HK: Living on Campus

So only after three weeks of living in the student residence, I feel like I’ve been here for months. There are eleven halls total and they’re numbered from one to eleven. Halls 1, 2 and 3 are the oldest while the newer ones are Hall 10 and 11 which were only built 3 years ago. Fortunately, I was assigned to Hall 10. 😀

A majority of my friends live in Hall 5 and I can say for sure that I lucked out. I’m not sure about the other halls but there’s definitely a cockroach problem there. Another issue with Hall 5 is that some of the rooms are directly facing the sun so it can get really hot and its technically supposed to be winter here.

When you first move in, the only things provided are a bed, a mattress, a desk, a chair and a wardrobe. As I mentioned in the first post,  there are arranged trips to IKEA on the first two days of orientation. There’s an AC unit that  you have to pay for and if you’re in Hall 10 and 11, there’s a ceiling fan which does wonders. To get into your room, you get a key card which is different from your student ID. The key card is also where you load money in to do laundry and pay for the AC.

TIP #1: If you get locked out of your room, security will charge you $20 HKD to let you back in so make sure to keep your key card with you at all times.

TIP #2:  Carry your passport with you at all times as well since it is actually illegal to not have it with you and the police/security guards will randomly ask to see it.

There are kiosks in front of some of the halls where you can add money into your key card. Different kiosks accept different nominations of bills though. For example, one kiosk only accepts $50 and $100 HKD while another one takes $20 HKD.

Within the area where the student residence is located is Homey Kitchen. The food there is not that great but it is super convenient. It’s also a good place to buy water. The water pipes in Hong Kong are super old and might contain lead so get used to buying water.

TIP #3: Don’t drink the tap water here.

If you don’t want to constantly buy water, the cafeterias/canteens have filtered water so you can just refill your bottle. The halls also have filtered water and boiled water in the common rooms of each floor as well.