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Sun Yat-Sen / Zhongshan University, Guangzhou


syu.edu

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Hello,

first of all i would like to get to know some people who study there (if there are any) because i am going to this september.

and then i have got a couple of questions. i hope someone can answer them for me. :)

1. do you have a chinese health insurance or an insurance in your home-country?

2. how much money do you need additionally to room fees, study fees and food / drinking? my friend told me around 200 EUR (259 US$).

3. my friend at sun yat-sen university told me if i turn on the air conditioner every day, i will pay 200 RMB for the electricity, but he did not tell me if this is a months fee, a days fee or a years fee. i tend to a months fee though.

i'd be very happy if you can answer these questions. :) and sorry for my english, but i am not a native speaker. :)

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Hello, I studied at Sun Yat-Sen last semester and may be able to help with a few of your questions. Although I was on a scholarship so I didn't have to pay rent etc, but I do still have a lot of friends there I could make some enquiries for you...

Firstly, to answer your questions I would need to know which campus you will be at... I was at the South Campus which I assume you would be going to since I think thats where most of the foreign students end up...

1. I got Travellers Insurance arranged by STA Travel who I bought my flight tickets from (in my home country)

2. Room fees and study fees, I'm not too sure but I can ask someone for you... Food/drink, it's China - very cheap... there is a student cafeteria which has meals for 8RMB, however I only ate there once - eating in restaurants/food joints inside or outside the uni are not much more expensive - sometimes cheaper - and soooo good...

3. I think the air-conditioner is paid by how much you use it. so if you dont use it much it wont be too expensive. They only have air-con in the new dormitory (there are 2 international student dorms), which is usually where they put the "paying students".

Well, Im sure you'll have an awesome time in GZ, it's a great place. If you have any more questions I'd be happy to try to answer them for you :)

Margot (Junior)

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thanks a lot for you help. i can really need it. and what else, it makes me very happy that you said i will have an awesome time. i really hope so. ^_^

yes, i think i will live in south campus. so, i can assume (since i am a paying student and since the head of international students office told me that i will pay 200RMB a month if i use the air conditioner) that i will be put into the new dorms, right? have you lived in the new ones aswell? can you tell or show me something about the rooms, beds, bathrooms. hehe, i am really curious but not too sure if i should directly ask the university leaders. thanks a again for your help.

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I didn't live in the new dorm but I have friends there. It is right next to "the old dorm" where I lived. They are sort of run together - the students in the old dorm can use the computer lab in the new dorm and the students in the new dorm can use the ping pong table in the old dorm etc...

The new dorm has single rooms and rooms for two people to share. (I was in a share room - its not as bad as it sounds). Im pretty sure all rooms have their own bathroom with toilet (western style) and shower. Oh, they also have little balconies...

The beds are HARD but I think thats the norm in China... I slept on top of 4 pillows...

The rooms are okay size, depends on what youre comparing it to, but when some of the chinese students have to live 10 to a room you really cant complain!

I will ask one of my friends about the cost/s next time I am talking to them and let you know.

Happy I could help you.. Oh, I can email you some pics if you want... Also have you looked at the ZSU website?

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yes of course. i also found a website with pictures from sun yat-sen students.. there i found this picture which pretty much looks like a dorm.

http://img237.exs.cx/img237/7143/7202c88172c7bb44e45804c737124e.jpg

oh, and i will not complain at all, i am happy enough the be able to study in china and i dont mind small rooms or whatever. i have been sleeping in hong kong on a very hard bed too (was it wood on what i had slept :D) and it was ok, i used one cover to put beneath and one to cover myself. ^_^

i would be very happy if you can send me some pics. i am always searching some to complete my impression of the campus. thanks a lot. my email:

lfinkeldey [@] gmail . com :)

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oh, thanks a lot margot. :)

it is good to know what my location will look like. before i did not know exactly how the south campus looked like or the zuhai. if i see it correctly, the dorms are pretty near to city life? shopping, cafés etc? can you tell me if there is a closing hour? i mean, will i be able to go out as long as i want or do they close the gates at, for example, 23.00 o clock?

have a nice day,

lennart

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No closing time for the dorm, you can go out and party as late as you want!! :D

There are many great places to eat just outside the gates of the uni... Just explore and you will find them. Near the South gate there are also the markets which are awesome but keep your mobile phone deep in your pockets........

There are also shops just outside including a Park'n'Shop (like a department store) just near West Gate. The main city bit of GZ is Tian He which has many place to shop and stuff, also places like HaiZhuGuangChang is very good for souvenir kinds of things.

Best place for eating - little North Gate (although it goes by a few different names) - definitly go there...

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hey, thanks for the info! ^_^ i thank you very much for it.

do you still know how much money you spent on shopping and partying or other things which dont belong to regular study (monthly)? (party, additional food, traveling) because my friend in china told me that will be around 200 EUR (257 US$). i know that the price range can be as high as a million, but would you say, me as a very economically living guy can also live with less than 200 EUR a month?

