asia magazine #22

asiamagazine#22 | FALL 2013 | BY CHALMERS STUDENTS IN ASIA

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GANGES - A POLLUTED GODESS

CELEBRATING THE END IN INDONESIA

THE SEARCH FOR THE BEST COFFEE IN ASIA

asiamagazineWHAT IS THE CHALMERS INTERNATIONAL TAIWAN OFFICE?

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EDITOR IN CHIEF | ANNA OHLIN

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A contribution to the Asia Magazine is one part of the worldwide programme, whichever asian country you choose for your exchange studies. if you write an article, it will not only inspire other students to embark on their own journey - it also provides an opportunity for you to be seen among the many companies with a swedish connection in asia that the magazine is distributed to. i really encourage those companies to consider the driven and talented stu-dents presented in this issue, who right now are in asia, being impregnated with knowledge and experiences of this continent of the future. And do you know what the best part is? if you are in your third year of engineering or architectural studies, it is time not going to bore you with all the arguments that you already heard about how fun and rewarding it is to study abroad. instead i only encourage you to sit down for a while, look through these pages and ask your heart and soul if you are ready to go to asia.

asiaLetter

anna ohlin | editor in chief

ight now you are holding a piece of asia. this maga- experiences and thoughts from leaving their ordinary lives behind to live in asia for a year. be inspired by the culture of a continent that holds enormous amounts of history and includes some of the strongest and fastest rising economies in the world. we wish to give you glimpses of the heat, the

I suppose many of you are reading asia magazine for the to increase the amount of readers. the magazine is produced is run by the students that are participating in the chalmers worldwide programme in taiwan. other chalmers students and i, on behalf of cito, truly want to thank everyone that has contributed to this issue. to be a cito member is a won-derful experience and you get to meet people from all over the world. if you want to know more about cito and how to be a part of it, see page 40.For our loyal long-time readers, i hope that you will like the changes in the magazine that we introduce in this issue. we have focused on mixing longer, more profound articles with shorter and more accessible items. among our longer fast-paced entertainment in singapore on page 12 and deb-ora writing about the pollution of the holy river ganges on page 6. an example of one of the more easily digested fea-tures is the asia solutions section, which shows a number various asian countries. we also have a photo competition, this is asia. the two winners of this contest can be seen on view all the best pictures that were submitted on page 22.

Allow yourself to get inspired!

Bench in Tokyo themed to the movie Forrest Gump.

R

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asiaStaff

Elin AlmbackeAcademic Exchange and Alumni Responsible

industrial engineering and management.management and economics of innovation.email: [email protected] Falk DanauskisAcademic Exchange and Alumni Responsible

industrial engineering and management.management and economics of innovation.email: [email protected] JohanssonCorporate Relations

industrial engineering and management.management and economics of innovation.email: [email protected]

Marcus KalanderIT Responsible

computer engineering.computer engineering - algorithms, languages and logic.email: [email protected]

Anna OhlinEditor in Chief

civil and environmental engineering.infrastructure and environmental engineering.email: [email protected]

Patric Andersson

mechanical engineering.management and economics of innovation.email: [email protected]

Catharina BeckmanAcademic Exchange and Alumni Responsible

instrial engineering and management.management and economics of innovation.email: [email protected]

Markus Bruus

instrial engineering and management.management and economics of innovation.email: [email protected] CsikaszArt Director

industrial design engineering.in product development.email: [email protected]

Corporate Relations

mechatronics and automation.product development.

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-duced there. and if it is expensive it has to be tasty, right?the coffee is called kopi luwak, and is produced by a rath-er extraordinary procedure. initially, so-called coffee ber-ries are picked from trees. these berries contain seeds that can be used as coffee beans. drying, roasting and milling of these coffee seeds will result in the usual watery asian cof-fee. when it comes to producing kopi luwak though, there is a tiny detail that differs. this detail consists of the coffee berries being digested by a catlike animal called asian palm civet. the animals eat the berries and the seeds simply come out the natural way. in the dropping, the seeds can be gath-ered. later on, they are cleaned, roasted, dried and milled, and voil, you got all you need to brew a nice cup of tasty kopi luwak.i admit that i had expected a more glamorous production procedure for the most expensive coffee in the world. this coffee extracted from poo felt a bit too adventurous even for me, but i had to give it a try. it turned out that not only did i survive the coffee, i also really enjoyed it. i am not sure that i would like to pay us$35-$80 per cup for all the 1200 cups

ne big advantage of being an exchange student in asia is that you, with your new geographical position, have the opportunity to travel to places you might never even had thought of before. there is one big disadvantage of being a swedish exchange student in asia, though - the painful lack of really tasty coffee. so when i realized that the most exclu-sive coffee in the world can be found only a couple of hours away from taiwan, i felt it was time to gather my student asia. why not combine pleasure with business and go on a trip while at the same time satisfy your coffee cravings?

How far is a Swede willing to go for a cup of coffee?O

A civet taking a break from its coffee-making dutiesaccording to ico, the international coffee organization, sweden has one of the highest coffee-consumptions in the world. the average annual consumption per capita is more than eight kilograms. that equals almost 1200 cups per per-son and year, or 3.2 cups per person and day. just try to imag-ine the abstinence for a person with those habits, after four weeks of struggling with watery taiwanese coffee.in my hunt for a real cup of coffee i ended up on a small is-land in the indonesian archipelago called bali. the reason

studying at national chiao tung university, taiwan.engineering and management.in supply chain [email protected]

text and photocatharina beckman

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A man sorting coffee seeds.

the river is something that many people think is one of the most purifying things to do and if your ashes are spread in it you will become liberated from the cycle of life and death. some of my Hindu friends do not see the importance of the symbolic bath in ganges, but they agree that it is the best place to have your ashes spread. even if some of them de-scribe themselves as non-religious, they say that to have your ashes spread in ganges is compulsory.rituals like having your ashes spread are only one source food, trash and sewage waste along with toxic chemicals from the industries along the river. one result of this situa-tion is an increase in waterborne diseases, like cholera and hepatitis. 80 percent of all health problems and one-third of all deaths in india are attributable to waterborne illnesses.

here in india. the river gets its water from the great Himalaya, which features nine of the fourteen highest peaks in the world, including mount everest. it is the most sacred river to Hindus, and 400 million indians live along its course and depend on it. ganges is also home to elephants, tigers, indian rhinoceros, lions, even sharks and the rivers most fa-mous fauna: the freshwater dolphin.

It is worshipped as the goddess ganga in Hinduism. the symbolic and religious importance of the river is one of the few things that most Hindus in india agree upon. a bath in

Ganges - a gate to heaven on earth?

