#ipehkustsummer

Week four finally marks the halfway point of studying in Hong Kong– one month down. This last week is a bit difficult, not only because there are people you’ll pretty much never see again, but also because finals and midterms are happening around this time so most of your friends (or you) will be busy, which happens to be why this update is a little less exciting.

This past weekend was raining so hard, there was no visibility (photos below of the same view). This meant our plans of a smores barbeque for Fourth of July and hiking had to be moved. So, instead, we found the nearest off-campus American restaurant and had some (expensive but delicious) burgers at N+ burger.

I also went shopping at the TKO plaza mall for a long white skirt, and I also ended up getting dark red(my favorite color) Adidas sambas for 55USD at a store called CPU! For the most part, I’ve noticed that branded shoes/clothing are always about the same price here in Hong Kong,  but this specific store was running a great deal, so I would recommend it. 

Other than that, I’ve been doing a lot of studying in this rainy season and short-story writing, which is one of my favorite hobbies, in the library, which is so beyond gorgeous. There’s so many study spots; I fear the Dude pales in comparison. My class has wrapped up as well, which included a final device demonstration and presentation. 

I did get a little reminder of home (Bursley…) while I was here. I was woken up at 2am to a blaring fire alarm where everyone in hall 8&9 had to evacuate. Thankfully, we were sent back inside within around 15 minutes after firetrucks came and determined it was a false alarm.

The changing of the sessions has brought in many things though. For starters, I have a suitemate now and there are more people in my hall (which does kinda suck). I also caught the cold, so I spent all day in my dorm eating cup-o’noodles and watching One Piece while procrastinating practicing my upcoming presentation.

There’s also the promise of new friends and new activities hosted by the school. I get to go on a day tour Saturday with different places than session one, which I’m super excited about since my exploring has been pretty low recently (and my funds, unfortunately). I have another school activity as well next week, along with the most exciting event: my upcoming Japan trip!

Talk to you guys soon!

Dvita Kini

Aerospace Engineering

This weekend, I took a trip to Macau– which I’d absolutely recommend to anyone coming to HKUST. Macau is another SAR of China, just like Hong Kong, and it requires no additional visa to visit. It’s also only an hour by ferry.

I thought Macau would be similar to Hong Kong, but it was pretty different. A lot of the signs were in Portuguese, and the architecture was reminiscent of Portugal (I visited there around 3 years ago). They also don’t use octopus cards in Macau (even though they use HKD), and for some reason all of our alipay and wechat didn’t work there as well, so it was either cash or sometimes visa. I would recommend stocking up on cash before you visit, especially for the buses.

There are a lot of historical sites there to visit, and museums of Macau’s history. The food options were vast: Portuguese, american, chinese, indian (it was my first time eating indian food since leaving home and I was so happy lol). I also would recommend going to Ko Kei bakery. We went in and would sample every treat they made and walk out full, with bags of their peanut candy (which is fantastic). Also, Mixue, which is a very popular chain in China, is in Macau, so we had to get ice cream and boba from there since it’s an incredibly cheap price compared to the tourist tax everywhere else in Macau. Try the Portuguese style custard tarts while you’re there as well! It’s the closest I’ve gotten to the taste of them in Portugal (and I don’t mean the egg tarts that are popular in Hong Kong and Macau, it's specifically the custard ones).

We also got to see pandas and other wildlife at this zoo sort of place in Macau, so here are some super cute photos!

By the way, before we left for Macau, we checked out the dragon boat festival held on June 27-28, since we missed the public holiday on the 19th. It was super cool to see, especially since this one had international teams. Along the sides of Victoria Harbor, were so many stalls too and people cheering for their teams. You should go see them once while you’re in Hong Kong.

The following Tuesday was the start to my 3-day break, since we had Wednesday off for a public holiday. My friend and I watched Supergirl, and then visited Haidilao for a hotpot. We had an entire meal plus unlimited fruit and a sauce bar for around 10 USD each, and we got our nails done in the middle for free (this was so random and funny but I got purple cat-eye and I can’t stop looking at it so it’s well worth it). 