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  • 3 years later...

Hi there,

Does anyone have photos of SCNU dorms and Sun Yat Sen University dorms? I am very curious about the living conditions in the dorm rooms for foreigners. I will study Chinese this spring semester in one of these two universities.I will stay either in SCNU dorm or Sun Yat Sen University dorm and could not decide which one is better.Any help would be highly appreciated.

Here is my e-mail address: orkunworld@yahoo.com

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  • 1 year later...
  • New Members

Hi Everyone,

I am a prospective exchange student who is still wondering where to go next year in order to attend intensive Mandarin classes...

I actually like the Cantonese speaking area, but said to myself it would be better to go to Guangzhou rather than HK as Guangzhou also speaks Mandarin.

Therefore, i have the opportunity to go to Zhongshan (Sun Yat-Sen) University for a one-year exchange programme.

I need to ask the ppl here if

- anyone has ever studied Mandarin there?

-If yes, how were the classes, how much did your Mandarin improve?

-HOW MANY HOURS OF MANDARIN A WEEK DID YOU HAVE?

-were you allowed to attend classes together with chinese local students once an appropriate level of Mandarin reached?

-were you allowed to sleep in the same dormitories as the local students?

-were you allowed to take some optional Cantonese classes?

give me your general impression on this experience of studying in Zhongshan GZ

Thank you for your help.

Yuen

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Hello Yuen,

I studied at 中大 back in the mid 1990s (when GZ was still 98% Cantonese speaking) for a year, and although things have changed since then and I didn't go there to study Mandarin, I can probably answer some of your questions until someone with more recent info comes along.

-If yes, how were the classes, how much did your Mandarin improve?

The people I knew were very happy with their classes and the quality of teaching. Many of the lecturers came from native Mandarin speaking areas, although not so many from Beijing or the Northeast. Their Mandarin certainly improved, although not as much as I noticed when I with foreign students in Beijing. In addition to hearing much Mandarin outside the campus at the time, in my experience there is a tendency for Western/Japanese/Korean/SE Asian students in GZ to not take their study quite as seriously as their counterparts in northern China. (This situation may have changed though, given the development of the north and greater opportunities to party there now!)

-HOW MANY HOURS OF MANDARIN A WEEK DID YOU HAVE?

4 hours a day (8am - 12pm), then optional classes on two afternoons a week (for 2hrs, I think).

I think Cantonese was one of the options, but I'm not entirely sure. However, given that you'll be in GZ, it should be easy to find someone (one of the university lecturers) to teach you Cantonese.

-were you allowed to attend classes together with chinese local students once an appropriate level of Mandarin reached?

Yes, I took history and linguistics classes with the 本科生.

-were you allowed to sleep in the same dormitories as the local students?

No, and frankly at 8 per room, I wouldn't have wanted to.

-were you allowed to take some optional Cantonese classes?

As I mentioned above, I think Cantonese was offered as an option for the limited afternoon "culture" classes. It was definitely an option during the summer vacation period. The university used to offer a full-time Cantonese course (which is what I was studying), but the classes were held at the same time as the Mandarin classes, from 8-12 each day. You also had to have a reasonably high level of Mandarin before you could take the full-time Cantonese course. If you already speak some Cantonese though, you might be able to talk the powers that be into letting you take some of the classes instead of Mandarin.

If you don't manage to get any more detailed info here, write to the university directly. The 外办 should be able to answer most of your questions.

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  • 2 months later...
  • New Members

Hi Yuan,

Did you go to study Mandarin in ZhongShan?

I want to do that too. I've been studying Mandarin for 3 years, and now I want to improve that.

Can you divide your experience with me?

Where did you study? For how long? Did you like it?

Did you learn a lot?

Regards,

Gabriella.

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  • 1 month later...

Is there anyone studying at Zhongda right now? I just went there today to do my application and in September I'll be starting the Bachelor degree in Chinese as a foreign language. I have HSK 3 (old) at the moment so they'll think which year they want to put me. I'm hoping to skip atleast one year.

I would really like to find some other students studying there and get to know the university better and how is it like to study a undergraduate degree there.

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Hi Xuefang,

I will be enrolling (haven't applied yet) there for Sept 2011 for the chinese language program.

I'm from Canada and have 0 mandarin and basic cantonese... hoping I can make something out of this experience, I'm VERY motivated to improve/lean :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I haven't studied there yet so I can't say much, but I have just got accepted to be studying there from Sep 2011.

You said that they used to offer mainstream Cantonese courses; do you know if these are still offered? I'd probably be interested in taking them if I could. I have little Cantonese experience but 3 years of university Mandarin.

Otherwise I'll look at the afternoon Cantonese classes or something I guess.

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