Looking Back on Taiwan

So we’re in Hong Kong with a new city to explore and plenty of new geocashes to find, but we did leave a lot of cool things in Taiwan. Taiwan is a small island compared to the US, but to a tourist its still a pretty big place with lots of diverse areas. The first two days we got to just tour parts of the country with our tour guide, Allen. He was a cool guy and I’m glad he was with us, him as well as the rest of the NCTU students. Having them all there made our stay not only much easier but also a lot more enjoyable. They were all fun to be with and I can’t wait for them to come to U of I.

Touring the city as well as the countryside was really cool. It’s interesting seeing how different the people live. The geography and climate of the country forces the people to build their homes and cities in much different ways than what we see in the states. The mountains make Taiwan completely different from U of I. It was awesome to see them everywhere, to climb them up to the temples, and to enjoy their hot springs. The city life, especially in Taipei, was amazing. You might think well we have Chicago, but the cities are nothing alike. The bright signs, mopeds, and street vendors create a completely different atmosphere. The night market was really cool. I wish we could have haggled prices down some more, or some places just at all, but oh well.

As for the universities, choosing between NCTU and NTU would be tough. NCTU is a nice, small, technical university. It’s engineering program is excellent, and from the students we met, they seem really fun. The guaranteed internship at the Hsinchu Science Park or ITRI is a huge advantage to attending NCTU and a big factor when deciding between the two. However, NCTU seems like its missing a lot of the regular university college life that NTU does have. Some of the students say that many kids go home on the weekends to see their families. The social scene in general may be lacking a bit more there than at NTU and especially compared to U of I. The campus is still very nice and many of the buildings are better than a lot of U of I’s.

NTU had a really nice campus. Parts of it you are amazed that you’re even in a city because it’s so green and away from the traffic and city buildings. Their library is really nice, but then again so is NCTU’s. The benefit of NTU is that it’s not just a technical university. It has everyone and every major. That diversity alone makes the campus life much more interesting. Also, they are right in Taipei in the middle of the city. There are disadvantages to that of course, but in general I think it would be pretty awesome to have the city right there. The nice thing about Taiwan is that the subway system works great, and the High Speed Rail could get you from NCTU to Taipei in like 15 minutes, so even in Hsinchu, Taipei is only a short ride away. At NTU their engineering programs seem strong, but they aren’t ranked quite as high as NCTU’s engineering. Unfortunately, NTU does not guarantee an internship, which can be a big deal.

Overall, I like NTU’s campus and campus life much more and I think I would really enjoy spending time there. However, academically I think NCTU may be better especially considering the internships, and NCTU seems to really want us there. It’s a tough choice. Taiwan in general is a really cool place. Aside from the food (which is alright – it just gets old) I think I could spend a semester in the country. Now we’ll just have to see how Hong Kong goes.