National Chengchi University

On Wednesday, I finally had a bit of free time to explore the university a bit and even take some pictures. For a brief intro, the university is situated in Wenshan, which is the southernmost district of Taipei. It is one of Taiwan's best and biggest universities, with about 15,000 students. It focuses mostly on humanities, liberal arts and social sciences.

The location is perfect - the campus is at the very edge of the city, meaning that there are only mountains and forests behind it. In fact, the area around is considered to be a recreational place for Taipei citizens - there is a zoo nearby, a Maokong gondola lift going up the mountains and generally a place for people to come hiking, barbecue etc. At the same time, the univesity isn't isolated, as there are shops, restaurants, services and buses going in all directions, just outside the university gate. It takes about 30 minutes by bus or MRT (the local subway/metro system) to get to the Taipei city center. The campus is huge. I take about 15 minutes to walk from the dormitory (which is up on the hill, at the very end of the campus)to the main area with most buildings at the foot of the mountains. We even have a bus going back and forth, but i usually don't want to wait for it as the service doesn't seem to be very frequent. On the other hand, there are great views over the surrounding area on the way, including the Taipei 101 (the world's tallest building until recently, when the Burj Dubai took the first place). You can see some of it in the pictures i took.

The university also has excellent facilities - including a swimming pool, 2 gyms, football field, running track, baseball field, many basketball courts, huge library, arts center, post office, bank, supermarket, bookstore, bunch of other stores, many places to eat, hair salloon (be warned though: quoting a local student: "A human being walks into the hair salloon, and a monkey comes out.) Apparently, there are also many tennis courts, somewhere high up on the mountain. Even better, most of the facilities are very cheap (I just bought a gym membership for a year, for 400 NTD. 1 EURO ~ 50 NTD. The swimming pool is a bit more expensive, at 1600 NTD per year.)

One note about the Taiwan weather though: It is totally unpredictable.. If you think England is bad, then come to Taiwan. Yesterday, as I was leaving the dorm, the sky was blue, with not a single cloud in sight. 30 minutes later, it was pouring cats and dogs. few minutes later, it was sunny and hot again.