400 Millionlive along the Ganges and

T

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, initiated in 1986, was the largest single attempt to clean up a polluted river anywhere in the world. unfortunately the project became a failure with delayed plans and doubled expenditure. the failure has been blamed on corruption, technological mistakes and planning without an understanding of the indian traditions and beliefs, which maybe is the most important thing to take in to considera-tion. actually, the water has just become worse since the pro-ject started.some people also blame the lack of support from religious authorities. this lack might be due to some priests being afraid that any measures against its pollution will under-mine the central role of the water in rituals, as well as their own authority. there are many temples along the river, con-ducting a brisk trade in ceremonies, including funerals, and sometimes they also sell bottled water from the river.so there is also something within the religion itself that con-tributes to the problem. and to understand why, you need to know about the following Hindu story:

-grims visit to take a holy dip in the ganges. during festivals per 100 milliliters have been observed, which is 200 000 times higher than the level of water contamination which the government considers safe. and that is for swimming, not for drinking.

some things about the Hindu beliefs were hard for me to un-derstand in the beginning. should they not take care of the river and treat it as sacred? why do they throw all the ashes in the river, when it also serves as a major source of drinking water? How could they worship ganges as a goddess and at the same time let it become that polluted?

In India,80% of all healht problems

and 33% of all deaths

are attributable to

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got angry and reduced them to ashes, and dispatched them these men later traveled to the sage, and begged him to re-

souls of their fathers.

whose destiny is to cleanse the dirt from human wrongdoings, and to claim that the river should be clean is therefore wrong from that point of view. she also brought the souls of people from the netherworld to heaven, and permanently became a connection between the three different worlds: Heaven, earth and the netherworld. because of this, people spread the ashes of their beloved ones in the river so that they can ascend to heaven.studying at indian institute of technology, dehli.civil and environmental engineering.infrastructure and environmental [email protected]

text and photodebora falk

Her destiny to be polluted is used to justify both ashes and waste being dumped in the river. it does not matter if the water is polluted, because it is still holy.It will be hard to solve the problem with the pollution by putting more money in projects and have a policy against corruption. cleaning the goddess ganges is discouraged by not think the pollution is a problem and if they are not ready to change their mindset, the dirt in ganges will remain.in addition, pollution is not the only threat to the holy river. because of the rising temperatures, the glaciers are melting animals and houses were washed away. some areas were to-tally destroyed, but there was one thing still standing: the statue of lord shiva, who is often referred to as the destroy-the middle of the turbulent stream. this made some Hindus believe even more in the gods.In the futurerun the river will instead dry out. some sections of the river had an average depth of 60 meters, but in some places it is now only 10 meters.some people believe that the dried out ganges will end this era, the next one in a cyclic order, will follow it. this is also one explanation why even an empty river seems to be a natu-ral part of the circle of life.

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together they advertise the internship and then conduct a recruiting process including screenings and interviews. a short-list of candidates is then sent to the company for po- of today, more than 15 people have suc-cessfully been sent abroad, michel says.

we believe that it is of high importance for new engineers to have both an edu-cation, like the one we get at chalmers, and practical experience. most engineers will in the future, in one way or another, have to face global challenges and work students to get the practical experience for this. that is where global internships comes into the picture. we want more students working abroad and that

students, michel says.

aining work experience while studying is highly valu-able for you future, obtaining it abroad is even better. global internship is an organization created by students at chalmers university of technology who want to improve the possibilities for student to boost their career with an internship abroad. we believe that abroad. there are some internship programmes for the us, but for the more interesting markets, like asia, says michel westher partner at global internships. global internships acts as a middle-man between companies and students. the internships are salaried and run for 3-12 months. our focus is on asia but we offer internships in north america and europe as well, michel westher explains. among the -

all internships are posted on the website and anyone can apply. many departments from chalmers are represented among the students that have been accepted so far. keep an

global internships was founded by jonas otterheim and jo-han svensson in 2011. they are two former chalmers stu-dents that recently graduated. in addition, the team consists of michel westher, carl-adam Hellqvist, shahin Zarrabi, all students at chalmers, but also maja storm, student at uni-versity of gothenburg.studying at national chiao tung university, taiwan.industrial engineering and management.management and economics of [email protected]

text and photoadam johansson

chalmers students:FAST FACTS

database containing companies interested in interns -rate relations responsible. | www.asia.chalmers.sechalmers career service: continuously publishes avail-able positions. | student.portal.chalmers.seglobal internships: acts as a middleman between com-panies and students. | www.globalinternships.se

asiaInternship

Michel Westher of Global Internships.

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us to the second out of the three excavation pits containing terracotta statues. it was a bit of a disappointment as there was not a single complete statue to be seen in the center of the pit, just a few statues in glass monters at the far end. the third pit was a bit more interesting and is believed to be the army headquarters due to the statues looking like high-is where the ranks of terracotta infantrymen is to be found and the pit is as large as an aircraft hangar.as opposed to what one may think, the statues were not complete when they were discovered but shattered into pieces. the ones that are now complete have been restored by skilled archeologists. restoring one statue may take sev-eral months and only a fraction of the statues have been re-stored. thousands of statues are yet to be assembled again and the restoration work is expected to continue for several decades to come.Conquering Hua Shanbesides visiting the terracotta army i also paid a visit to

there are a few trails leading up the mountain but i chose to take the cable car to one of the peaks to enjoy the scenery

-tory of more than 3000 years. formerly known as -cluding the Han, sui and tang dynasties. it was also the end point of the famous silk road trading route, connecting the west and the east. during september i visited this old city and some of the famous places surrounding it.

city in china, with an air quality not much better than that of beijing. However, there are still some sights that remind you that this is one of the great ancient cities of china, one the most complete city wall left in china. it is built during the ming-era and it is possible to take a walk or ride a bicycle on its well-preserved masonry.the muslim quarter, which is also home to the great mosque, one of the largest mosques in china. other than the great mosque, there is also a seemingly never-ending islamic food

Army of terracotta warriors

which is estimated to consist of more than 8000 terracotta statues. the army was built more than 2200 years ago to protect emperor Qin shi Huang in the afterlife, but it was not until 1974 that some peasants drilling for a well luckily dis-covered this army.