Then, I had a school registered activity of making dimsum sui mai. They took us to a culinary kitchen where a professional chef taught us how to make it, and it was super fun. Since I don’t eat pork, I made a vegetarian option, which was not really that good…but my friends and I got dessert after!!

For Wednesday, we visited the Hong Kong art museum, which was huge and so beautiful. We, of course, had to take some performative photos ;) We had some Thai food for lunch, and some dessert afterwards. On Thursday, I just relaxed a bit, and did some light studying in HKUST’s 4-story library with the best views. I’m brushing up on my Japanese, because in a few weeks, we have a trip to Tokyo planned!! I’m super excited to share that vacation from July 16-21, but more on that later!

This coming weekend, we have some plans to go hiking and do a smores BBQ for the fourth of July, so I hope to share more on that next week!

Dvita Kini

Aerospace Engineering

Living here has almost become normal. I’ve fallen into a steady rhythm of exercise, school, eating, and exploring.

To make a note for exercise, there is a gym here, but I prefer to go swimming in the school’s outdoor swimming pool which is 50m long, and at its deepest around 3.8m. It only has two lanes, whereas the rest is laneless, but it’s fun to hang out there with friends (aside from actual laps, of course). You can also reserve courts; we reserved an indoor badminton court yesterday for an hour, and it was so much fun. I also want to try running on the ocean-side track someday soon.

Also— honestly, I’ve gotten a little tired of the local cuisine already, but there are so many other restaurants or options in the canteen that you can try. One of my favorites is Ebeneezer’s which is Indian/Mediterranean cuisine. I’ve only had their chicken gyro wraps, but I want to try their biryani. They also, of course, have McDonald’s, along with Subway, and an American Diner, which is also pretty good. There’s Korean food as well. Even in the canteen, they have sandwich and pasta options at the very end of the canteen on L7. And in the canteen on L5, there’s a super cute bakery with fruit tarts and other treats.

It gets tiring to explore a lot, especially in rapid succession, so this week was pretty chill for me. I only ended up going to the ladies' market in Mong Kok, which is this huge night market. I will warn you– bring someone who knows how to bargain or you’ll get ripped off. I got two pairs of ceramic chopsticks and some hairpins for me and my friends (though I might have been pressured to buy the chopsticks by the vendor…). There’s a lot of clothes, souvenirs, bags, jewelry, and other trinkets at these markets. Around that area, I also bought a pineapple bun, which is a huge delicacy here. It’s a soft bun with a pineapple reminiscent lattice on the top which is sweet. Nothing about the bun tastes or contains pineapple though, in case that’s what you wanted. I finally tried one with butter in the middle, which is definitely the way to go.

And, of course, we still have classes in between all this. My mechatronics class is going…well, I’m not sure if I can necessarily say well. It’s a little difficult if you don’t really know CAD or arduino/electronics, but the class asks you to lean heavily on AI, rather than getting taught by the professor. We’re approaching the halfway mark of the session, so things are speeding up as we finish getting our device ready to test and filling out the logs, which is (I believe) the only thing that’s actually graded.

While that’s all for this week, I’ve booked a hotel with my friends for a short weekend trip to Macau, which is a relatively short trip by ferry– so more on that next week! I also wanted to share some more photos with you guys from Shenzhen from last week, so enjoy!

Dvita Kini

Aerospace Engineering

One of the things on my bucket list was trying dim sum, so when my HKUST buddy asked to join him for yum cha (dim sum for breakfast), I immediately agreed.

In Hong Kong, the main way to pay is something called an Octopus card, especially for transit. Honestly, though, it’s a little dangerous since it’s very easy to tap your card without considering how much actual money you’re using just to use the MTR (subway) or buses. But, I mean, when dim sum is on the line, I was willing to follow my HKUST buddy to the card’s limit.

We first took a bus from UST to the nearest MTR station, and I got to go on the speedy underground train for the first time! It reminded me of the New York or San Francisco subways, though the underground tunnels themselves were almost like shopping malls. To be honest, I have no idea how to navigate them, or to find where the restaurant was, but, eventually, we were able to eat. And, yes, it was incredibly delicious and I wish I could find my way back there to try it again.

