buying the flight
ticket to China I did not have to prepare a lot of other things before I
started my journey.
The contact with the home faculty in Groningen was very good. I did not
have very much occasions where this contact was required but in the rare
occasion that it was necessary to contact them. They replied very fast in
sufficient information.
3. Residence abroad
I flew together with two other students from the RUG who also where
about to start their semester abroad at the Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool
University in Suzhou. After arriving an hour late at Pudong International
Airport in Shanghai the driver who was arranged by XJTLU was waiting
for us at the arrivals part of the airport. After walking 5 minutes to his van
we went inside an in about 1.5 hour he drove us to our apartments on the
campus in Suzhou.
We arranged the apartments before departure with the exchange officer
of XJTLU. The communication here for went via email and the exchange
officer proved to be a very good help and she answered my questions that
I had back in The Netherlands very fast and thorough. As we found our
way to the reception of our apartment building we handed over our
passports there, paid the 2000 rmb deposit (which was about 255-260
euro at that time), made an advance payment for electricity and water use
of 400rmb, and our first month’s rent, 1980 (rent for our apartment is
66rmb per day).
The International Student Apartments, where we lived, where very good.
The apartments have a shared living room with a dinner table, television,
a couple of chairs and a sofa. My sleeping room had sufficient storage
place for my clothes and other belongings, a safe, a window, which you
could open, and a bed. It also had a private en-suite bathroom with a
shower and a toilet. My personal sleeping room also had a separate lock
on the door, which allowed me to lock it when I left the appartment. The
price also included a two-weekly cleaning and internet-service (although
I had to buy a router for 120rmb because the internet was not wireless).
During my stay I lived together with 4 other boys from the Groningen
who were also part of the exchange program and one boy from Poland.
Foreign students almost solely habilitated the apartment building. Most of
them where French but there were also, among a lot of other nationalities,
a few British, German, Indonesian, Somalian and Russian students. This
was a good thing because it enables you to meet a lot of people from
different cultures from all over the world.
Close to my apartment there were enough restaurants and supermarkets
where I could eat and buy my daily needings. There also where two
poule-cafes and a good gym, which provided good sporting facilities for a
good price (500rmb for 5 months, about 13 euros per month).
Suzhou is a very well developed city in China in one of the most well
developed regions of the country. Public transport is very extensive and
accessible; the only thing is that almost nobody speaks English, including
the taxi drivers. This means that you have to always have the Chinese
version of the destination with you. This is however not that hard since I
just made a picture of it and showed this to the taxi driver in most of the
cases.
Suzhou is considered a relatively small city in China although it would be,
by a long distance be the biggest city when it was situated in the
Netherlands with its 2.3 million inhabitants. It is also a very clean,
beautiful city and one of the only cities in the region that managed to keep
a large part of its beautiful authentic historical architecture and
combining it with the modern growth of Chinese cities.
Culture wise, there are a lot of things to do in Suzhou itself but due to its
modern development and its location you can also easily visit other
nearby cities by train. The city of Hangzhou is 2.5 hours away by bullet
train and a trip to Shanghai, also by bullet train only takes 25 minutes and
costs 40rmb. When buying a train ticket however, do not forget to bring
your passport as this is required for all Chinese and foreign travelers to
be able to buy a ticket.
4. Grant – Amount
The amount that I received when I got accepted for XTJLU, before I left the
Netherlands was 805 euro. This was 70% of the full payment. I received
the last 30% of the payment when I arrived back in the Netherlands after
handing in all the remaining forms and reports. The total amount thus
ends up at 1150 euro. This covered my two-way flight and vaccinations
and a small part of my expenses in the first week in Suzhou.
The amount of money you will be spending in Suzhou is obviously totally
dependent on your own interests. You can for example eat a very cheap
but satisfying Chinese meal on campus for about one or two euro or
choose to visit a relatively expensive restaurant with western food for
about 10-15 euros. The same goes for your choice of apartment. I
personally chose for the International student apartment because the
quality standard is much more comparable with Dutch housing. But if you
want you can also spend less on this. Personal hygiene goods such as
toothpaste deodorant and shower-gel are a little more expensive than in
the Netherlands but overall food and other expenses are cheaper.