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imagine what it would be like when it is wet or icy. the trails are also very crowded so care needs to be taken, especially when meeting other people during steep parts. for those more adventurous than me, there is also a plank walk at the southern part of the mountain where you walk on wooden boards with a vertical drop below of 2000 meters. -ings. as i have also studied chinese for one year it was fun to get to use some of the words i have learned, it helped a able to speak english. so with tired legs and a lot of new ex-periences i went back to my university in singapore to con-tinue my studies and plan for a new trip to china.

able to visit two of them before my legs gave up on me. the view from the peaks is really stunning.i thought the climb was quite tough just wearing a rucksack, hence i was amazed by all the workers carrying water, food and other supplies to the top of the mountain, balancing it carefully on a pole hung over their shoulder with the sup-plies hanging down on both sides. an old man, probably in at the same time balancing a heavy load on his shoulder. as if this was not enough, he also did some singing and posing, such as standing on one leg, to imitate on of the best-loved characters in chinese literature, the monkey king sun wu-kong.the mountain can be quite dangerous to climb and a bit slip-pery. even though the weather conditions were perfect when i climbed the mountain i managed to slip twice. i can only

The terracotta army of Emperor Qin Shi Huang

studying at national university of singapore.in computer science - algorithms,logic and [email protected]

text and photojesper andersson

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weeks, had this friday found its way back to the singapo-rean sky. the sweltering heat made the sweat running on our bodies, and what used to be my favourite bright-red dress suddenly turned into a more or less spotted dress with emerging dark-red areas. we grabbed some beers to cool off a bit, and headed over to our seats. -stand, with a spectacular view of marina bay sands - we climbed the stairs to our seats on the 68th row. we went up, and up, and up, and then continued up a little bit further, un-

til we reached our seats situated in the far left corner. but now not-so-cold beer in my hand. the conditions were per-fect for watching the races that were about to start.

hen going of my life, i was honestly a bit worried. as a person with no inter-the weekend ended up being a personal success, and when i look back on the race weekend, i do it with joy in my heart. this is the story about the weekend that turned this unin-terested exchange student into a self-appointed formula 1 expert.It was early Friday afternoon in the city of singapore and time for me and my friends to wake up and get ready for singapore formula 1 grand prix. we started off the day by -den little pearl, situated in an industrial area, provided all american styled burgers and some german beer.filled up with fuel, so to speak, we headed off towards the racing area. the sun, which had been gone for a couple of

The Formula 1 weekendTurning a rookie into a self-appointed expert

then continued up a little bit further,

in the far left corner.

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-that took place right before my eyes. the cars, which now did not look as ridiculously small as the day before, zipped past us one by one in a high-speed manner, and i started to feel like i was becoming a part of the excited audience that surrounded me. we quickly headed over to the our way into the crowd and waited for my old favourite band notes of the much beloved song mr brightside came out of the lead guitarist dave keunings stratocaster. the concert was actually pretty great, but it was ironic when the singer, brandon flowers, spoke in chinese to the audience which in turn was mostly made up of drunk, middle-aged, western men visiting formula 1 for business purposes. they did not

have much of a response. after dave keuning had strung his last chord and i had laughed a bit to the dance styles of the previously mentioned middle-aged men, it was time for me to head back home for some sleep and probably some night-aloha shirt dangling in front of me.

we heard the cars, which now had started from some distant place. Quickly, i inserted my fashionable, bright yellow ear--neath the formula 1. my friends had informed me that there was a swede competing in this race, a young guy named mar-cus ericsson. with that patriotic feeling all expats get when they see something from home, i felt like i needed to be en-

and i really tried to. i really tried to focus on those small toy-sized cars passing one after another on the track. it did not go too well - my focus shifted to arranging plans for the after one, my friends also gave up. we headed out for some good old carbonara and white wine and continued into the streets of singapore.The day after, i woke by 2.30 pm with a pain in my foot and a feeling that something was missing. the evening before, my phone had been stolen and my foot had been torn up by a broken glass, at one the infamous clubs of singapore. it was not entirely easy to head out of bed, but after a few more hours feeling incredibly sorry for myself, i once again head-ed over to the formula 1 area to meet up with my friends.upon arrival, we headed over to a hidden gem, which was the spectator spot that we had found last minute the day be-fore, situated just beside one of the curves of the track, with a conveniently located television screen in front of us show-ing all necessary information regarding the track. it was time the drivers to learn the track before the actual competition

band to enter the stage.

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techniques. when i also realised that my new friend, the in-credibly old sony ericsson, actually had a radio receiver so i was able to tune in the actual expert commentators, i got

in front of my eyes. when meeting up with my friends later on, i had now become the self-appointed expert commenta-tor of the group. after celebrating se-my body. even though my formula 1 weekend had been lined with a number of setbacks, my overall feeling was pure happiness. when i look back today, i look back upon a great weekend shared with wonderful friends and incredible en-tertainment, both from the track as well as from the stage.

i realised that it was now the last day of racing. i headed over to our favourite spot beside the - - -versation with a finnish man next to me regarding whether or not kimi rikknen, the finnish driver of the lotus team who had experienced back problems the day before, would be able to start.as the race began, i eagerly awaited the cars to pass me by. lead and impressed the singaporean audience by domi-nating the competition. the race went on for 61 laps, or 2 hours, and since my so called friends headed over to other places to view the race, i soon found myself standing alone in the crowd, cheering along with a commitment that bore no witness of me, just two days earlier, being entirely bored by my friends discussion about engines, wheels and driving

studying at nanyang university of singapore.industrial engineering and management.Quality and operations [email protected]

text and photoingrid Hagberg

I soon found myself standing

first organised: 2008capacity: 82 000 peoplecircuit length: 5.073 km laps: 61race distance: 309.5 km

FAST FACTS

average gear changes per lap: 80Headlining performances of 2013: rihanna, the killers, big bang, tom jones. the closing concert also featured justin bieber and owl city.

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jonathan elnsa swedish engineer in shanghaito improve the communication be-tween scania china and the factories, as well as to learn how a distributor acts and functions. i help developing the work process to make the after sale more effective.

i was offered the position because scania had a need and i matched the -sonal development plan, which all the employees at scania discuss with their supervisor.

the hardest part is language. my mandarin is very limited and few of our customers speak english. the culture is so different. sometimes when travelling with work i feel like an ufo, really lost in translation.

part when working in China?

shanghai is the most recognisable place in china for a westerner. there are a lot of activities and culture to take part of, and i eat out every day without going

studying at tongji university, shanghai.architecture and engineering.in architecture and urban [email protected]

text alexander gsta studying at tongji university, shanghai.architecture and engineering.in architecture and urban [email protected]

textellen simonsson

name: jonathan elnseducation: mechanical engineeringcompany: scania sales china

Photo by Jonathan Elns.

asiaInterview

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the tea ceremony takes place inside the tea house, which is called chaya in japanese. a tea house is usually located somewhere along the path, but rarely by the end of it. the reason for this is to emphasize that this is a process, not a walk towards a determined goal. the tea ceremony begins at the very same same moment as when a guest enters the garden.

