Nanjing University

Hello everyone,

I studied at NJU for one semester starting september 2014, so I thought I would share my experience here, as it may help someone decide on what university to pick !

NB: I am not doing my Chinese language studies as part of an exchange program with a non-Chinese university. I picked the university I wanted to attend by myself and applied for all the procedures (Admission, visa procedures and all that fun stuff) by myself, and I did not have a scholarship at the time, so some things may be different for exchange students, scholarship students, etc. but I will try my best and make this review as complete as possible, based on my and my classmates' experiences.

Application Process

As most Chinese Language Programs here offer, I applied online. NJU has created a webpage dedicated to interenational students' applications, it's pretty straight-forward, nothing particularly complicated on the process. Do make sure you scan all the documents (passport, ID photo, High school graduation diploma at the very least if memory serves) beforehand, that way you'll save some time. The application form asks for all sorts of documents, but don't be scared, you don't have to give everything they require, as long as you have the aforementioned documents at the very least, you should be perfectly fine. Admission fee is 400RMB if I remember correctly, which you can pay online with a credit card.

Course and Funding

As I said earlier, I was doing a Long-Term Chinese Language Program for one semester, and I was placed in upper elementary level. It cost me 9,500RMB + book fees which was... roughly 240 I think? it gets cheaper as you go up the levels, that I do remember. 

Arrival and registration

Okay, now for the fun part. On that particular aspect, NJU is /not/ organised and helpful AT ALL. If you have no knowledge of Chinese whatsoever, and you've never been to China before, I would suggest going to another university just because of that. If you don't need assistance on your first days though, you should be fine.

Their website does says they offer pick-up services at Shanghai Airports and Nanjing Airport and railway stations, BUT they only offer these services on maybe two specific dates, which are only comunicated to the students around mid-july -needless to say I had already booked my tickets by then and of course, my arrival date didn't match with their pick-up services. So unless you can book your ticket really late, don't rely on that.

You are given the dorm's front desk number on their website as well, but it is entirely useless as the hotel will not take any reservations for student rooms. They want you there with your admission notice and your visa, otherwise they don't take reservations. Also the staff doesn't speak english. Do come and see them with your documents before registration week starts though, that way you may be able to get a room with a private bathroom. There are very few of them and they go very quickly.

The whole registration process IS A MESS. A COMPLETE AND UTTER MESS. It takes an entire week. I'm not joking. They take an entire week to go through registration, test placement, visa forms, getting a dorm room, paying tuition, handing out schedules and buying books. (just for a comparison, I'm now at Jiaotong University in Shanghai and the same process, including placement test, took about 2 hrs.) it's completely disorganized and you spend most of that week waiting in line - on the plus side, you get to make acquaintances while waiting- so my advice is, GET THERE EARLY. Very early. Also once again they are not very helpful, so if you need to modify your visa type or take a medical exam, they will give you the addresses of the Visa center and the hospital, but that's about it. I heard Nanjing Normal, on the other hand, has a much smoother registration process and they organize a group trip to the hospital with a native speaker, which can be reassuring for the students who don't speak a word of Chinese. You can pay tuition by cash or by transferring money to their bank account direclty, but you have to take a trip to their bank to do that, seems a bit 麻烦 and they charge you more if you do that.

 

Accommodation

I would say that for the price you pay for the accomodation, it's /okay/. But get what you pay for, so don't expect anything grand. For international students, you either live in the mandarin garden hotel right next door to the school building, or in the school building, which has the better rooms, but they're also fewer. In both buildings you can either get a double room or a single room (there's no difference between the two, you just decide if you want to pay double the price to get a room by yourself or not), but the rooms in the school buildings are more expensive because they have private bathrooms -and are overall better than the mandarin garden rooms. As you may have guessed, if you are in Mandarin Garden, you'll only have common bathrooms (one bathroom with two shower stalls and two toilet stalls per floor).

For a double room in Mandarin Garden you will pay about 900RMB a month (so double that if you want a single room); I don't know about the prices in the school building but I think it was double that. No wi-fi, only cable, but you can buy a router on taobao.

Mandarin garden doesn't have kitchens (at least not in my opinion. You have a room with a microwave, a sink, and one of those tiny electric stoves on each floor, but I wouldn't try and do some actual cooking in there); I heard the school building dorm floors have decent cooking spaces and common dining areas which are pretty nice, but I haven't had a chance to experience it for myself.

If you're not fancy on cooking though, there are tons of cheap restaurants all around the school, as well as cafes, various Chinese, Asian, and some western options available.

For the most part the receptionists are not nice nor helpful, but they do get better if you speak decent Chinese with a decent amount of confidence. The cleaning ayis are very nice.

