Hong Kong is a part of China Republic but it still has its autonomy with its own government, you will feel very safe in the city and there are a lots of European/western people - the culture shock is not that big :-).

Hong Kong is a great place to travel if you like big city life. There are many financial buildings, skyscrapers and very little nature. It is very easy to travel around the city, the public transport is very cheap and keeps running all day long. You can also travel by taxi for a few HKD. The people are very friendly, especially from the university and HK IAESTE.

Hong Kong is great transport hub, you can go to Macau for a day trip by ferry or travel around islands of Hong Kong and go to beautiful beaches, hiking trails and nature areas. The airport is not far from city and you can take cheap flights all around SE Asia (closest & cheapest destinations: Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand).

You can also go to mainland China but you will need a visa to enter - gets more expensive and a bit difficult to get one.

Polytechnic University is amazing institution, the campus is amazing and huge. Everything was perfect except the beginning of my internship - I had to wait for my working visa so I could not work for the first 4 days and started a bit later... Unfortunately, this affected my salary. As a student you gad a free access to library, sporting facilities (outside swimming pool, gym etc.) The canteens were very cheap and the food was great.

My work was only research. Dr. Wang was really nice and friendly, it was like working with my classmate, not my boss :-). The topic of my research was very wide at first and then we narrowed it down to a specific usage of nanoparticles in food industry - edible food coating with nanoparticles. We met once or twice a week to discuss my progress in reading articles and research. At the end of my internship I summarized the research into a PPT presentation.

The salary was 9000 HKD/month. It was always at the end of the month and the money was good for life in Hong Kong. There were two bad things about this - first, you needed the money for the first month to survive until you got paycheck and second, they calculate the salary as days of month (9000 HKD / 30 days = 300 HKD / day) and multiply it by the days from your contract. This way I lost some money because I had the internship from 8th of July to 12th of August. In August I worked two full weeks and if the salary was calculated as 9000 HKD / X workings days in month, it would be higher amount per day...

Anyway, it was enough to enjoy nice life in Hong Kong and to travel around SE Asia after.

Most of the local people cannot speak English very well, the young people are OK and everyone in Uni or IAESTE HK can speak very well. The signs and information in the city is translated to English so there was no problem.

I lived in the student halls of PolyU, it was a room for two students - for each of us there was a table, chair, bed, wardrobe and blanket + pillow. The room was a part of an apartment for 9 student (3x 2-room and 1x 3-room). Together we shared 2 toilets with showers and 1 fridge. On the floor there was a shared kitchen area and laundry + drying machine.

The halls were super nice, very new (3 years old) and there was a free gym, free gaming room and many more + garden in every 5th floor (connection between two towers - nice view and relaxing place).

The room was 80 HKD/night, you paid extra for AC and laundry & drying machine.

I was picked up by a IAESTE HK volunteer, Lily. She wrote me a message and mail before my arrival with information about how to get from airport to the halls. She picked me up at the bus station and walked with me to the halls, then a group of interns with IAESTE HK people showed me a way to campus and to grocery store, restaurants etc.

We all lived in the same halls so it was very easy. It was 40 of us and we made a great friendships, partied a lot and had a great time.

There was a free gym in the halls and free swimming pool at the campus so I used these a lot.

In the campus and in the halls there was a very cheap and delicious canteen, we tried local food - dim sum and other chineese specialties. Went to a cheapest Michellin star restaurant in the world!

In the city, you could find a free wifi at the tourist sights. In the campus and halls we had a PolyU wifi which worked very well - there was no problem with communication.

Go to the Victoria Peak, Big Buddha, travel to beaches and hiking trails. Visit the cheapest Michellin star restaurant in the world! Buy souvenirs at the Night market nad Ladies market. Visit Mr.Wong - best all you can eat and drink restaurant in HK.

Do not exchange money at Travelex in the HK Airport - you will find better money ration in the city

Adapter to EU sockets.

Friendships and networking.

Members of IAESTE HK were amazing, on of the best people in the whole trip! Really great guys :)