The Japanese Tea Garden

t is a meditative place where you can get peace of mind and escape from the stressful city. the worries garden has the ability to make your mind think clearly again.the tea garden was developed with respect to the ritualized way to drink tea and was developed during the latter part of muromachi and azuchi momoyama period. the ideal in garden is roji, which means path with dew. it differs from other japanese gardens by focusing more on the passage to the teahouse, which is more of a movement through different sequences of the garden. tea gardens usually consists of two parts; an outer part, soto roji, and an inner part, uchi roji. these parts are separated by a gate, where there is a small building, machai, where visitors are waiting for the host to escort them through the rest of the garden.

A tea house is usually located rarely by the end of it. The rea-son for this is to emphasize that -

I

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the tea houses may vary in design. some look like a hut in the forest which only consists of the the room. others con-sist of a larger complex with several rooms, for example a room for preparation of meals etcetra. it can also be placed inside another building so that it is hidden and impossible to see from the outside. the inspiration of the design of the teahouses was a combination of minka and the japanese jap-anese peasant house. they wanted to highlight the beauty of a simple way of living. with its simple materials and shape, the tea house looks modest and un-pretentious. the walls are made of reeds or wood debris. the a traditional japanese mat, which is usually 90x180 years centim-eters and 6 centimeters thick. these units have been standard dimensions in japan for almost 800. the size is suitable for two people sitting or one person lying down. the tea room is character-ized by its introvert interior. the openings, through the walls, are small in order to prevent the par-ticipants from getting disturbed by distractions from the outside.participants goes through a physical and spiritual cleansing process before tea ritual through roji. there is different sta-tions along the way where the participants stop to, for exam-ple, wash their hands. the rhythm of the walk is controlled by stones with different distances to each other, tobi ishi . it is all about emptying and opening the mind of the partici-pants in order to achieve a spiritual experience of stillness: you can compare it to meditation.the meditation involves the body and all senses together in the physical experience; moving through the garden, hear the sound of water, smell and fell the taste of the tea and watching the beautiful impeccably cleaned tea items. the tea ceremony pursued four ideals; wa, kei, sei and jaku. these concepts can be translated to harmony, reverence, purity

studying at tokyo institute of technology.architecture.architecture.

text and photoedvard nyman

-ticipants without contradictions but also harmony with na-participants show respect and humbleness. by washing hands with water from a hollowed stone and rinse your mouth before entering the tearoom. the spiritual puri-

on the ritual and simultaneously empty and open the mind. the latter concept jaku; the mental experience is a search for peace of mind and quiet rest.the design of the tea gardens to perceive the room. the japa-nese architect toyo itoh writes in his book, the gardens of japan: the roji is usually small, but its -nese gardening has been enor-mous. the roles of movement and squential experience are only two of its innovations; another is the idea of using to aesthetics advantage things originally intended for other purposes, or things that people have discarded or overlooked.

the idea to perceive sequences by progression has not only the development of the japanese architecture as well, which -tects, even today.

It is all about emptying and opening the mind of

the participants in order to achieve a spiritual experience of stillness: you can compare

it to meditation.

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middle-aged woman was standing in front of us. maybe you are europeans, americans, asians, afri-cans or latin-americans. but from now on, we have the same name: we are all tsinghua people. little did i believe that i would be hearing those words being uttered in a sweaty -a couple of weeks ago, squeezed in between my newfound british friend and a french trio, attending the orientation day for international students at tsinghua. in this article i will introduce this highly regarded school, some of its cul-ture and my impressions of the university so far. the college sweaters here. tsinghua university is a healthy 102-year old which is considered old by chinese university standards. in the beginning, it served to prepare chinese stu-dents for studies in the united states and in 1925 it started traditionally been engineering & sciences but since the end of the cultural revolution in 1978, tsinghua has evolved to include all disciplines. Tsinghua is widely considered to be the most prestig-ious university in mainland china, together with its rival and neighbour peking university. this results in a highly competitive admission. in recent years, more than 70% of the top 10 students for engineering and science disciplines tsinghua university. the undergraduates that are admitted are roughly the top 0.1% out of the 10 000 000 chinese high-school students that take the national college admission as tough when applying as an exchange student from chalm-

Introducing Tsinghua University

the canary metaphor is sometimes not far from the truth - like when the air Quality index recently soared to over 300

engineering university, tsing-hua is a natural partner for chalmers. in the words of gusta-chalmers has declared in its internationalization strategy that cooperation with top universities is a priority. tsinghua is the top ranked technical university in china and among the top 50 universities in the world. therefore, tsinghua is an excellent partner for cooperation with chalmers within this collaboration are to increase its international exposure in areas where chalmers is known for its quality in expertise in areas such as energy, transport, materials and sustain-able development, which are the main areas of cooperation with tsinghua.

After being here for almost one month, the campus strikes me as one of the most impressive things of tsinghua. the campus is enormous and it feels like a real university cam-pus: most of the students live in dormitories on the campus and there are a lot of things to do, with a huge amount of -cert hall, two super markets et cetera. by taking a bike tour

A

Tsinghua is the top ranked technical university in China and among the top Tsinghua is an excellent partner for co-

education and research.

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learn a bit about the history of the university. the oldest part of the campus is very beautiful as it lies on the foun-dation of the old imperial garden of the Qing dynasty. the main building of the campus was built during the mid-20th century and has a more soviet-style architecture, which is natural as both cultural and economic support came from the soviet union. newer facilities such as the Humanities library and concert hall have a more westernized style, orientation day, i was proud to hear that the library was drawn by the famous swedish architect mario botta, but lat-er googling proved that he is in fact swiss. even the chinese

One thing that struck me as quite odd was the thousands of troops marching around the campus in military clothes were no disciplined rambo-style elite soldiers, but rather students younger than me. further research has given me the answer that this military training is compulsory for the undergraduate freshmen. after witnessing one of the last rehearsals, i can conclude that the training both include some kind of martial arts derivative which to put it kindly could be perceived as mildly intimidating, as well as a group dance show which i would describe as a combination of the year students at chalmers, for good and bad.Another surprising phenomenon is the way the chinese students socialise: by sitting in large circles at the football these students. sometimes the chinese version of a won-derwall-douchebag sings and plays a chinese schlager-song on the guitar, sometimes they play mah-jong and sometimes they just sit and chat. but rarely do you see what you can expect in universities in europe: excessive drinking and need not go longer than to wudaokou. most of the large uni-versities in beijing, including tsinghua, are located in the Haidian district in the northwest of beijing and wudaokou is the area in the middle of it all that serves as an oasis for thirsty students. there is an overrepresentation of

no disciplined Rambo-style elite sol-diers, but rather students younger

than me.

