Experiencing and learning at the National Central University (NCU) in Taiwan in a period of two weeks from 26/01/2018 to 09/02/2018 offered me the most valuable experiences during my student life, leading to my future scientific career. The trip was financially supported by a scholarship from Can Tho University with great supports from supervisors in the Department of Water Resources, College of Environment and Natural Resources and guided by a Professor at the Graduate Institute of Applied Geology and the Vietnamese Student Union (VUS) at NCU.

Figure 1. Duong Quynh Thanh – a student of the Water Resources Engineering (Course 40) at Can Tho University, who experienced the two-week visit in NCU, Taiwan

Introduction to National Central University

National Central University (NCU) is a university with a long-standing tradition in Taiwan. Founded in Nanjing in 1915, NCU was the leading academic center in the South-East China. NCU was later re-established in Taiwan in 1962 and started the development on the basis of Geophysics. After over 50 years of development, NCU has expanded its school size and had great achievements both in academic and research development. NCU is now one of the leading universities in Taiwan.

Located in Zhongli, NCU covers an area of 62 hectares. The school has approximately 12,000 students, and there are 8 colleges, 23 departments, 20 graduate institutes, 8 university-level research centers and one united research center, the Office of Teaching Centers (OTC), and the affiliated Zhongli Senior High School. NCU is truly a comprehensive university of rich scientific and humanistic facilities. With the grants from “The Aim for the Top University Project,” NCU focuses on the development of four research fields and two specialized fields, achieving outstanding research performance. In addition to constantly making breakthroughs in academic fields, NCU puts emphasis on holistic education, providing students with a platform for self-learning and the realization of their creativity. The school also conducts industry-university collaboration and interaction to enable students to engage themselves in autonomous learning, to equip them with professional skills, and to help them develop multiple interests during their study at NCU. NCU now has eight colleges in different areas, including College of Liberal Arts, College of Science, College of Engineering, College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, College of Biomedical Science and Engineering, College of Earth Sciences, College of Management, and College of Hakka Studies, also with areas in sociology, law and government studies, etc.

Figure 2. The campus of NCU with numerous pine trees scattering over places

Figure3. The beautiful campus view of NCU

Figure 4. The front side of the College of Earth Sciences, NCU

In addition, the facilities of all colleges in the NCU are very good with high-tech laboratories and labs where the students can self-study and work in group after class-hours. In particular, all of rooms serve students 24/24. During the time at NCU, I immersed myself in studying in the new environment where specialized in Groundwater Modelling, Stochastic Hydrogeology, Groundwater Inverse Problem.

Feeling about life and people in Taiwan

I set foot in NCU in late winter so the weather was quite cold (about 7^oC) with drizzling rain all day. In spite of the raw weather, the atmosphere was cozy and crowed. The campus is really spacious and airy with many beautiful sceneries, typical of seasons. It was so wonderful that I could enjoy the cherry blossom garden.

Figure 5. Cherry blossom in the NCU campus

During the two-week period, I lived in dormitory thanking to the VSU’s helps. The dormitory is a worthy place that students can relax after hardworking hours. The place has warm space and many facilities to serve students such as: gym room, laundry room and so on.

Figure 6. The female’s dormitory

The Taiwan’s cuisine is a variety with many choices in of food street nearby the university by the name of “Food Street” and “Back Door”. Can you believe that I have never eaten the same dishes for each single day over the whole period?

The transportation of the university is very convenient with shuttle-bus but I prefer to use the free bicycle (U-bike) which is a large network of bicycle rental kiosks in Taipei City. Taiwan is well known for its public transport meeting the demands of local people.

Figure 7. Bus routes inside the campus

Figure 8. The public bicycle sharing service (Ubike) in Taiwan

I have a lot of positive emotion about Taiwanese people because of their friendliness and cheerfulness. During exchanging trip, I have received a lot of enthusiastic helps from Taiwan friends and Vietnamese friends even though we just first met. Besides, Taiwanese students are quite good in English and they are willing to help international students whenever they need.

Acknowledgement

Honestly, I learned many things about the specialist knowledge as well as country and people in Taiwan. To gain the successful internship, I would like to thank Prof. Van Pham Dang Tri, Dr. Nguyen Dinh Giang Nam, Mr. Nguyen Hong Duc from CTU and Prof. Chuen Fa-Ni from NCU.