Friends World Program of Long Island University

What to Bring

Required

• Airline Ticket.

• Passport. If your passport is nearing expiration then renew your passport before you come and make sure you have sufficient extra pages. You will not be permitted to enter other Asian countries unless there is a minimum of six months left until the expiration of your passport. It is possible to have your passport re-issued in Shanghai at the American Citizen Services if your expiry date will occur during the year. You may also add pages to your passport for no charge. For more information see the Emergency Contacts section for the address of American Citizen Services.

• Chinese Visa. All students are required to arrange a student visa prior to departure for China. A tourist visa is acceptable for late applicants, but additional visa fees will apply after arrival. For more information see the Visa & Passport section of this website.

• Six visa photographs. In addition to the photograph you must send to the International College and the photograph you must submit to the Chinese consulate or embassy in advance of your arrival, you must bring with you to China four photographs for your entry visa and alien registration procedures and Zhejiang University student card. You may want to bring extra for any visa extensions you may require.

• Fully completed medical history sheet, permission for emergency treatment and the emergency contact information form. Copies of these should be provided to the Administrator on the first day of orientation.

• Photocopies of the information page of your passport and Chinese visa and of the entry stamp provided at the Chinese port of entry. Copies of these should be provided to the Administrator on the first day of orientation.

• Global College Handbook and the China Center Guidebook

• Continuing Global College Students should bring copies of all previous academic records, including narrative evaluations, to their first advising session. If you do not have copies of narrative evaluations please request these from World Headquarters well in advance of your departure.

• A valid health insurance policy. See the Mandatory Health Insurance section for more information.

• Prescription medications. Although many of the prescription medications available in the U.S. and other countries are now readily available in China, students should assume they are not and are requested to bring all essential medications, both for daily use and emergency use, including but not limited to asthmatic inhalers, stomach medicine and birth control pills.

• Battery operated alarm clock and wrist watch

• Money for personal expenses and travel in the form of traveler's checks.

• An international credit card for medical and other emergencies and/or an international bank ATM credit card (with a Visa or similar credit card logo). See the Banking section for more banking information.

• A properly stocked and portable personal first aid kit, including but not limited to: a digital thermometer that displays in both Fahrenheit and Celsius, water resistant Band-Aids© of various sizes, individually packaged alcohol swabs, ibuprofen, antihistamine, broad-spectrum insect repellent that contains between 23.8 to 30% DEET (N, N'-Diethyl-m-toluamide), topical antibiotic cream, such a Neosporin,© hypoallergenic instant hand sanitizer with isopropyl, such as Purell© (we recommend one large bottle with a pump cap and one pocketsize refillable bottle), and water resistant sunscreen with complete UVA/UVB protection (SPF 40+). You should keep a copy of your medical insurance and a record of any medications you are allergic to with your passport.

• Research Books. Do not assume that you can always find the books you will need in local bookstores and libraries. Students interested in conducting an Independent Study Project in a specialized field should bring any books necessary to complete the project and any current research on topics of special interest to you. There are no books, magazines or newspapers, for example, dealing with any political or social issues the Chinese government finds sensitive. Although we have a large collection of books at the China Center that were purchased abroad, we recommend that you bring with you any books you will need to complete your studies. The China Center may consider purchasing these for the library collection at a percent of the original price based on the utility and condition of the book.

• If you plan to travel independently, a current edition of a China travel guide is required. We recommend the Lonely Planet China (10th edition). Do not settle for older editions as most information is quickly outdated and even the 10th edition was published in 2006. In addition, these students and students traveling independently to the China Center are required to bring a Mandarin phrasebook, such as the Lonely Planet Mandarin Phrasebook.

• All students should come equipped with adequate Chinese-English dictionaries and/or learning software, and we recommend that you consider bringing both a desk and portable version. If you are able to bring a laptop computer, we recommend the Wenlin® Software for Learning Chinese for your desk reference dictionary, which runs well on both PC and Macintosh computers. This software is well worth the expense and is extremely useful for both beginning and advanced learners of Chinese. It is basically a digital version of the ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary, but with many more functionalities. If you are able to bring a Palm PDA, we recommend the software by Pleco® for your portable dictionary. We recommend the Oxford™ Concise English & Chinese for Palm OS® for A-stream students, which has 72,000 entries, and we recommend the PlecoDict® for B-stream students or more advanced Chinese learners, which has 196,000 words and phrases. Note, however, that these applications require a Palm handheld, although PlecoDict® may be available for Pocket PC by September 1, 2005. PlecoDict® is the much awaited Palm application that is essentially a portable and digital version of the ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary, which is also the basis of Wenlin. Although fewer functionalities than Wenlin, its portability will make it a must for any serious language student of Chinese. Both Palm versions are particularly useful for students who want to practice oral Chinese on the street, since they allow the user to look up words and phrases instantly in several ways, including phonetically, so it is of equal value to students who know few or no Chinese characters. Otherwise the desk copy of the Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary (2003) edited by John DeFrancis (ISBN 0-8248-2766-X) or the ABC Chinese-English Dictionary Pocket Edition (1999) edited by John DeFrancis (ISBN 0-8248-2154-8) are adequate for A-stream students. Unlike all other Chinese-English dictionaries, the ABC editions list all entries completely alphabetically rather than just by the spelling of the head character, stroke count or stroke order, which greatly facilitates finding entries fast. A domestic edition of the desk copy of this dictionary can also be purchased for just CNY 120 in one of the Foreign Language Bookstore in Shanghai or the Boku Super Bookstore in Hangzhou.

• Homestay gifts. All students should bring one or more homestay gifts for their Chinese hosts, host siblings or children. Generally speaking, the homestay gift should be something that is meaningful and yet not overly expensive. During the fall semester students will stay with middleclass families in rural Suichang County, but we may also have the opportunity to live with families in a village for one or more nights. During the spring semester, we will stay for an extended period in the homes and monasteries of rural Tibetans. In Suichang you will be staying with a family, including a homestay sibling your age or younger. It would be appropriate to give one or more members of your host family a gift that is either personal or somehow indicative of the United States or your university, such as a framed picture of you and your family, a University sweatshirt, or large-format picture book of your state, etc. It is up to you to be creative. Some examples of gifts that have been well received by our hosts in the village or in Tibet include: portable short-wave radio, durable thermos, sunscreen, moisturizing cream, cosmetics, non-prescription medicine, multivitamins, fish oil capsules, digital watches, sunglasses with UV protection, clothing with English decals, raincoats, hiking fleeces, backpacks, pocket-knives, LED headlamps, and LED flashlights or keychain lights. Gifts for small children are always appreciated and fun to give, such as candies, bubbles, whoopee cushion, Nerf ball, three-person jump-rope, etc. Be warned that some gifts that require replacement parts, such as special bulbs, or unusual battery types (other than standard AA and AAA batteries) will quickly become useless. Toys for children break quickly and easily in the village and in some cases the village has a large number of children, making distributable gifts or communal toys a good idea.

Last updated on Apr 02, 2008

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