Princeton Program: Chinese University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong, China
Program Overview
View of the campus of Chinese University of Hong Kong
Students participating in the program at The Chinese University of Hong Kong may take courses offered in English by a range of departments as well as by the International Asian Studies Program (IASP). In addition, Chinese language courses and courses taught in both Cantonese and Mandarin can be taken in the Yale-China Chinese Language Centre (CLC).
The program allows Princeton students to study at CUHK as associated undergraduates and receive a full semester of Princeton credit.
The University
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a top comprehensive research university, one of world’s premier universities ranked in the upper tier. CUHK offers more than 1,280 postgraduate and undergraduate programs through its graduate school and seven faculties: Arts, Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Medicine, Science, and Social Science. The university is also home to the renowned Yale-China Chinese Language Center.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong is an officially trilingual campus; its languages of instruction are English, Cantonese, and Mandarin. It has an enrollment of more than 16,000 students.
CUHK is a collegiate university. Like Princeton’s residential colleges, CUHK’s colleges have their own dorm space, dining halls, and other facilities. Students can experience close interaction with teachers and peers. Colleges are active promoters of various extracurricular activities. They are also important platforms for discussions and friendships.
The Setting
Located in the northwest end of Hong Kong’s Sha Tin district, 30 minutes by train from downtown Kowloon and 20 minutes to the Lo Wu border, the CUHK campus is celebrated for its beauty. The campus is built on a hillside overlooking Tolo Harbor. A modern transportation system provides ready access to all parts of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong has long been a fascinating place to study Chinese culture and language and to interact with Chinese people in a multicultural context. Although the territory was a British colony for more than 150 years, its population is 95% ethnic Chinese. The many subcultures within the Chinese community include those of the educated middle class, the Cantonese jet-set, Mandarin-speaking émigré intellectuals, the Shanghai business class, the young Cantonese intelligentsia, Chinese civil servants, old village families, and recent arrivals. The city offers a dynamic mix of restaurants, shopping districts, theaters, museums, and galleries.
Hong Kong consists of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon Peninsula, the New Territories and more than 260 outlying islands. Most of the territory’s almost 7 million inhabitants live on Hong Kong Island, Kowloon Peninsula, and various “New Towns” such as Ma On Shan and Tin Shui Wai. The rest of the New Territories is hilly and sparsely populated. Scattered throughout the region are fishermen and agricultural communities whose clans trace their Hong Kong ancestors back for centuries.