臺大 – National Taiwan University

I am visiting the National Taiwan University (NTU) within my PhD studies in Vienna. Why Taiwan? Because the group I am working with here has expertise in my research area, and because I received a research grant to come here.

I spend most of my time at the NTU campus at Gongguan. It’s a great place to be and provides anything needed. There is a big sports center, a bike shop, many, many places to eat, teastores, convenience stores, parks, a huge library. Around the campus, there are even more places to buy food, there are bus stops, an MRT station, public bike stations, a night market, shops of pretty much anything. The main campus, which I have to cross every day to get to the lab, covers more than 1km².

Getting around
The size of the campus is one of the reasons for the abundance of bikes. Bikes can be rented at the public bike stations ubike with an easyCard. The first 30min of each rental are free. Most students have their own bikes though. Bikes parked on the campus are required to carry a permit stickers (it seems like permits are required for pretty much anything in Taiwan), however, so far I couldn’t be bothered to get one, and my bike has not been towed (yet). There is a bike shop on the campus with inflators and free(!) repair service (you only have to pay the material, which is usuall very, very inexpensive). Cycling itself was a bit adventurous for me, at least in the beginning. See also Cycling in Taipei.

Cars are allowed on the campus, but are subject to an entrance fee. Walking is an option for people who really like walking.

Sleeping
There are many dormitories at and around the campus. Most, if not all, of them are gender-seperated and provide shared rooms. I was lucky to get a single room at the . It’s a neat ensuite room with a big bed and a desk, with a nice view. There are water dispensers (hot, room temperature, and cold) at each floor. The shared kitchen is not quite what the average European student might be used to — it’s one electric stove, one rice cooker, and one microwave for the whole building and there are hardly any other utilities. However, thanks to the abundance of food, it’s not really necessary to cook for oneself.

Eating
It’s hard not to find food at the campus. There are many buffets, food courts, tea shops, and restaurants at and around the campus. Also, water dispensers can be found in all buildings.

Sports center
With all the food here I’d be getting fat even faster if it wasn’t for the great sports center. It has a huge outdoors area with running lanes, a swimming pool, basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, and other courts. Indoors one can play badminton and table tennis and there are various group lessons, a gym, a pool, and probably plenty other facilities that I am not aware of. I mainly go to the gym and to the pool. It’s quite inexpensive. I had to get a sports center card at the administrative center at the lower floor of the main building. The gym can get very crowded when a group of people shows up. Taiwanese love group activities, even at the gym. But most of the times I get to do the exercises I want. The pool is usually ok, too.

The Drunken Moon Lake
I first thought its name is a bad translation. It’s 醉月湖 in Chinese, where the last two characters clearly mean “moon lake”, and for the first character 醉 I couldn’t find any other translation than “drunken” or “intoxicated”. I don’t know where its curious name comes from, but the Drunken Moon lake sure is a very nice place to be. I go there often to have lunch or read a paper. There are usually ducks , geese, swans (one of which is black), very cute turtles, squirrels, and fish of many sizes in and around the lake.