Zhejiang University

[incipit]

Thanks much oneeyed, I sure I can answer the last question after arrival.

[JCJC]

I'd like to study chinese at this university. I would be in level 2 or 3, so I would be interested to hear from anyone at the university (once school starts)

1. What time are classes?

2. Do you have enough free time to also have a job?

Thanks

[Lantos]

Hi!

I was at Zheda 2010-11, and now I am going back again for a year or so... because i liked Hangzhou, and the university, and the people there..it can be amazing

All the infos of Ryan are very good and usefull. I can just comfirm (especially the Visa/Residence permit extension... it is possible in Hangzhou, if you pay the second semester tuition. But I also recommend Hong Kong... not just for a Visa-run, but for some travel, nice place).

The dorms...

1. Old dorm, for scholarship students

well, my first year I was scholarship student, so we were placed in the 'old' dorm. That is outside the campus, close to the Main Gate... the building well, it is not in a good shape. It has 3 floors, and two connected buildings, one is for the long term master/doctoral scholarship students, they have private rooms, with private bathroom.

The other side (B) is for the language/short term scholarship students, mostly double rooms, each floor with common shower, common lavatory, common laundry place (an old semi automatic washing machine - you can use it for free). The shower is okay, separated boxes, so even extra shy people can acceot. In wintertime it is a bit cold (especially if cleaning lady opens the windows...)

The toilets are not in a good shape... (2 "traditional" chinese squat toilet, 1 "western"... and since it is common, it is enough to have only one pig-mentality person, and well... you will see, how disgusting it can be. Fortunately there are two nice cleaning ladies, and they try to keep clean the common areas.

So first floor (in chinese terms second floor) only guys, second (third) floor only girls, third (fourth) floor north koreans. Some of the north koreans are also on the first floor. They are not so friendly, especially if you are from USA (not many USA people in this dorm). But, during the north korean national holidays, when they drink some alcohol, they are getting very friendly (and noisy of course), but generally they cope with the strict rules.

Let's check the strict rules: the 11p.m rule:

- a kind of curfew, but of course you can go out and you can come in, just your key will not work, and all the time you need to wake up the shifu, and that can be emberrassing. (I don't know when they will change this rule, but it is very strange, even the Chinese students don't have this).

- all the guests of yours need to leave the building... it can be bad if you have girl/boyfriend from outside, or simply just want to have some guests, have a birthday party etcetc. Actually, if you ask for permission (well in advance of course), you can celebrate, or be noisy and even have some guests after 11pm... occassionally, and of course it depends on your relationship with the 4 shifu, and the 2 dormitory laoshi. I guess if you regularly wake up the shifu, they will not really like you... and will not allow often to have a friend/girl until 1 am or so... If you want to have them, you should pay a fee. Like renting a room for your friend. Really weird rule. Pay 40/friend (or if they are not Zheda students 80/friend), they can stay for the night... they even give them one of the private rooms - generally there is always some of the private rooms to rent. So if you have double room, and a horrible roomate, you can move out. This is the cheapest private room at Zheda... of course oldish.

Big advantage of the old dorm, is that there are less people (around 50-80), and because of the common areas, it is easier to make friends (or enemies:D). But in my period it was like a big family, nice get-togethers, eatings, trips...

2. International College building - dormitory (the single rooms and the hotel service)

It is inside the campus, close to the North gate. So if you come with taxi (and don't use the escort service of Ryan) tell them, Zhejiang University, Yuquan Campus, NORTH Gate (浙江大学，玉泉校区 北门）, otherwise taxi maybe will take you to another campus (Zheda has 4 or 5 campus in Hangzhou) or to the main gate, which is far from the international college especially if you are with big bags...

From the north gate, just go straight, and on the left, the first building is Building 31 (another dorm, for the doubles), and then the second building is the International College (I recommend first go here, because here you can find the name lists, and they can tell you where will be your accomodation, and here are also the offices, so if you arrive during working hours, you can even meet one of the office laoshi).

The building looks ok, it is not hypermodern, but I would say good. The rooms are also in a relative good shape - when I reserved my room, I saw that they are repainting the walls, and doing some huge cleaning.

