Xiamen University

[Guest Sayuri]

When are you going to come Xiamen, guys?
I am choosing an arrival time now.

[obscuritea]

I am arriving in Xiamen the morning of the first day of registration (Sep. 13). If you either come in the days before that weekend, or arrive at the school on the registration days but after normal office hours, you'll need to rent a hotel room.

[Guest Sayuri]

Some of my friends who have already studied in China advise me to come earlier to get better rooms in dormitory.
But I go through the International Students Enrolment Instructions 2014 more and more and it seems like that doesn't make sense- because everyone will be accommodated in one day, right?

[nptaidhdt]

Dear everyone,

 

My plan is to go to China (Xiamen University) on Sept 10. I will arrive at Xiamen in the morning sept 12. I will fly from Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) to Xiamen by Philippines Airlines with transiting in Philippines about 18 hours. After that, I need to rent a room at Xiang'an, do you know its price for one night only? Is it cheap or expensive, Would you please give me some related information.

 

Thank you so much

[Eponym]

 I was told there was no point in showing up early, they will only give you a room on the 13/14th. I'm going on the 14th due to personal reasons (notified the uni). Also I have a friend who got a scholarship and went to Xiamen for the year 13/14 and she told me that it's essential that scholarship students bring enough money to last for a week or so, as last year they didn't receive their stipend until a few weeks into the first term. 

@nptaidhdt you may be able to contact the university and ask if they can recommend any hotels?

[nptaidhdt]

@Eponym: Thank you. When I arrive at Xiang'an, the first thing i will have to do is to rent an accommodation for only one day. After that I will register for a place at school dormitory.

[David Ma]

Hey, has anyone contacted admissions at XMU?

 

I am trying to ask about registering late and have had no luck with email or wechat.

 

I will try to call soon but am trying to avoid long-distance calling fees.

[tooironic]

Hi David, I tried emailing them today but I got an auto-response in English:

 

"Our office will close for the summer holiday (27th July to 10th Sept.). It is going to take a couple of days before we respond.

 

The registration for the 2014/2015 academic year will be held on 13th September. More information about registration can be found in the enrolment instructions published on our website. With urgent issues, please contact us at +86-592-2184792 or admissions@xmu.edu.cn."

 

I've been putting off calling them as well, but I might have no other choice if I don't get a response via email. (I've been posting about my experience so far with XMU here.)

[David Ma]

Oh, okay. I kinda figured that maybe people were on break as I've seen a quite a few other CSC scholars complaining about not being able to contact their university at this time of year.

 

I finally got a response from Xiamen through WeChat, but it was about a week later.

 

I finally resorted to calling the +86-592-2184792 number. Unfortunately no matter how many times I tried, no one would ever pick up and when I explained my problem to other offices, I kept getting transferred back to the 4792 extension that no one answers. lol

 

I would recommend using Google Voice or some VOIP service to do the call as it is MUCH cheaper. I think I spent $3 just to ring their phone when no one picked up. *sigh*

[tooironic]

If it's any consolation, I did get an email response back from them yesterday (see the thread here). Maybe try emailing again in Chinese, and tell them that your enquiry is urgent.

[Trevor1138]

Hi All,

 

I am studying mandarin at the Xiang'an campus for 2014/2015.  I posted about it here:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/45651-20142015-studying-mandarin-at-xiamen-university-my-story

 

I am arriving on Sept 3rd and plan to find an apartment off campus.  

 

Does anyone have tips about hotels or apartments?  If I find out anything on my own I will let you know.

 

Trevor

[蓝蜥蜴]

Hi everyone!

 

I've got a scholarship and am going to come to XiaDa soon. I'm supposed to study Chinese for 1 year and then I'll have 3 years of Master's program. I'm a little bit confused about accommodation - my faculty is located in Siming, but I've heard that Chinese classes are in Xiang'an... Does anybody know anything about that? Thank you and good luck to everyone!

P.S. I tried to write to Admissions office, but didn't get any reply so far =(

[Eponym]

@蓝蜥蜴 They may just tell you  to walk/cycle/take the bus between the two campuses. Also for those of you who are scholarship students and are not getting a fast response from the admissions department, I managed to get a fast response by contacting osao@xmu.edu.cn (scholarship department) and chenquan@xmu.edu.cn.

[David Ma]

I will be arriving around 11am on the 13th. Anyone using the airport pickup service? Is the taxi cheaper?

[obscuritea]

I'm arriving at about 8 am (or was it 9 am?...), also on the 13th and using the airport pickup service. I tried to lookup the taxi prices a while ago to compare and I think I had found that it was similarly priced, maybe a little cheaper. Either way, I figured airport pickup would be the better option since I won't have to worry about the taxi driver not being able to find the school (since I'll be on the Xiang'an campus) or about the taxi driving off with all my luggage or anything like that.

[David Ma]

That's kinda what I figured. Thanks for sort of confirming my thoughts, lol. Off to fill out my airport pickup service request...

[Guest Sayuri]

Obscuritea

Can i ask you where did you book that pick up service? Is it provided by Xiamen University?

Should i write to OSAO to order it?

[Guest Sayuri]

And one more question about accommodation. In case if i arrive earlier (10th of september), could i count on university's dorm (by paying fee)? Siming campus.

Maybe anyone have already asked that question to uni's staff?

[obscuritea]

You should be able to download the form for them to pick you up here- oec.xmu.edu.cn/file/serviceCARD.doc

 

It looks like the service is just to the Xiang'an campus, however, I'm not sure if they have it to the Siming campus. As for accommodation, I was told that if I came early the dorms would not be available.

[Eponym]

Has anyone had a response from the oec for the airport pickup service to confirm that they will be picking you up? I tried calling them but no one picked up. :S