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foreign students here and most venues with names such as -wards international students. for all intents and purposes, it acts as a place to enjoy the evening and get some variation

To conclude, i must say that i am very happy that chalmers has added tsinghua to its roster of highly prestigious univer-sities in east asia. the quality of education is high, and even though the administration can be frustrating, the possibili-with 150 different student associations and beijing is a great city to learn about china and study chinese in. finally, there are many international students from all over the world at the time here, which i surely have been doing during this last month.

studying at tsinghua university, beijing.industrial engineering and management.management and economics of [email protected]

text and photorobin feng

number of students | 34 336international students | 3 450campus area | 389,4 hectaresstudent associations and societies | 1502number of beds in student dormitories | 28 736number of tennis courts | 32number of basketball courts | 36number of canteens and restaurants | 28alumni governors and ministers | 280 military generals | 100

-motto | self-discipline and social commitmentuniversity spirit | action speaks louder than words

FAST FACTS

Military training on the campus grounds.

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but how threatened are we of the typhoons? should we pack our bags and leave taiwan right away with the fear of dying in the next typhoon and dissuade people from going here? no, everyone i have talked to in taiwan is not seriously wor-you stay inside during the worst hours and especially avoid going to the mountains where rocks easily fall you will be

so do not let the typhoons and the swedish sensational jour--mon sense you will be safe. but beware of the power of na-ture; to it, the human race is quite vulnerable.

efore arriving in taiwan, i had not given the typhoons that are common for the area much thought. it was not until i turned on my computer one morning to read the -line at all the swedish news sites was about the worst storm in the world in 30 years, the monster typhoon usagi. and it was about to hit taiwan. i had heard from people at cam-pus of the big storm and that it might affect us during the upcoming weekend. the severity was unclear for me though. so if this was the biggest news in sweden it must be serious, right?as promised, the storm reached taiwan and left us a day later leaving us a little relieved but mostly disappointed. no problem visiting the grocery store. did the swedish media exaggerate? i decided to look into the differences between the typhoon news of taiwan and sweden.i found some articles showing the differences between the would be the worst storm in 30 years, taiwan reported that storms of similar strength hit taiwan in 2005, 1998, 1997 typhoon anywhere in taiwanese media. the swedish arti-cles are further on not as precise regarding the geographical positions of where the typhoon will hit. it is not surprising indeed sounds more serious hearing that a typhoon will hit taiwan than hearing that it will hit the south eastern part of the island.despite this, looking for typhoon articles really made me re-alize how big the problem with typhoons is. the typhoons hit east asia several times per year and often they claim many casualties. in fact, 33 people in asia died from usagi and more than 600 taiwanese people died from the typhoon morakot in 2009. trees are drawn up with their roots, waves villages.

DEADLY TYPHOONS - SHOULD WE FEAR THEM?

studying at national chiao tung university, taiwan.civil and environmental engineering.infrastructure and environmental [email protected]

textanna ohlin

typhoons are tropical cyclones with a wind speed exceeding they are most common between june and november.a typhoon can be form and develop when the following six conditions occur simultaneously:

FAST FACTS

atmospheric instabilityhigh humidity in the lower to middle levels of the troposphereenough of the so called coriolis force to develop a low pressure centera pre-existing low level focus or disturbancelow vertical wind shear

B

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asiaPhotos

Title: Night Market in BeijingLocation: ChinaPhotographer: Robin Feng

Title: Zen PaintingLocation: JapanPhotographer: Edvard Nyman

How is Asia best represented in a single picture? be--issue submitted by robin feng and edvard nyman, are featured as the back cover and content page picture, respectively. both these photos, three runner ups and a collage of the best of the rest is presented here.

Location: TaiwanPhotographer: Catharina Beckman

Runner Ups

Location: ThailandPhotographer: Marcus Kalander

Back cover photo Content page photo

Location: IndiaPhotographer: Debora Falk

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bachelors, to men with pot bellies, to a young attractive girl with a dog in her lap, to a famous singer from a taiwanese tv-show. we saw that they were playing a game where each given us the beer what the game was about. she told us she did not know how to play it but that she would get someone to teach us.seconds later we were approached by a big taiwanese man wearing nothing but a pair of swimming trunks and a Heineken apron. this was apparently the chef of the restau-now ready to enjoy an evening with family, friends and three swedes. His english was very poor but he still managed to teach us the game. it came to be a long night, way beyond closing time, of games, songs and socializing.

n a trip with two friends of mine to the beautiful resort on the taiwanese east coast called green island we came across a small restaurant in which we decided to have dinner. it turned out that, this night, the restaurant crew had decided to have a get together with family and friends, due to off season. we enjoyed the local cuisine of both beverages and food until the restaurant was about to close. the mo-ment we were about to leave a woman, who turned out to be the owner of the restaurant, came up to our table and asked us if we wanted another beer, which of course would be on the house. certainly we could not risk insulting them by de-clining this offer.while enjoying the beer we could not help to notice that there were an awful lot of sounds and laughter coming -tives were seated. it was a mix of people ranging from young

O

Grassy slopes of Green Island. Photos by Elin Almbacke.

A R E Y O U T E L L I N G A L I E ?

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when a player lifts their cup all other players also have to show their dice. if the combined number of dice is lower than the previous player claimed, he or she loses. dice in play with the value of one are always counted as being of the most recently bid value, and is added to the total tally. so if a player has guessed seven threes, and there are four threes and four ones in total in play, the total number of threes are considered to be eight, and correct, the player calling the lie is wrong and he or she loses.the game either restarts with the same number of play-ers, or the losing player has to leave the game and step 1-4 is repeated until there is only one winner left. studying at national chiao tung university, tai-wan.

industrial engineering and management.in management and economics of [email protected]

textmartin falk danauskis

to hide them with. the purpose of the game is to, only by looking at your own set of dice, make an as high bid as pos-sible of the minimum number of dice play, without being caught lying.

everyone shakes their dice and puts them on the table with the cup covering them.for example, four twos. the next player has two options:

a) claim that the previous person is lying.b) counter the previous bid in three ways: i] counter with the same set but a higher ii] counter with a larger set like seven twos. iii] counter with i. and ii. combined, for example

the number of dice in a set matter more than the value of the dice, for example four twos beat three sixes.step 3 is repeated until a player claims that the last per-son bidding is lying and decides to lift their cup and show their dice. any player can, at any time, lift their cup to call the lie.