An important thing to keep in mind is that you are not able to pay with
your normal bank-card in supermarkets or other stores. You will also not
be able to use all the ATM’s in China. However, the in general mostly
present banks in China, ICBC and Bank of China do provide this.
Due to the fact that the costs in China differ so much from the Netherlands
(eating outdoors is very cheap while personal hygiene products and milk
are more expensive) and also vary within China (the price for meals for
example), just as to the Culture it will take some time to adjust to these
differences. In practice this meant for me that the first months ended up
being more expensive than the later months because I was adjusted more
to these differences. In my first months I also kept on comparing prices in
China with the prices in the Netherlands, which made everything look
very cheap, resulting into me actually spending more than when I stopped
doing this.
5. Study
Arriving in anther country, especially a totally different and remarkable
country as China always requires a lot of adjusting. Everything is different
and you do not master the language or know a lot of people. Do not
hesitate to ask for help to people around you. The university also
provided al the exchange students with a ‘Chinese’ buddy, who was also a
student at XJTLU. This buddy proved to be very helpful, especially in the
first months. Also the introduction week and the exchange office of XTJLU
proved to be very convenient and helpful for me.
The semester at XTLU was not separated into semester 1.1 and semester
1.2 as it is in Groningen. This means that all my 4 courses ran throughout
the whole semester. There was one midterm exam period at the end of
October and a final Examination period that ran from the 5th until the 14th
of January. During the semester there were also a couple of national
holiday weeks and days and a Christmas holiday (due to the close ties
XJTLU has with the Liverpool University), which starts on the 15th of
December and ends on the 5th of January.
I followed two third-year courses, one second-year course and a
Mandarin Chinese course. The level of these courses was definitely
comparable with the level in Groningen. The culture of learning among
the Chinese students however, is totally different from the learning
culture in the west. The Chinese students are in general not used to think
out of the box and are in general a lot less assertive than the western
students. This is as much of a challenge as it is a benefit because it forces
you to learn and adapt to the Chinese culture.
The teachers I had were, apart from the Mandarin Chinese teacher, all
foreign so the way of teaching in Suzhou was to high degree comparable
to the way of teaching in Groningen
6. Summary impression
The Semester that I spent abroad in Suzhou, China has been a wonderful
and almost indescribable experience. The reason I chose to go to China
during my semester abroad was that I was very interested in the growing
importance of Asia and China in particular in the worldwide economy and
global politics. This semester abroad has proven to be the perfect way to
experience this country and its culture first-hand.
During this semester abroad I have used almost al the spare time that I
did not have to spend on studying on traveling and see as much of China
as possible. By doing this I got a very good impression of the differences
that exist in this truly massive country. But every time I came back to my
apartment in Suzhou it also remembered me about the fact that Suzhou is
located in one of the richest and most livable regions of China.
China is in many ways the exact opposite of the Netherlands and for me
that was one of the main reasons to choose for Suzhou during this
semester abroad. The cultural differences are in fact relatively big but due
to the international focus of Suzhou and the university campus especially
apart from all the delicious Chinese food, there is always a possibility to
eat a western dish for a change when you are at home.
The whole experience of a semester abroad has really broadened my
world. I have learnt to adapt to different cultures and manage to fix all my
daily needs on the other side of the world. I also had the beautiful
opportunity to see a lot of China that I will hardly ever see again.
The fact that China plays such an essential and unambiguously leading
role in the emergence of Asia’s economic importance makes it an
extremely interesting country to live in. I also feel that within ten years a
lot here will probably be very different. This dynamic is another very
interesting thing to experience first hand during your semester abroad.
I can definitely say that after my wonderful experience here in China I will
definitely visit this special and beautiful country again and maybe even
live here for a couple of years. A semester abroad in Suzhou is something I
would recommend for everyone!
B. Specific Report
Host Institution: Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU)
Study Period: 1st September 2014 – 14th January 2015
All of the courses discussed below are provided in English
1. Business in the Asia Pacific Region
This course required one weekly lecture of 2 hours and one weekly
tutorial of 1 hour. These lectures and tutorials ran during the whole
semester except during the midterm week. The tutorials and lectures
where of a very interactive nature, meaning that the professor lead the
lecture and frequently asked the students questions about the subjects
and asked about their ideas about certain theories discussed.
During the lectures and tutorials we discussed a lot of key business
concepts and management theories and then applied these to different
countries in the Asia Pacific Region.