Afterwards, I was finally able to walk around the downtown area of Kowloon. It was like you’d expect a city: busy, lots of shops, and towering buildings. From someone who comes from a small suburb, I had to admit I was thoroughly impressed (and a little overwhelmed). We visited many temples, went window shopping along the streets and the out-of-my-budget malls, and saw the city horizon.

Our next stop was Victoria Harbor, which we had to take a ferry to get to (also pretty fun though I get motion sickness easily). When it got dark, we checked out the night markets and I got two Hong Kong mangos (which are WAY better than US mangos in case you wondered).

Classes began the next morning, though mine wasn’t until 2pm. This session, I’m taking the mechatronics class. I don’t know what I was expecting, but the class so far was super fun! We had a spaghetti structure challenge, in which –not to brag– my team won. The professor is very excited to teach, and is always smiling, which, aside from my friendly classmates, makes the class worth taking. I’m excited to see what I’ll learn in this class. I know so far that we have to make a technology that climbs up and down a pole, within a time limit, and stops in the middle within a certain tolerance.

Within all the busy days, it’s also nice to have relaxation days: eat food at the university, watch movies, go to shopping malls.

But, the biggest excitement of this week was the spontaneous mainland China trip we planned the evening before we left for the 3-day (4-day since I don’t have class Thursdays) weekend due to the Dragon Boat Festival. My friend and I have US passports, without a Chinese Visa, so we had to hope that once we took the MTR all the way to Shenzhen, we wouldn’t get turned back. Lots of hoping later, we acquired a 5-day visa to stay only in Shenzhen for only 20 USD!

We explored the city— lots of malls and lots of food. I definitely think it’s worth going with your friends whenever you have time if you want to visit mainland China, especially with a limited amount of time. I also celebrated my 19th birthday (on the 19th) here :) I’m excited to begin this new year here at the HKUST exchange program!!

Dvita Kini

Aerospace Engineering

When I first landed, I could not stop grinning. The moment I stepped off the airplane and saw the mountains in the evening haze, my first thought was: I’m so glad I chose Hong Kong.

 I was worried before I left, of course. Will I make lots of friends? Will the classes be hard? Will I enjoy two entire months in another country? And, yeah, I still don’t necessarily know the answers to those questions, but I’d never felt as excited for something– even in the wake of those doubts– as I did when I first arrived.

The trip to the university was incredibly easy, all thanks to my HKUST buddy. He picked up me and another student from UMich who flew in with me, guiding us through the bus (double-decker, by the way) routes and taking us to eat at an authentic street restaurant. Unfortunately, I did fall prey to the tourist stereotype and took too many photos, awed by the city with its enormous buildings and bustling streets. So, enjoy!

The dorm is pretty standard with lots of storage space, a full length mirror, desk, and in room sink. Two of these rooms are connected to a very small hallway that contains a shower in one room, and a toilet in the other, all of which are behind a locked door. The best part, besides my lovely roommate, of the dorms would have to be the ocean view.   

The following day, I caught breakfast with my roommate, in one of HKUST’s many canteens. They have a variety of options, within the food they serve, ordered through a kiosk– which are helpful as most of the staff at HKUST only speak Cantonese.

We then joined up with some other students for a campus tour, sponsored by the university, along with an orientation lecture, and a welcome reception. The welcome reception was for students to mingle and get some snacks and drinks. In that hour alone, I met so many people from so many different countries and even states within the US, all so incredibly friendly. 

For students who needed bedding or other home supplies, HKUST provided a trip following the reception to IKEA. The mall the IKEA was in was 17 floors, and, yes, I went to every single one of them– of course after exploring to see the differences in HK IKEA versus US IKEA (besides the food options, there was none). Within the mall was– amazingly– an ice rink, an arcade, bumper cars, a large supermarket, and much more.

My favorite part so far has to be the tour HKUST took us on today. We went to Tai O, a fishing village, and took a boat trip where I saw a pink dolphin (it’s an endangered species so seeing one is very rare)!! Afterwards, we got to explore by ourselves in the town’s shopping market, where I got mango mochi (yum). Then, we were given a traditional Cantonese vegetarian lunch, and allowed to climb up the stairs to the Big Buddha and explore even more shops in Ngong Ping Village. It was raining, and I, unfortunately, got soaked, but the fog made for some incredible photos.

