Scholarship allowance

[thewamphyri]

Hi,

The allowance offered by the Confucius Scholarship how does it work? I mean how is it supplied?

Also, on the same topic - the allowance is 1400 kuai (from memory I may be off), how far 'realistically' does it stretch?

So, bare essentials only (no bars etc.) what would it cover? I.e assuming Uni food, and living like a local (so no super expensive restaurants) could I expect it to cover my food for a month? Or is that unrealistic?

I'm not counting on the allowance at all (I fact I have not even considered it till now) but as I have seen quotes of between 20-50 kuai per day for food (far less then I assumed) I'm now curious.

Thanks in advance

Troy

[fanglu]

1400rmb is pretty generous if you are really 'living like a local', ie living like the Chinese students on your campus. This would involve: eating almost all meals in the cafeteria, not going anywhere much, and going by bus if you do, if you like to drink, drinking beer in a park or dormitory etc. The people giving the scholarship know that western students are pretty much incapable of doing this so give you 1400. Students from poorer countries get less, btw.

Search for '[name of uni] 生活费' in google to get an idea of what chinese students spend.

Not that I'm suggesting you should try to stay within the 1400rmb, at the very least you'll want to travel, which will cost money.

[crisgee]

I don't know about other schools but in BLCU last school year, in the first semester we were given the entire amount every 28th of the month. We had to line up outside of an office, go inside, show our student cards and then money was handed to us, then finally we sign something like a disbursement form. In the second semester we were all issued ICBC atm cards and every 28th or the month the amount was deposited into our accounts and we could just withdraw as much as we please. The school has it's own ICBC branch in campus so it was quite convenient.

For me, 1400 is just food, period. And that's equivalent to eating every meal from the cafeteria. I got 1700 a month and it really just takes care of necessities, including subway/bus fare. Eating at restaurants, tickets to see the sites, buying clothes and cool stuff, spending for the weekends, traveling around -- these things cannot be shouldered by your allowance.

[thewamphyri]

Thanks both of you for your replies!

So these quotes of between 20-50 kuai most be close to the mark then (and possible at that, not that I'm sure I can do it!).

If it only covers food I'm more then happy - it gives me more freedom then I expected (my budgeting formula had a much higher allowance for food).

I'm happy to eat at the cafe - provided the food is not completely terrible!

Personally, I feel I can get by quite cheaply as it is - most of the things I spend cash on (that would be near on 70% after essentials) can't be done in China (or not is a useful way) - if you are really wondering, I'm one of those people that collects things!

I have been to China as a tourist, but I don't recall food been so cheap - but if it is great (don't get me wrong it was cheap, but not that low - but then again I had no Chinese language skill at all, which is limiting).

"fanglu" Re: '[name of uni] 生活费'

Do you mean for NanDa you would search like this:

'[Nanjing University] 南京大 学' or just '南京大 学' (or 南大 学' as it were)

Troy

[Brian US]

I'm really surprised if you spend close to 50 kuai a day just on food.

For me, 1400 is just food, period. And that's equivalent to eating every meal from the cafeteria.

Don't know what you get at the cafeteria, but 6 kuai will fill an entire tray downstairs. Even if you eat out, a really nice restaurant will be under 30 kuai. There are plenty of restaurants around campus where you can load up on dumplings or a bowl of noodles for 10 kuai.

[fanglu]

It's true, there were days I spent less than 10rmb while living on campus at Xi'an Jiaotong University.

Do you mean for NanDa you would search like this:

'[Nanjing University] 南京大 学' or just '南京大 学' (or 南大 学' as it were)

So, for example, if you want Nanjing Uni you would search for:

南大 生活费 or

南京大学 生活费

Incidentally, the first baidu forum response says 800/month or 1500 if you have a girlfriend.

[aristotle1990]

1400rmb is pretty generous if you are really 'living like a local', ie living like the Chinese students on your campus. This would involve: eating almost all meals in the cafeteria, not going anywhere much, and going by bus if you do, if you like to drink, drinking beer in a park or dormitory etc..

I can vouch for this; I lived pretty much like the typical Chinese student for months, and as a result I saved up enough leftover money to get me an iPod Touch at the end (to be used strictly for the purposes of studying Chinese, of course!).

The scholarship I got was 1700 a month, though.

[crisgee]

I'm really surprised if you spend close to 50 kuai a day just on food.

Don't know what you get at the cafeteria, but 6 kuai will fill an entire tray downstairs. Even if you eat out, a really nice restaurant will be under 30 kuai. There are plenty of restaurants around campus where you can load up on dumplings or a bowl of noodles for 10 kuai.

Okay my bad, i forgot to mention that this is not downstairs 食堂 food but BLCU 2nd floor upstairs and the 风味 restaurant food. I usually eat with my friends and a filling meal with 4-6 dishes would cost around 12-15 kuai per person. And while i enjoy the occasional bowl of noodles, 4 kuai jiaozi and wu mao per stick malatang, i never liked them enough to eat them regularly.

Yes yes if you do live like a local then 1400 would be generous, but if you're from where i'm from and you want to live as normally as possible then 1400 is just enough.