But, it is hard to get a single room in early september (that's the reason, why I went there in July, and 've reserved a room) because of course most of the people want private rooms, and okay, renting outside the campus a flat or room later can be much more convenient, but well... arriving in China first time, most of the people do not have good command of Chinese, so i think it is totally normal, that most of the people want to live in campus at first.

I saw the list of people who applied for a single room...and it will be not enough single rooms (but later in October, November for sure they will have some). So if they can offer you just a double room, accept it. Later maybe you can chenge to single room, or find off campus accomodation.

The rooms are small, but decent. with a/c, small tv (useless), private bathroom, and a wardrobe, and elevated shelves. Not much space, but at least you are on your own (and you have your own bathroom!! it is heaven after sharing one year in the old dorm).

One part of the building is a real hotel, you can rent rooms (the single is 118rmb/night, and there is double and even triple room, but they are 200-350 rmb/night. Mostly used by guests, university guests, or short term visitors.)

There is laundry service, in the basement, it cost 4 rmb (washing) + 6 rmb (drying), you can buy coupons in the first floor (chinese second floor) little shop, next to the public area. The washing quality is good, I mean, you give the big bag of clothes to the lady in the basement, and she will tell you can come back afternoon, and the clothes are nice and clean. Not cheap, but comfortable hanging clothes in the rooms, no chance, to little space, and i guess it could get humid.

Internet:

the rooms are equipped with internet plug, unfortunately no wifi, so only ethernet. But it will not work automatically, you need to open an account first at the front desk, if they are not helpful, you need to go to the library... it goes via VPN, so if you do not have some computer-IT knowledge, be prepared you will need to ask some friends, or wait for the shifu, he will be very busy in the first weeks...

Kitchen:

I can agree wit Ryan totally... no matter it is in the Old dorm or in the International building.. it can be really disgusting... and the fridge... I hope in august they clean it...

@JCJC

The classes are from 8:00-9:30, 10:00-11:30... BREAK 13:00-14:30, 14:40-16:10... (of course it can happen one day you have 3 classes, other day non).

Workload is 10 classes / week. on level 3 it happenned i had classes monday-tuesday, thursday-friday... first i thought a free wednesday is stupid. But later I appreciated, having some rest in the middle of the week.

The elective courses are sometimes in the morning, sometimes afternoon, sometimes after the last compulsory class... But, generally elective classes are only popular in the first weeks.

For example, chinese wushu... first class there are 50-60 people... but maybe 10% will continue. under level 3, you can only select not so interesting electives (maybe calligraphy, chinese painting and wushu), after level 3 you can select some other, maybe more interesting subjects, just the problem is always, that after some weeks, you realize, that going out with the new/old friends is much more interesting then this kind of electives...

Working and classes...

well, I know some people who've worked... but allmost all of them on a certain point stopped either their studies (=did not participate exam) or their job. Because it is a bit too much. But it depends on your personality, and of course the nature of the job. If you want to teach English.. many people do it... on weekends or evenings, but it will make you exhausted, and you will have little chance to travel, have fun, and there is chance that on classes the teachers will make some remarks, if your homework is not ready, or you are skipping some classes. It sounds a bit strange, but sometimes i had the feeling it is primary school, they check before every class wether you are there or not, some teachers even give a phone call, if somebody doesn't comes for two days... so in this way they are strict... Even for a 3 day absence you need to hand in a semi official form asking for leave, and they will give you lower percentage if you miss many classes..

So I unless you need the money, I would not recommend to work.. because in this school going to classes is vital part of the program. They don't like students who are always late, and regularly skip classes. Of course, you can skip... nobody will take your visa or scholarship. (they are all the time threatening, but I've never heard any concrete case, that somebody left school (for a thai trip), and they revoked the visa).

[Matt Mateo]

Really great info Lantos!

Ryan, thanks a million for the offer to meet up! I will keep you informed!

[oneeyedcats]

I guess it would be great if we can all meet up once we are in Hangzhou, especially since most of us would be fresh out of the plane in an unfamiliar place, it's always nice to know someone straight from the beginning. I guess I would be in Hangzhou on either the 28 or 29, it would be great to meet you guys.

P.S. If i remember correctly, Ryan left his skype in one of the posts above, I'm going to add him straight away (as long as he doesn't mind, of course) as soon as I have regular internet.

