Hong Kong - Wales

Hong Kong is a modern, busy, densely populated city with an impressive skyline of high rise buildings. Despite its status as a key financial and trading hub of Asia, you will find many herbal medicine shops, roadside fortune tellers, wheelbarrows, and birds in cages being taken for strolls in the city’s parks. Hong Kong is home to many diverse religions and traditions—influenced by Chinese and British cultures.

Teens in Hong Kong are very serious about education. Free time is spent with their family or visiting nearby relatives. There are a lot of clubs (netball team, athletic club, debating society, drama club, history club, etc.) and extra-curricular activities to join to make friends. When out for the evening, try singing karaoke with friends.

A photo posted by Anne Schober ✨ 黃毓淳 (@keepingwithanne) on Sep 16, 2016 at 4:13am PDT

Host Family & Community

You will probably live in an urban area on the mainland or other outlying areas. It’s common for both parents to work long hours, and for grandparents to live with your host family in a small apartment. Respecting your host parents wishes and family time is important. Families prefer to eat together at home on weekdays. Expect to dine out on the weekends, especially for Sunday yum cha (lunch), and perhaps travel to mainland China.

School

You will attend a secondary school where classes are taught either in English (an EMI) or Chinese (a CMI). EMIs and CMIs are public high schools with a set of core classes and elective subjects like tourism, music, or Chinese literature. Your school will be heavily academically oriented, intensive and demanding. The school year runs from September to July, for about 8 hours a day. Most classes are in the form of lectures and students are expected to wear uniforms.

First day of school ✔

A photo posted by Margherita Dugnani (@margherita_dugnani) on Sep 1, 2016 at 4:30pm PDT

A photo posted by 曾素盈/Antonia (@ann_jv) on Jan 22, 2016 at 10:14pm PST

Language

Both English and Chinese (most often Cantonese) are official languages in Hong Kong. You should have a basic knowledge of English before your exchange and be prepared to learn Cantonese. AFS will provide Cantonese classes at the beginning of your stay.

Food

Hong Kong offers plenty of delights for your taste buds. A basic meal consists of fish, meat, eggs, vegetables and rice or noodles, and most dishes are stir-fried or steamed. Salads, raw vegetables and dairy products such as milk or cheese, are available in Hong Kong, but are not common. Many students bring lunch with rice and meat from home to school.

A photo posted by 嚴君意 (@chiaradugo99) on Apr 25, 2016 at 6:36am PDT

Let AFS guide your intercultural adventure

Go abroad with AFS to discover who you really are, make new lifetime friendships and immerse yourself in a fascinating intercultural experience.

TEEN PROGRAMS (UNDER 18 YEARS OLD)

Our learning program will prepare you for an amazing AFS intercultural experience. The program begins at your home country with a pre-departure orientation and continues with orientations and other supported learning activities and facilitated conversations will help you maximize your experience, cope the challenges of navigating a new culture and community and gain knowledge, skills, and a global understanding, throughout your time abroad, and as you return to you home country. AFS volunteers will be there to support and guide you and your host family through your learning journey abroad.

ADULT PROGRAMS (18 YEARS OR OLDER)

The Global Competence Certificate (GCC) program will support your intercultural learning experience. This state-of-the-art program prepares you to successfully navigate new cultural environments—during your experience and long after you finish the program. Online intercultural learning modules combined with in-person sessions help you develop practical and global skills, knowledge and attitudes that employers need and mission-driven organizations believe will help achieve their social impact goals. You will receive your certification upon completion of the training program.