During most of the lectures the professor gave us an assignment, mostly a
case, which we had to prepare for the following tutorial. These
assignments always contained the theory or information about the
country we discussed during the lecture in the same week.
The assessment and end grade of the course was built up of a midterm
assignment (30%) and a final exam (70%) during the exam week in
January. The midterm assignment was built up in the following way:
every student had to chose a country in the Asia Pacific Region and an
industry within this country and then apply the correct concepts and
theories to analyze this and place it in a global context.
The literature of this course mainly contained the lecture notes given
during the lectures by the professor and a couple of readings and articles
placed online by the professor. This subject was very relevant to my
program in Groningen because the concepts and theories discussed
continued from those discussed in Groningen and where applied to the
Asia Pacific Region, which was the reason I chose this subject.
ECTS able to obtain by this course: 7.5
Assessment in Groningen: TBA
2. E-business Systems
This course existed of one weekly lecture of 2 hours and a two-weekly
tutorial of 1 hour. The literature consisted of a course book and the
weekly lecture material, which elaborated and corresponded to the
chapters in the course book. The lectures where more of a plenary nature,
meaning they were not very interactive but they did include useful and
additional information. The tutorials required the students to read a case
in advance and answer questions concerning the case with help of the
material discussed in the lectures and the course book.
The course discussed the business and ethical perspectives of the
opportunities and technological advancements enabled by the
technological advancements and innovations of modern time. Because I
was always interested in technology and this course placed this in a
business perspective this was really relevant to my program in
Groningen.
The assessment was built up by a midterm exam (30%) and a final exam
(70%). The midterm exam consisted of the first 4 chapters of the book
and the final exam consisted of all the relevant chapters.
ECTS able to obtain by this course: 7.5
Assessment in Groningen: TBA
3. People Resourcing
This was more of a HR course that I followed at XJTLU but I found it very
relevant to my study program in Groningen because it was business
focused but from a different perspective than the conventional business
and management courses. The course was taught by a professor who had
been working In Europe in HR almost her whole life. She gave a lot of
practical examples during the lectures, which placed the content of the
lectures in a real-world perspective. This enabled us as students to assess
the practical relevance, which provided us a lot of added value to the
theory.
The course consisted of a combined weekly session of a tutorial (1 hour)
and a lecture (2 hours). The nature of these sessions was very
participative. The professor gave the lectures and provided a lot of real
world examples in which she asked the students in class for input as to
how to solve these cases. The weekly preparation varied from analyzing
cases and readings to preparing job interviews and job advertisements.
The assessment of the subject consisted of a final exam (70%) and a
competency-based interview (30%). The competency-based interview
required students to team up in teams of two or three and prepare a
formal competency-based job interview and eventually interview the
professor. This interview was then filmed and students were assessed on
basis of their performance during the interview itself (50% of the grade)
and on a written report about the interview, which included the
assessment of the candidate (professor) and a part which included selfassessment and evaluation of your performance as an interviewer (the
other 50% of the grade of the assignment).
ECTS able to obtain by this course: 7.5
Assessment in Groningen: TBA
4. Mandarin Chinese
The main reason why I chose to follow this course was the fact that I
wanted to learn as much of Chinese culture as possible and for this I had
to have a certain degree of knowledge of their language.
The course was the most intensive course I followed in Suzhou. It
consisted of two tutorial sessions of two hours every week. The sessions
where extremely interactive, which gave us the opportunity to learn the
language in a very active way. Apart of the fact that this course was the
most intensive course I followed, it was also the most difficult.
It was however extremely relevant to me due to the fact that almost
nobody in China, except for university students talks English, so it is
essential to master Mandarin Chinese at least to a certain degree. The
course’s relevance to my study program in Groningen is in first instance
not as significant as the other courses I followed here but the relevance
will probably increase due to the fact that after all my experiences here in
China I am strongly considering to apply for a double degree master in
Shanghai after I have finished my BSs. It also helped me a lot with
experiencing the culture in China and integrating with the Chinese.
The assessment of this course contained of the following:
- 11 Weekly dictations
- Writing coursework assignment
- Speaking coursework assignment
- Final exam
ECTS able to obtain by this course: 7.5
Assessment in Groningen: TBA
15% of final grade
15% of final grade
15% of final grade
55% of final grade