TL;DR: Overall, if you are strapped for cash and you don't mind sharing a room with someone for several months, do get a room at mandarin garden. If you have a scholarship AND you can get a room in the school building, you should be fine. Otherwise however, just get a room or an apartment around campus, you should be able to find something decent for under or about 2000RMB in the vicinity of the school.

Classes, Classrooms and Teachers

The school building for the CLP and the classes are pretty modern and it is, in my opinion, a pretty comfortable environment to study in. The classrooms are small, which I personally like, and you will be put in classes of less then 10 - up to max 25 students. Most of the student body are Westerners, but you get a good amount of Koreans and Japanese still - massive amount of Aussies, mostly from Melbourne. Overall not hardcore students, but I wouldn't say hardcore party-ers either, just basically pretty chill. 

You have 4hrs of class per day, monday to friday, with the usual classes you get in a CLP. In upper elementary, you have Reading and Writing everyday, Speaking 4x a week, and Listening once a week. Some electives are available, but the information for it is only given out in Chinese, which discouraged me from taking any, but from what I've heard, Calligraphy and Martial Arts you can attend with any levels, and the other courses (chinese litterature, history, business etc.) you should be able to understand starting lower intermediate. There are no English-taught extracurriculars as far as I know.

I personally really liked the teachers I had. They were really good, almost never used English (sometimes gave the translation to a vocab word but that's about it). 听力 was the most boring, but 口语 and 读写 were very good and interesting. There was a good atmosphere in our class, and by the end of the semester we were having extended discussions with our teachers on various topics, whether based on the lesson or not. I was in the easiest Upper elementary class, but I feel like I did learn a lot in just four months, spending an average of 2hrs a day on homework and reviews (Jiaotong's placement test originally put me in Upper Intermediate. I backed down to Lower intermediate and I'm bored out of my mind.) The classes are apparently less exciting as you get in the upper levels, and follow more and more the traditional Chinese teaching style -lectures, very few interactions- but I have not heard anybody say they had horrible teachers, at least not in the CLP.

For students who are doing exchange programs, and have to attend classes outside of Chinese language courses, however, I have heard from other students they encountered some difficulties, and apparently the english-taught classes aren't fantastic. 

Campus and Environment

NJU has two campuses, one on the outskirts of the city, and one in the center. the Chinese department is on Gulou campus, in the center of the city. The CLP building itself is on the edge of campus, so you have to walk a bit to get to the pretty park and old buildings on the main parts of campus, but not that much. Everything you need is around campus in terms of transportation, food, convenience stores, etc. you really do have everything close by, for the exception maybe of the clubbing district, 1912, but taxis are cheap in Nanjing, so it's not really an issue. The main canteen on campus is 5min by foot, and you need to has a canteen card to pay, but it is very cheap (less than 10RMB for a meal) and the food is very good with a lot of options -get there fast though because it gets crowded. Other than that, as I said earlier, lots of restaurants all around campus, lots of options, ranging on average from 15RMB to 40RMB for a meal. 

Also, the gym there is very close by the CLP building, and cheap, with quite a few options on classes, so do not hesitate to go there and ask. I personally took yogo/pilates classes there (20RMB/lesson) and quite enjoyed it. 

 

Cost of Living and Budgeting
 

Now that I live in Shanghai, I find life in Nanjing was really cheap in comparison -especially taxis-. Rent set aside, the most money I spent was on food, as I had no choice but to eat out, with an average of 70RMB per day (knowing that I didn't always chose the cheapest options, and that includes a small breakfast and snacks). Transportation really is cheap, and I didn't do all that much shopping for clothes in Nanjing or other things. Overall, I'd say you can easily live a comfy life in Nanjing with 2000RMB, maybe 2500RMB a month (rent not included), depending on how much you party, and where you eat, but then again, you get free entrance and free booze in a lot of places just for being a foreigner, so. I had about 3500RMB a month, with which I paid my rent and everything else, and I was fine.

Overall impression

I would say the biggest asset and the most enjoyable part of my experience at Nanda was the quality of their teaching, which is the most important if you think about it. Another good part is that there is an overall good atmosphere among the students in the program, very friendly, very chill, the ACYA (Australian Chinese Youth Association) there organises a lot of events -and you don't have to be australian to enjoy it. On the down side, I found the administration was very disorganised and unhelpful, I didn't have a good contact with them at all, and I would not recommend the dorms.

If you are coming to China for the very first time and do not speak a word of Chinese, and you feel more secure with having a more concrete support from the school -and a more decent accomodation-, I heard much better things about Nanjing Normal University in that regard. As for the teaching there though, I wouldn't be able to tell.