I do feel the need to gently warn you. The temperature and humidity both are very high, so it’s important to pack lighter fabric clothing. Although it’s cloudy, raining, or night, the heat is persistent, though the buildings sometimes do have AC. 

Regardless, within just a few days, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed both the views and the people I’ve got to meet. Though I mourn TikTok, the atmosphere of Hong Kong is just as addicting– I want to see more, I want to do more. 

So, I have to reiterate: I’m so glad I chose Hong Kong.

Dvita Kini

Aerospace Engineering

"Are you scared?"

This, naturally, is the first response to my casual "I'm spending two months in Hong Kong this summer!".

There is, I believe, an indescribable emotion that accompanies the decision to embrace change. A culmination of fear— of what could happen— of apprehension— of what I could miss—of disbelief—in what would actually improve.

What would I do when I would inevitably have to rely on myself? Am I capable enough to overcome breaking routine?

Last year, when I committed to Umich, I started researching the study abroad programs offered and decided I wanted to go to Hong Kong to study engineering at HKUST. I told myself, in this region across the world, with a language barrier— something I'd never had to overcome— and the incredible independence required for living two months in a place I'd never been, I'd find my answers.

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) [1]

Finally, the following year, I was accepted (which— by the way— completely overshadowed ‘failing’ my physics240 exam ten minutes earlier).

For a while, I've had an overwhelming desire to change: what I know about the world, keeping my eyes glued to the notes on my paper, the reserved way I talk to the people around me. I need to look up at a world I've never truly experienced and talk to people who share this Earth but with a life so vastly different from my own.

When I join the workforce, it's unlikely I'll have the opportunity to make this decision– a step towards personal change. I’ve realized that this study abroad is my chance, not only to see a place I've never been but also a new version of me.

For that, for Hong Kong, I am so incredibly excited.

I've chosen classes that supplement the engineering degree I'm receiving at Michigan: a Mechatronics design course utilizing AI technology, and an entrepreneurship class. These classes offer a different perspective on engineering than I’ll take at Umich.

Around HKUST, I want to explore the city of Kowloon, finding routes with public transportation while glued to the fleeting views of the city and forests I'm trying to ingrain in my mind. In Kowloon, there are, of course, traditional foods I want to try including dim sum and bustling streets of stores I can't find in the US.

San Po Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong [2]

I can't even imagine how many people I'll meet at campus, from locals to other international students, or what memories I'll make with them in the span of two months.

And how could I forget about the ocean view from campus? The ocean, a symbol of change and of freedom. A sign of adventure. I don't anticipate feeling joyful every minute of every day, but when I'm lost, the ocean facing HKUST will remind me why I'm there. 

When I reach there, I know that I can write to you all again, with the ocean breeze in my hair, and a wide smile on my face, and explain to you how I've changed and what Hong Kong and HKUST are truly like.

I'll share with you my first grand adventure, and my first grand risk.

Dvita Kini

Aerospace Engineering

IPE Engineering at HKUST Summer

Photo Credits

“Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) - Study Abroad.” Study Abroad, 2026, studyabroad.reading.ac.uk/outgoing-students/universities/hong-kong-university-of-science-and-technology-hkust/. Accessed 4 Mar. 2026.

Hello Everyone!

Back with another blog post. I can’t believe this is already one of the last blogs I will be sharing with you guys. It has been nice documenting my journey here in Hong Kong for both myself and students who might be interested in joining this program in the future. 

This week, I went on the long-awaited study trip to China, which I had been looking forward to since the start. While it was exciting to finally set foot in China and visit some renowned companies, the trip turned out to be much busier than I expected. There wasn’t much free time to explore or have fun in the city. Still, after the trip, my friends and I went on some spontaneous adventures to enjoy our last couple of weeks in Hong Kong. Overall, this was an enjoyable week, and I’m eager to share it with you all. 

China Study Trip

Before the trip, we were advised to take a few essential steps to make communication easier in China: 

1) Download and set up WeChat: Apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Google are banned in China. To stay in touch with professors and program staff, we had to register on WeChat and join a class group chat. WeChat is also widely used for payments, as many establishments only accept WeChat Pay or Alipay. 

