Zhejiang Normal University

[Tumi]

Thank you so much TYF. I will take a look at it and I am sure that it is very informative. 

[Tristan]

Thanks again TYF!!

 

I've found others Blogs with ZNU students experiences.

 

www.shailee.tumblr.com

 

http://enlachinada.blogspot.com.ar/ (in spanish)

[HenryD]

Hello from ZJNU!!

     A few months I was coming here with no further (real) info than this topic and well, was not sure what I was going to find. What I can tell you from the start is I'm having a wonderful time here. Arrived  month ago, today we receipt our first monthly allowance from the scolarship and so far life is sweet (I'm not stupid, is too soon to say this is paradise and of course it's not but if you're well centered this place is good). I'm doing my IMBA taught in english.. sort of haha and actually Tristan (he wrote a few questions in this very topic) is my roomate!

 

So since I don't want any other newbies like us to be as afraid as we were before arriving i'm posting this list with useful info :

 

• Yes, this university is real. Yes it's a real university and actually it's quite big and more advanced than I tought it would be.
• It's not harvard tho, so please don't expect the teaching level to be the highest, even tho it's not bad.
• Some teachers speak bad english, some moderately, a few are good and a little few are fluent. But it's china you know.
• The international dormitory is neat! Bigger than expected, cleaner than expected... it's like a hotel and if you compare it with the chinese dormitories this is like the Hilton.
• University campus is actually quite beautiful, nice buildings, a lot of new stuff, three quite pretty lakes and a huge library!
• university is big, like, really big... it takes you like 20 minutes to get to your classroom, it's ok a few days, then you're tired as fuck (specially during the first few weeks when you have to do a lot of paperwork)
• Jinhua is small for china but big for most countries. Still it's quite connected, there's a nice bus 10 minutes walking from the international (dorm) that drives you downtown for 2 kuai (like 50 cents of dollar).
• Nobody speaks english in China. even tho in the university you might find a chinese guy/girl with crappy english who might help you/save your life... just don't rely on it.
• Get here from Shanghai Pudong was actually easy by myself. Took me like 5 hours from the momentgot out from the plane to the moment i first set my foot on ZJNU (pretty good if you take in count It was customs, metro, bullet train, taxi)
• no gym. you can run! if it's not raining or cold as shit
• Actually there's a crappy real cheap gym in the north gate (20 minutes walking) but remember the word CRAPPY.
• ebikes (like an electric vespa that get up to 50kmph) and regular bikes are cheap so we bought ours after three days of walking and walking and walking.... and it's amazing! 
• scolarships are paid until october so bring cash. you'll need like 3000 yuan to settle up to cover for your own bed sheets, chinese residence visa, medical examination, food, transportation, party, and stuff.
• food is cheap and free water is offered everywhere. rice with meat and a beverage is like 20 yuan.
• haircuts are not that bad and are cheap, like 20 yuan.
• theres a walmart in town! and you'll find almost everything you need around the university if you don't want to go there.
• theres zara, uniqlo, h&m, two starbucks, one mcdonalds, papa johns, pizza hut, kfc and other capitalist brands in the city like 15 yuan away (taking taxicab)
• theres an amazing park by the river, it's actually pretty nice!
• it rains more than expected... i hate it.
• pollution is ok
• there's a bullet train to/from shanghai, guagzhou, beijing and hangzhou so... if you ever hate your life here you can go to a bigger city easily!! (with more chinese people)
• I tought I would be the only latin guy...my roomate is from argentina, our regular friends are from chile, mexico, spain... there's a ton of people from different countries in africa, asia, middle east, russia, like two europeans and not even one american (from usa). a lot of people is friendly.
• actually there's a lot of friendly chinese students.
• if you need private tutoring of chinese you can get it for free with students willing to talk to you and help you for free. the best advice is to pay for a private chinese class with chinese students majoring in teaching chinese, it's like 30/40 yuan per class, you can focus on your needs, streghts and level and don't waste any time teaching them english!
• classes are regular, some a little easy and some more complicated. 
• there's no real cheese, real bread is hard to find and in general i reccomend you to...
• BRING FOOD FROM YOUR COUNTRY!!! you'll miss it more than those pair of jeans you're planning to bring.
• it gets cold so better pack winter coats!
• in general bring only essencial clothes, have you noticed everything is made in china? you'll buy it here!!! better bring stuff you might not find like traditional food, ingredients (no seeds, stuff you can bring, better not glass bottles) or special clothes like jackets, your favorite tee, really special leather shoes etc. don't waste luggage space with white shirts you can buy here.
• be open minded.
• don't be a prick and believe you're the shit! yes you're a foreigner in china and that's something in here, you might be treated vip sometimes, there are times when you might even feel like a movie star! but remember YOU'RE A JUST FOREIGN STUDENT, nothing more.

 

AND DON'T WORRY, if you enjoy it, jinhua and ZJNU might feel like being a rockstar in new york!!

[roddy]

Great stuff! Hope you'll stick around to answer newbie questions. 

[HuyenTrang]

Hello everyone. I will be studying for masters at Zhejiang Normal University in this september. I'm quite worry about the living in jinhua because i read some complaint.  As some post about ZNU,condition of dormitory's not good? And the living in jinhua's quite boring?This time have anything changed yet?

Do they have any shopping mall or something like that? How long does it take to go from jinhua to hangzhou?

I only can communicate with a little English. Is that too difficult for starting? I heard that almost people in china can't speak english.  

What are your opinions so far about their program? Is it good, average, bad? 

 

Thanks for your help.

[Tristan]

HuyenTrang!,

 

1. The level of the master program is not good. But just being in China is a great oportunity to learn by yourself, and learn Chinese. Plus at the end you will have a diploma that will help you when you go back home. What you learn depends absolutely on yourself, if you stick to what is taught in class you won't learn a lot, but you will have time to study by yourself topics in which you are interested. 

 

2. Living in Jinhua is quite convenient. I enjoyed my life in the campus, everything is cheap and you will meet some nice foreigners and chinese students. If you get bored you can always go to Hangzhou (1 hour) Yiwu (15 minutes), Shanghai (2 hours) nanjing,etc etc. 

 

3. Don't worry about your english level, foreigner will always help you. 

 

See you in september!

[Tristan]

I almost forgot 

4. The dorms are really good (much better than the ones provided by others universities), and you will share the room with someone else. 

[HuyenTrang]

@Tristan, thank you so much for the useful informations. I'm living in a bustling city where I can find everything easily. So I'm quite worried about where I will go to study. Now I feel more assured. Thanks again for your help

[viviru]

Hi guys, I am new at this fórum, and I will like to ask you for some advice, I will be attending ZJNU in September as a Master degree student, I´ve trying to get in contact with the Uni to clarify some information since I did not get any book or instructions to start my studies besides the admission letter. I am a CSC student.

 

My question is the following, on the admission letter states that registration date is on September the 20th, I got my air ticket and will arrive in Shanghái on the 16, but as I was Reading some info in other pages notices in all of them says that we need to register for accomodation within 24 hrs after arriving in China, Does this mean it has to be at the university?, Do you know the procedure to get the dorm before registration day?

 

I was thinking on staying in Shanghai over the weekend, but now I am not pretty sure if I will need to go straight to Jinhua or not.

 

I will really apprecciate any help or info you may be able to provide.

Looking forward to get there.