A day at Tunghai University

This day reminded me of a normal school day. I got up in the morning, had some breakfast, and then went to a class. In order to get a better understand of the financial markets in Taiwan, we had a special lecture with Dr. Chen-Jui Huang, a professor from Tunghai University. While I originally thought this was going to be a boring lecture, I was pleasantly surprised. Dr. Huang was a very interesting man and very knowledgeable. He was able to present a lot of information about the financial markets in a way that kept everyone engaged and enjoying themselves at the same time. Some of the main facts that I was very surprised to learn about though was information like Taiwan has had unemployment around 4%, but has also been as low as 2-3%. I was more interested in the "hot topic" in Taiwan right now. This topic is offshore markets in China. For investment purposes (like stock markets), there is one type of stock called an "A share" in China, which is only allowed to be used by the Chinese. However, a decision is trying to be made if the Taiwan people should be able to invest in these "A shares". If this does happen, they will be the first foreigners who are allowed to invest in the market. This is something that is still up for debate though.

Tunghai University

Following the lecture, it was time for lunch. Lunch was at a nice coffee shop right on the campus. The food was actually pretty good and the coffee was delicious. The lunch was followed by a tour of the campus. I had been looking forward to this because of everything Dr. Peng had told us. Dr. Peng got his undergrad from Tunghai University and he would always tell us that Tunghai had the most beautiful campus in the world. I had also heard from my friend Peggy (from Tamkang University) that the campus was very pretty as well. The campus did not disappoint either. The scenery was very pretty and I really liked the buildings. I was surprised how big the campus was too. Out of all the universities we'd been to so far, this is the one that reminded me of a campus like MSU from home. Overall, I loved just how peaceful the entire campus was.

One of the buildings at Tunghai

After the tour and a group discussion about the trip thus far, we met some students from Tunghai. There was about four or five grad students and the rest were undergrads. Each of us told the students our experiences as a college student at UofM - Flint. In turn, one of the grad students and one of their undergrad students told us about what it is like being a student at Tunghai. While there were definitely a few differences, there were not as many differences as I would have expected. We then got a chance to mingle and talk with the students while eating our dinner. The food was really good and I enjoyed getting a chance to talk with the students in a more relaxed setting. 

After eating and talking with the students, we were given the rest of the night to ourselves. I ended up going into the nearby night market with Dr. Peng, Dani, Chris, Ray, Laura, and Thersea. This market was not as big as the Shih-Lin one, but it still had some really good stuff. Specifically, the squid balls and the fried dumplings were absolutely delicious. After spending a good portion of time at the night market, it was time to head back to the hotel and just relax for the rest of the night.

The chapel at Tunghai