2) Get a data plan for China: Not much explanation needed for this point. It’s just generally handy to be able to communicate with program members and staff without the need of a Wifi connection. 

3) Download a VPN: This was necessary to access many apps and sites. I found that hotel Wi-Fi + VPN didn’t really work; I had to use my VPN with mobile data to access everything smoothly.

With that being said, here’s a breakdown of the three-day trip! Day 1

On Monday morning, I finished packing, met the group at the Red Bird sundial sculpture on campus, and we set off on an hour-and-a-half bus ride to the Lok Ma Chau immigration point in Shenzhen. Thanks to the amazing Office of Global Learning staff, our visa applications were processed in advance, making crossing the border quick and easy.

Our first stop was lunch at a family-style dining restaurant. Throughout the trip, this was the standard for meals. Dietary restrictions were a challenge at times (I have a shellfish allergy, and others couldn’t eat pork due to religious reasons). We mostly had to mind our own dietary restrictions, but the staff did a great job looking out for us, pointing out dishes we couldn’t eat, and even arranging vegetarian tables.

After lunch, we visited DJI’s flagship store, where we got a good look at DJI’s product mix and attended an insightful presentation by DJI’s amazing Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Christina Zhang.

After the presentation, we visited Tencent Technology.

There, we toured some futuristic exhibition halls showcasing their products, latest tech, and social impact initiatives. It was a super interesting experience. 

After the exhibition, we got the chance to talk with researchers and marketing leads from their video game division. We got to ask questions about their job, the company, and pretty much everything we were curious about.

After the last visit of the day, we had a short cultural excursion to Nantau Old Town.

To conclude the day, we had dinner and headed to our hotel in Shenzhen for the night. Rooming was two people per room. Both hotels we stayed at were nice. No complaints whatsoever. 

Day 2 On Tuesday, our first stop was the Oppo Shenzhen headquarters, where we first got a tour of the company’s history and its various technological products.

After the tour, we heard a presentation on the company’s products, its mission, and its values. We also heard from Diego Heinz, a Creative Strategist at Oppo, about his multiple international experiences stemming from the nature of his role at the company.

We had lunch at their staff cafeteria, and after that, we got on the bus, but this time we were headed to Dongguan to visit Oppo’s local headquarters and their smartphone assembly lines. 

These last visits consisted of guided facility tours, where we got to learn about employee benefits and the amenities available. We were also walked through the process of how they assembled their smartphones as we walked past the assembly line.

Everyone at Oppo was super welcoming, and the environment at both the company and their Dongguan headquarters was pleasant. This honestly felt more like a recruitment event, so I’d like to say that there could be very beneficial networking opportunities as well as internship opportunities if that’s something you’d be interested in!

After our company visits were done for the day, we went on a short excursion to the Huagai Road pedestrian street area.

Followed by dinner, where we celebrated a program member’s and a staff member’s birthdays!

I forgot to take pictures of the first hotel we stayed at the first night, but I took pictures of the second one, so you guys can get an idea of how nice the accommodations were.

Day 3

On Wednesday, we visited Midea Group, where we learned about their history, industries, and expansion plans. 

To conclude our trip, we visited the HKUST Guangzhou campus, where we got to talk with Professor Lionel M. Ni, the HKUST Guangzhou president, and were given the opportunity to tour some of the laboratories and robotics research facilities.

Since the campus was only formally established in 2022, it’s still small, with the student body mainly constituted of graduate and PhD students, though undergrads are beginning to enroll. 

What I found super interesting about the two HKUST campuses is their academic structure, which emphasizes cross-disciplinary education and seeks to facilitate knowledge transfer between the two campuses:

 The Guangzhou campus focuses solely on STEM degrees (Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Financial Technology, Microelectronics, etc)

 The Hong Kong campus will transfer to focusing more on the natural sciences and humanities. 

And that’s a wrap for the study trip! After the visit we went back to our Hong Kong campus to rest.