The rules of Liars Dice

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has one tourist-oriented village called tuk tuk and a central mountainous region, which is surrounded by villages along the coastline. on samosir you might be surprised by the greetings coming from all directions, usually in the be used in most situations. the amount of Hello i respond-ed to, and initiated in the end, during my trip around the is-land were staggering and very heartwarming. they also like to joke about the fact that they were a cannibalistic society less than two hundred years ago and they have interesting stories that might have questionable authenticity of the his-torical struggle between the batak and the dutch settlers.

ndonesia is situated where three tectonic plates in- activity, which has shaped the landscape. the island of sa-mosir, which resides within a lake on the island of sumatra, is home to the batak ethnic group who are known for their easygoingness and love for music. i participated in ceremo-nies of the batak people during my visit to samosir, where i was surprised by their different view on life and death.

Samosir Island is located -est volcanic lake. the island was formed by the eruption of a supervolcano some 75,000 years ago, which is estimated to be one of the largest known eruptions in history. samo- within an island. the island is inhabited by the ethnic group toba batak, or just batak, as they prefer to be called. samosir

I

A typical Batak gathering for a funeral.

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there was, to my surprise, more transparency and inclu-proven by invitations to a funeral and a childbirth in a period of three days. the most fascinating show of the culture and

tradition was the funeral. the man who was buried had an extraordinary number of children and grandchildren, and the man had lived and died in jakarta and had relatives spread all over western indonesia, of which many travelled to samosir for the ceremony. i spent an evening and the fol-lowing day observing and taking part of the ceremonies as well as talking with the people there. the more i saw of the ceremony, the less i understood.I ended up at the ceremony after being led there by men who had earlier invited me to share some tuak. they wanted to show me an old and traditional batak house.

It is also interesting to note the tendencies of batak fami-lies being very large. families with more than ten children are not uncommon, but people nonetheless introduce them-selves with their family names, which made it incredibly hard large in sweden.Bataks are also knownduring the evenings you can hear groups of people singing to the music of guitars all along the island. during my visit i was often invited to their gatherings, even when our verbal exchange was minimal due to the mutual disability to speak

often spent drinking what they call jungle juice or tuak. it is created from the sap of palm trees and is an alcoholic beverage that looks a bit like milk. but barely anyone would touch the subject of the process of making it or the level of alcohol. nonetheless, eve-ryone drank tuak during the evenings and the low price was said to be the reason for its popularity as it was less than a

more transparency and in-clusive tendencies in their

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a family tree could have made it completely clear to me. the cut open with an axe on the ground and harvested for edible parts. it was somewhat gruesome, yet interesting, to watch for someone who has never seen such a thing up close in re-ality and especially so when it occurred at a funeral.

Around the area where the funeral was conducted, large and very colourful signs were placed, produced by loved ones and family members. the popularity of this kind of signs was evident, at least across north sumatra, as you could see them being created for everything between a funeral and an anniversary for a gym. at this event, there were between 20 and 40 of signs set up. they usually said goodbye or -tion about the deceased and the creator of the sign. these signs are nearly impossible to miss because of their strong and beautiful colours, which left me not only puzzled in the beginning but also intrigued of their purpose.The ceremony was concluded in the evening with a chris-tian funeral. the traditional part of the whole funeral was, to say the least, very different from funerals in sweden, while the christian part had many similarities. i am glad that they gave me the opportunity to experience a part of their very different culture. an opportunity, i believe, which someone is much less likely to get in many other parts of the world. the funeral, none of it felt strange in the end as i realized that it was more a celebration of a full life, than mourning of the passing of one.

However, there was a celebration going on outside the house with food, music and dancing. i was introduced to a son front door i saw an open casket in the middle of the room. i almost panicked as i realized that i had been taken to a funer-al. i was urged to take photos of not only the house but also of the casket and the person lying inside, something i felt very much at unease doing. the ceremony continued with tradi-tional music and, very surprisingly, joyful dancing around the open casket inside the house. i was asked to join in, accepted and repeatedly was paired up with people and encouraged to dance along.The following day there was a 12 hour ceremony with food, drinks and good company with hundreds of people who participated in ceremonies indescribable in words or pic-enough in english took every opportunity to talk with me or offer me food or drinks. many of these conversations ended with the request to tell everyone about their corner of the world, as i am doing right now.Among the gifts to the family of the deceased from the other families, such as money and beer, was a water buffa-lo. the water buffalo had been slaughtered and cut up into pieces, and every piece was given to a particular part of the parts of the water buffalo went where, but nothing short of

such a thing up close in reality

occurred at a funeral.

The head of a Water Buffalo - A common funeral gift.

studying at national university of singapore.information technology.in computer systems and [email protected]

text and photodaniel gunnarsson

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mid-summer when the weather is warm and the grass and tress reveal their luxurious greens. at night when the sky is dotted with stars it is possible to see the milky way spanning from north to south. on each bank of the milky way lies a bright star. these stars are called the cowherd and the weaver maid. they are enclosed with a beautiful love story passed down from generation to generation. one day a fairy from heaven, the weaver maid, fell in love with a cowherd and secretly came down to earth and mar-ried him. they lived a happy life and she gave birth to a boy and a girl. unfortunately, the god of Heaven soon found out about the marriage and ordered the Queen mother of the western Heavens to bring the weaver maid back home. the

studying at national chiao tung university, taiwan.mechanical engineering.in management and economics of [email protected]

textpatric andersson

they where to catch up with the Queen mother, she took one of her golden hairpins and made a stroke and a billowy river appeared in front of the cowherd. the weaver maid and the cowherd were separated on each bank of the milky way for-ever. eventually the Queen mother allowed the lovely couple to meet once a year. this day is the 7th day of the 7th lunar -enth. this year it was celebrated on the 13th of august.today this story has taken root in the heart of the chinese - during this festival but it is mainly the urban youths that are and stores are full of joy as they sell more commodities in the name of love.

C

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some of these things are of deadly character, which is why i always carry two adrenaline auto injectors and 12 cortisone in the heart, as you see in all great movies like pulp fiction

-ing on a daily basis and may have added a voice to the choir in trying to prevent me from going to taiwan.

them about my upcoming exchange year in taiwan. usually you receive tones of cheer when announcing exchange stud-ies, but not me - i got concerns.this is my story about how to survive taiwan with severe anxiety but also about successful strategies and the kind-ness of the taiwanese people.

Surviving Taiwan with Allergies

All kind of nuts, hazelnuts,

ZDOQXWVHWF&RFRQXWLVQHWKRXJK

Almonds3HDQXWVQRWGHDGO\WKRXJK

&DUURWV8QFRRNHG

&HOHU\8QFRRNHG

6ZHGHV8QFRRNHG

Beetroot

7RPDWRHV8QFRRNHG

)UXLWV&LWUXVIUXLWVDUHQHWKRXJK

Berries

Well, I think thats all.

