The first thing I did after I dropped off my luggage at my aunty's house was to walk down to my dad's house. At my dad's house, I learned and gave offerings to my grandparents, great grandparents, and my Aunty and Uncles. I made it just in time to offer them some chocolate from Hawaii for the New Years but I missed to see the fireworks that was lit days before. I am happy that I got to see my grandparents picture in person and happy I learned something how to do offerings.
Orientation for Fudan University doesn't start until February 27th. I came a little earlier to China to visit my family and spend Lunar New Year with them. They live in Guangdong which is a two hour bus ride ride from the airport. My aunty house is huge and the view is great but the pollution is seriously a problem.
Keep in mind, China is 18 hours ahead of Hawaii and the plane ride to Beijing is 11 hours so I "time travel" a couple days ahead when I landed😂😂 In order to use Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, etc., you will need a VPN (Virtual Private Network). This is because China banned most of the apps that is popular in the U.S. I was recommended Express VPN by a lot of people so I bought Express VPN. I got the 6 months VPN at the cost of $9.99 per month but I got an extra 30 days free since I used a referral code. Here is my referral code if you want to try it.
http://www.expressrefer.com/refer-a-friend/30-days-free/?referrer_id=16231718&utm_campaign=referrals&utm_medium=email&utm_source=referral_dashboard Keep a lookout for an email saying Buddy Information. Fudan has a program where every international student is paired up with a student at Fudan to help the international student make new friends and get use to life at Fudan University. In the email, it will tell you their name, telephone number, and email. The email is sent by the school but the student might send a personal email to you telling you about themselves.
P.S. As mentioned in "Booking Dorm", "Wechat" is an app that will be really useful to have on your phone. "Wechat" is like Facebook and Instagram in China. I don’t think any one of you will have a problem with booking tickets. The only problem would be finding the cheapest ticket. For me, Kayak showed me dates with the cheapest tickets and I booked my ticket through Air China. Round trip tickets are cheaper than one-way tickets but if you are not to sure when you want to come back to Hawaii, you can book round-trip with a protection fee which will let you change the returning date if anything happens. I think some airline offers protection to change dates while other offers a refund on cancelled ticket so read the protection plan carefully. I am going to flying to Guangzhou, China a little early to spend the New Years there with my family before flying up to Shanghai, China. It was cheaper for me to visit my family first then to go straight to Shanghai.
I book a ticket that was multi-city. I am flying from Hawaii to Guangzhou, Guangzhou to Shanghai, Shanghai to Guangzhou, then Guangzhou back to Hawaii. Four plane tickets total and it only cost me $849.85. The cheapest ticket to Shanghai at the time I was looking was around $1,200 and I would have had to find a place to stay for a week before moving into the dorms. I am happy with the tickets I bought because I get to see my family in China before school starts at a cheaper price than flying straight to Shanghai. When booking dorms, make sure to check the date and time of availability. China is 18 hours ahead of Hawaii so be aware when the email says “Beijing Time.” To log onto the Dorm Booking Site, you will need to read the information about the dormitory first and accepting the dorm’s policy. After that, you can book a dorm with your student number and birthday. Fill in all the information that is required, select you dorm type (single or double), select your floor number and room number, and hit book. You are set with your dorm when you get to the down deposit page.
DOWN DEPOSITS ARE PAID LATER. Down deposit are paid after dorms booking are closed. You are given three days to pay the down deposit of 800RMB after booking so don’t forget to pay it. You can pay with visa if you don’t have “Wechat pay” or “Alipay”. There is an international charge of 24.74 RMB if using international card to pay. You might also want to print the inquiry page saying you paid the down deposit just to be safe before flying to Shanghai. When registering for classes, you will need your student number, the last six digit of your passport, and the course code. Fudan will send an email on where to find your student number, classes that will be offer, and when you can register for classes. Shidler has already done you a favor by showing Course Equivalence on their website. You just have to register the code that is shown on Shilder Course Equivalence PDF paper. BEWARE, there are classes with the same name but different code. To be safe, you might want to petition that class again with the different code.
To petition for classes, you will need to fill a Undergraduate Program Petition Form. You will also have to attach the course syllabus to the form before turning it in. To find the course syllabus, you will need to log into your Fudan Course Registration account. By clicking the course name (NOT the code), you will automatically download the course syllabus. You can only find the course syllabus when registration opens. P.S. There is a Course Outline (syllabus) on the same page on where you find your student number. IT WILL NOT HELP WHEN PETITIONING. Don’t waste your time downloading it and trying to open it. It contains syllabus that is dated back to 2015 and nothing newer than that. So exchanging currency can be a hassle. Some banks charges a fee when exchanging money while other banks does not. The place I would recommend do exchange USD to RMB (China Money) is Duty Free Store (DFS). DFS is located in Waikiki and they always offer higher exchange rate. The best part is that there is no fee but the max you can exchange is $999.99 per person per day. The bad part about DFS is that they might not have RMB. The way they get RMB is if someone exchanges RMB with them for USD so you might want to check everyday to see if they have. If you didn't exchange enough money or they don't have, I would recommend just waiting until you get to China to exchange because they might have better rates than the banks here in Hawaii. Of course, you can exchange some money here just in case. You never want to go to a foreign country with no foreign currency at all.
Financial Aid will be paid out 10 days before the start of your Study Abroad term. Meaning, if you going for Spring semester (Fudan University starts around early March), you will get your financial aid payout in late February. If you get refunded on financial aid, this might be bad news you because you might not get your refund before you leave. The good news is that you are still a full-time UH student so you can use the WREC center and get your UPass if you ride the bus.
I just went to a travel agency to apply for my China Visa because there is no Chinese Embassy here in Hawaii. The agency I went to is called "Four Seasons Holiday Company." The cost of the visa is $180. The waiting time is three to four weeks if you do not do express. Depending on the term of study, China will issue the visa for 120 days (Fall Semester) or 180 days (Spring Semester). The visa only allows you one entry in China so if you plan on visiting other country, you will need to get a residential visa when you get into China.
P.S. If you have a 10 year tourist visa, it will be canceled since you can only have one visa. |
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