This, however, wasn’t the end of my week. Since this post is already long, here’s a quick recap of my other highlights this week:

Other Adventures This Week

Thursday 

Some friends and I attended a Hong Kong Milk tea making workshop hosted by UST, where we made milk tea and tried egg tarts and pineapple buns. We also got the cups and little plates as a souvenir!

Friday

Finally went to the beach for the first time! My friends and I took a speedboat from Sai Kung to Sai Wan Beach. You can also take a cab to Sai Wan Pavilion, hike down to the beach, and take the speedboat back. It was beautiful, fun, and worth it, though you have to be careful if you take the speedboat because they usually don’t provide life jackets.

Note: If I recall correctly, the speedboat was about $160 HKD (one-way), $320 HKD total. It’s kind of expensive, but it was super fun.

Saturday

During our trip to the HKUST Guangzhou campus, we met some international students that just started their undergraduate studies there, so we decided to go back to Guangzhou for a day to hang out with them!

And that is everything for this week! I can’t believe my last week in Hong Kong is coming up. I feel genuinely sad, but my friends and I are determined to make the most out of it. In next week’s blogs, I’ll share both our last adventures and my final reflections.

Thank you for reading!

Best,

Mateo

Data Science Engr., Industrial & Operations Engr. 

Hello everybody!

In just a couple of days, I will be heading to China with my class, and I am excited! Ever since I arrived in Hong Kong, I’ve been wanting to visit China, but I haven’t brought myself to apply for the full tourist visa yet. This trip was the perfect opportunity for it. With the program nearing its end, the reality of not having done everything I should’ve in Hong Kong is starting to sink in. The first session flew by so quickly, but I still managed to explore so much, so I am pretty content with how things have gone so far. Now, during this second half, time feels like it's moving slower, even though I’ve had some “dead days” where I didn’t do much (mainly because I was sleep-deprived and overall exhausted).

Important Note: Something I haven’t been great at, but highly recommend when traveling or studying abroad, is to get proper rest! Because I was so tired, I didn’t do much during the first couple of days this week. I mostly stayed on campus, resting or hanging out with friends at the canteen or 7/11.

Early in the week, we finally received information about the companies and cities we’ll be visiting in China, and the list is quite exciting. First, we’ll head to Shenzhen to visit DJI, Tencent, and Oppo. The next day, we’ll travel to Dongguan to visit Oppo’s headquarters and production line, then head to Foshan to visit Midea Group. Lastly, we’ll finish with a visit to the Guangzhou HKUST Campus. I’m really excited not only for the companies we’ll visit, but also for the chance of exploring the different cities along the way.

Outside of preparing for the trip, I also did some fun activities and went on some interesting adventures with my friends. On Thursday, HKUST hosted a bowling night event. Around 6 pm, we took a bus to Bowlbie, a bowling alley inside Kai Tak Mall. Later that week, since my friends and I hadn’t gone to Victoria Peak, we decided to hike up to The Peak Tower to watch the sunset.

However, we forgot to check the weather forecast and got caught in a crazy thunderstorm right before the hike. The route we had taken was also closed for some reason. We gave up on the hike for the day and went for dinner instead. Ever since I tried Khao Soi in Thailand last week, it’s become my favorite dish, so I suggested going back to BKK Thai Street Food (yes, again. I loved the food there). The walk there turned into a whole excursion, with boba pit stops and rain-soaked clothes. The good food made it all worth it.

After dinner, we ended the night by hanging out at the small beachfront next to our dorms, watching the sunrise. This was singlehandedly one of the best sunrises I’ve seen so far here in Hong Kong.

On Friday, while some of my friends went to the Ani-Com & Games Hong Kong convention, two others and I went to The Avenue in Wan Chai to check out a cool black-and-white themed café called Uluru.

I just had a light snack because later that evening we had plans to eat hotpot with one of the HKUST buddies. The restaurant was on Dundas Street in Mongkok, right next to the night market, but I can’t remember the exact name. This was my first time trying hot pot! The food was good (though I was still a little hungry after, and to make things even more fun, our private room had karaoke. 

And that wraps up this week! Now, all that’s left is to pack and get ready for the study trip to China. I can’t wait to share all about it in my next post!

Thank you for reading!

Best,

Mateo

Data Science Engr., Industrial & Operations Engr.