[Swiffer]

Yeah, Ryan & Lantos: thanks heaps for your help and advice!! : )

I would love to catch up with you guys once I am there. I will get in on August 30 late at night (still haven't heard back from the university though whether I can move into the dorm straight away or not ...).

[熊威尔士]

I did indeed leave my skype up there. It's Ryan3789 for those who can't be bothered to look for it again. I'm more than happy to meet up with y'all and help you get adjusted to life in China. I don't know if any of you are interested in Rugby by the way, but I help to run the team here in Hangzhou and we're always looking for new players. In fact on the registration days I will be on campus with a few players from the team trying to recruit new guys, so come over and say hi! Also - one of the bars that sponsors us is having a party on the 29th to welcome the new students, so if you are looking for somewhere with a nice relaxed atmosphere come out and say hi, the rugby team (and me naturally) will be floating around then as well.

Ooh I don't have internet access at the moment, so I might be slow answering / not on skype all that much. I'll hopefully have it fixed by the time you're all on your way here though. Swiffer- you shouldn't have a problem moving in, but if there is you can probably find a cheap hotel for like 120 yuan.

[Swiffer]

Alright, I just got an email from Zheda: apperently you can check in at dorms between 8am and 11pm. Just need to show your admission documents and your passport and, well, that's it!

Hell excited now!! : )

[Matt Mateo]

Excellent! I was slightly worried because I am arriving in the evening, but it's great that we have until 11pm.

Swiffer, I presume they said it's no problem about moving in in late August?

[Swiffer]

Well, I explained my situation to them (arriving late at night on August 30) and they said I could only move in during the office hours - other than that there should be no problem ... you might still wanna let them know beforehand that you'll arrive prior to the enrollment days - just in case they needed to prepare your room or anything like that.

[高吉瑞]

Can anyone post the email address they used to get in touch with the 国际教育 at 浙大？ For some reason the one they posted online doesn't work for me.

[peaceck]

Good gosh. this forum would've solved many problems

Question for anyone who has lived in hangzhou or are planning to.

Did you guys vaccinate yourselves with Japanese Encephalitis B and/or Malaria?

These vaccinations are just so expensive in the UK!

Cheers!

[Matt Mateo]

Peaceck, I didn't get those vaccinations. They are very expensive and only seem to be necessary in very rural/secluded areas. Well I hope so anyway.

Swiffer, just out of interest, which e-mail address did you use to ask about the accommodation?

Ryan, unfortunately I have never played rugby in my life and i would probably be terrible at it!

[熊威尔士]

Well, I got the Japanese Encephalitis , but nothing for Malaria. I figure if you plan on going travelling it's better safe than sorry.

Matt - I'd only ever played in school games where they forced us to play and assumed we'd watched / played it all our lives and thus new the rules. We did not. I never actually learned the rules or played until I got to Hangzhou, so don't worry about that. If you want to get involved just do it. It's all good!

[peaceck]

Ahh cheers fellas. I was wondering if you guys knew if the university provides comprehensive medical insurance. I'll be studying a 2-semester non-degree in chinese languages.

Also, Ryan is it? Is this rugby just for fun or are you guys playing seriously in a league?

[熊威尔士]

Well, we do play games, but it's expat rugby so most of the time the standard isn't that high to be honest, and you don't have to play the games. You're welcome to come out and give it a try. it's a good laugh and most of the guys are awesome And we have a fantastic social life

[Swiffer]

@ Matt Mateo: I messaged CAI Dan (caidan@zju.edu.cn) -> super friendly and replied really quickly! : )

[AntonioF]

@ Matt Mateo and Swiffer. One question: did you already pay the 9000 yuan (RMB) tuition fee to Zheda? I did not pay it yet, since my intention is to pay it at the Bank of China - Zheda subbranch - once I will be in Hangzhou.Regarding my dormitory accomodation (single room), I am still waiting confirmation from Zheda's staff. bye.

[Swiffer]

Hmmm no I haven't. I got a scholarship, so as far as I know I won't have to worry about paying tuiton fees (they'll either pay for me or give me money to pay them). Soz ^^ ...

[AntonioF]

Thanks Swiffer. See you on August 31st in Hangzhou then!