Yours truly have the IROORZLQJDOOHUJLHV

A

of course i have had my fair share of doubts and worries my-self. in fact, after three weeks, i still worry about what to eat every day, especially when trying out a new meal or a new for dinner than cooking at home. Hence, most grocery stores offer less fresh food but provide a great selection of semi-it a lot harder to cook at home even if you want to.have developed strategies to maintain my health during this year. there is a lot of pre-research behind this. there is also constant ongoing research in order to be safe. i would now like to share my experiences with you and provide a list of advice about how to be safe in a food culture different from what you are used to without even knowing the language or being able to read the characters, when struggling with al-lergies.

re you out of your mind!?

Adrenaline injection.

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the people in taiwan are very friendly and helpful, which is at restaurants usually speak very poor english but almost customer just pops out at me with a great smile saying i

However, the year has just started and i will not say i made it just yet. if everything works out as it should, i will be back with a follow up and additional advice in the next asia maga-zine.until then, take good care whether you are allergic or not and tell your allergic friends that living in asia could be an

secondly, do your homework before departure:

studying at national chiao tung university, taiwan.automation and mechatronics.product development.

text

the list could go on forever and this is probably the biggest tip i can provide, even if you are not allergic. new friends

First of: Do not take any chances!

conduct some research regarding the food culture e.g. search online, ask people that have been living in the or you can even call the embassy if you have more spe-prepare a list of your allergies written in the language of the country of interest. ask a native to help you, it is more accurate than computer aids.

grocery stores where you can eat and shop respectively. try making friends with natives. natives can provide extending your social network, which is usually

understanding the culture betteranswer questions you may haveHelp out at restaurants and stores to make your meal more safe Help translating ingredient lists on groceries

I speak English, do you need my help?

Buying in food the market.Photo by Catharina Beckman

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magine that you grew up in Taiwan or Mon-

thoughts be if you suddenly were to walk along the

- -change students at Chalmers. It is meant to and can also work as a base for good -self with a shortage of words.

during a stroll in gothenburg, one thing in particular oc-curred to me. this must be the land of a thousand statues.

are super-sportyi was very surprised to see mothers running with their babies in the stroller just like the typical Hollywood mum. the baby cannot even walk yet but they already get to feel the wind from the speed in a horizontal position in the stroller. maybe the early debut is the reason all swedish love to run and jog.

Not a city suitable for heelsif you are a small asian girl in sweden and you often want to wear heels. it helps a bit, at least, but you are still a lot shorter than the locals. pedestrian roads in gothenburg are made of small pieces of tile-like stones which i know is very environ-mentally friendly, but walking on those kind of roads with high heels is a punishment. the worst thing is that all the clubs and bars are located in downtown where they only have these kinds of stone roads.

among ten girls you meet on the street, eight of them will dress in ex-actly the same style. this ordinary style consists of a leather rock jacket, combined with black legging, boots and blonde hair. where does this style come from? However, this is the swedish style.

asiaInSwedenI

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build a house-like construction to protect the seeds from the wind, which we destroy once the coal has turned red. they have this awe-

had that kind of bottle in stores at home.

studying at national chiao tung university, taiwan.industrial engineering and management.management and economics of [email protected]

textelin almbacke

Oh my, there are wild rabbits running in the streetsone thing that really surprised me in gothenburg was the rabbits that you could spot jumping their way across cam-pus, or anywhere else for that matter. the other students did not even seem to notice them, but i found them quite exotic. it is nice when you can enjoy nature even as central as in the cities

it is insane how well and thorough swedish guys pre-pare to parties. they are not only well-groomed, they actually wear tuxedo to parties. not only a few out of student parties at chalmers where around 50 percent of the group were suited up. the reason? the other participants of the party were us exchange students.

Too good to be true-

around campus speaks english. but even taxi driv-ers, bus drivers, shop clerks, cleaning ladies, old amazing how well everybody can speak it.

FAST FACTS

-day 12:00-13:00web: www.europe.nctu.edu.twe-mail: [email protected]

nctu europe is the sweden-based equivalent to cito.their main objective is to promote exchanges and coopera-tion with national chiao tung university in taiwan.contact:

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li wei and i discussed and compared chinese and swedish culture the other day. in sweden, there is a stronger tradition of people voicing their opinions before something is decided, which while being more democratic also can be time-con-suming. li wei told me that if the chinese government wants things done, that will be done - fast. although this could possibly create a gap between the gov-ernment and the population. the acceptance of the authori-tarian government leads to a lack of critical thinking among the people. it also creates a tendency among the people to consider many things to be either black or white.the black and white thinking is something i really have no-not so much for shades. a typical example of this is when we ask for directions, for example is orchard road this way?. if you get a yes you obviously continue in that direction, but that does not have to be the right way, not at all. many peo-ple who do not understand what you are asking for just say yes to get rid of you, it seems. so we have started evaluating how trustworthy every yes we get are before going blindly towards something.

in singapore everything seems similar to a european society. it is amazing how this it has grown to a great world economy. How is that possible?-ture is, at least partially derived from chinese culture and their moral values. since singapore is such a young country, this article will mainly regard chinese culture.

in china, respect for elders and for authorities, such as the government, are very important. i have a friend, li wei, who He told me that you are not supposed to argue with an elder. neither should you question their judgment. what an elder goes for the government.

The Singaporean mindset

tradition of people voicing their

opinions before something is

democratic also can be time-consuming.

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when people, especially kids, are not supposed to question things it might lead to that people do not get to practice their critical thinking. furthermore they do not get to practice on thinking of what could have caused this? but they just an-swer yes or no instead of it depends.-datory death sentence here in singapore where the inter-viewer asked children in their early teens if they were for or against the mandatory death penalty. most people were for. what was very interesting and very meaning for the sin-gaporean culture was the answer to the follow-up question from the interviewer. the question was: do you know what one of them answered yes. so, without knowing what they answered yes/no totally uncritical. this, similar to when we asked for directions.furthermore, the interviewer explained the meaning of the term to the teenagers and told them that it basically means that no matter why the offender posses the drugs, the death penalty is the valid sentence. this followed by do you still think the offender deserves the death penalty? one of the

studying at nanyang university of singapore.software engineering.management and economics of [email protected]

textlukas suter

cat that catches mice is a good

cat. - Deng Xiaoping

interviewed persons answered something like: no, because -swered the same as they did when they were asked if they were for or against the mandatory death penalty.all of this is very interesting to me since critical thinking is choices, consider your opportunities, do your research and then come back with an answer. usually the answers are effected by many variables, many more variables than we could possibly include in our equation. Hence, the correct answer might not always consist of a yes or a no.what seem to be highly regarded in sweden these days are social standards, social well-being and environmental re-sponsibilities. when talking to li wei about business and important. He also mentioned a very powerful chinese poli- that is what i will conclude my article with:

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gle metre that occasionally separates the surface from the bottom. because of this, the area looks radically different depending on when you view it. in this unusual environ-

Float is what they actually do: every component of the vil-lages - housing, schools, markets selling basic commodities, and everything else - are all are based on either boats, rafts village of this type to siam reap is locally referred to as, sim-and wind sheltering made from whatever material avail-able. wealthier residents may have a more proper house on case the everyday life is spent entirely upon the undulating lake.

The main industry in these types of communities is, with- -son spawn as much new food as possible. only during

iem Reap is the second most populous city in cam-bodia. it is a classic tourist destination because of its proximity to one of the most famous tourist attractions in the world: angkor wat, with around two million visitors infrastructure with relatively modern buildings dominate, -bodia is a poor country. in fact cambodia is ranked 146th out over countries ranked by gdp per capita in the year 2012.If you follow the typical itinerary of tourists visiting cam-bodia, consisting of staying over in siem reap and going on a few daily excursions to the angkor region, you might have the lasting impression that cambodia is a reasonably well-developed country. but by taking such a trip you might be missing out on a more authentic experience of the daily life in cambodia.That was why i and a friend of mine decided to take a short tuk-tuk drive south of siem reap. there lies the combined lake and river system of tonle sap, which translated from the fresh water reservoir in south east asia. it is an unusual and and the area it covers in the wet season is six times greater than in the dry season. during this transformation the lake also gains about eight meters of depth, compared to the sin-

THE STREAM THAT MAINSTREAM TOURISM MISS IN CAMBODIA

S

Wealthier residents may have a more

case the everyday life is spent entirely upon the undulating lake.

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Photo by Marcus Kalander.

to the tour-takers which they are then supposed to give as is shipped right back to the shop, where it can be sold over again. the money goes to the initiators of this entrepreneur-ial idea instead of to the community. Reports of scams like this are numerous in cambodia, and particularly in the tonle sap area. this has led to bad re-views and a bad reputation for the villages on popular ser-vices concerned with travelling such as tripadvisor., one has to bear in mind that the tough living conditions on the changeable lake easily leads to corruption when a new vein of income is found. this is true not only here but universally; it is not acceptable and should not be both you and the community since they gain income from the boat tours, and you gain insight to a cambodia that is more than the grandeur of angkor wat.

studying at national chiao tung university, taiwanindustrial design engineering.in product [email protected]

textpascal csikasz

depths, big catches are commonplace - in the entire tonle sap area, up to 10 000 metric tonnes are caught under the -dustry for the country as a whole cannot be mistaken: the cambodian currency, riel, derives its name from a small sil-ver carp which is central in many cambodian diets.But despite the seeming abundance of nourishment sup-plied by the tonle sap system, there are many things lack-national average, which is only 65 years and 77 per cent, re-spectively. furthermore, the infant mortality rate is higher than the national average which is 52 deaths per 1000 births. the life on the river also means that drowning is a common cause of death. this is especially common among younger individuals, and we understood why when we saw small children making their way across the river in tiny saucepan- impressive sight, but at the same time a bit disheartening.An increase in tourism in the area has given it a substan-tial economical boost in recent years. industrious residents -ly rich tourists. this is evident by the many tour packages offered along the lake shores, but it is also often displayed in a more cynical way. the tour guides routinely try to sell

Photo by Marcus Kalander.

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asiaSolutions

location: restaurant, singapore. a device helping you call for the bill or the waiter in a big restaurant. much more convenient than waving.

location: taxi, taipei. a screen taped to the back of the passenger seat is controlled by an ipad in the front of this karaoke taxi. find a song on youtube and sing in the microphone. the speakers on the roof lets the whole street hear. Submitted by Marcus Kalander

location: garage tunnel, tokyo. for a big, bike-loving population this is a space-saving way of storing the bikes.

location: bar, shanghai. after having several drinks these useful handles helps you use the facilities when having urgent needs.

location: apartment. singaporethis clean design in combination with the electronic and mechanical interaction make the ordinary locking procedure a pleasant experience.Submitted by Ramian Raissi

location: train station, tokyo. useful. perfect when other stores are closed a warm night.

Submitted by Anna Ohlin

If you ask the average swede, he or she would say that sweden is a country of convenience. but it is asia that is in front when it comes to innovation in making everyday life as simple as possible. below you can see some examples of this, found by our contributors around asia.

39

asiaApply

he economies in east asia have showed a remark-able development during the end of the 20th cen-tury. japan has become accompanied by china among the and challenging. among those with technical education, an increasing portion will have contacts in the whole region from singapore to japan within their professions. with this in mind, chalmers has developed a special exchange pro-gramme based in taiwan, giving students an opportunity to study in and gain experiences from these economies.the exchange programme is called the asia programme is the foremost technological university in taiwan. nctu is -nology. However, in cooperation with the neighbouring national tsing Hua university, the exchange covers all engi-neering programmes at chalmers. courses held in both eng-lish and mandarin can be chosen. parallel to the studies at nctu the students maintain the cito includes arranging representation events for taiwan-ese students at nctu as well as visiting companies and rep-resenting chalmers throughout east asia.

before the 1st of december. attach a motivational cover let-ter in swedish along with a photo of yourself. if you are a student of architecture or architecture and technology you need to submit an additional portfolio as well. choose two

master programme and double check this with the coordina-tor of you master programme.

intensive course in mandarin, 4 weeks in july -august at nctu in Hisnchu, taiwanfull academic year of engineering or architectural studies at nctumaintenance of the chalmers international taiwancompany visits throughout east asia

Chalmers International

Contents of the Asia Programme

Have reached your third year of studies at an engineering or architecture programmeHave the minimum average grade of 3.7 credits

the selection of which student that will be nominated for which university is based only on the grades of the students and the motivational cover letter is used to distinguish be-tween students with the same average grade. in february you are informed whether or not you have been nominated for a university or not. if you are not nominated, for any of the universities you applied for, you still have a chance to study abroad by applying in the second selection for the uni-

- Part of the Chalmers World Wide Programme

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Chalmers University of TechnologySE-412 96 Gothenburg, SwedenPhone: +46 (0)31 772 10 00www.chalmers.se

asia magazine #22

Documents

asia magazine

chalmers students

best coffee

qwhuqdwlrqdo7dlzdq2ifh

cup of coffee

architectural studies

exchange studies

mainstream tourism