2023 Fall NCCUC Exchange Students’ Orientation and Culture Tour – Taking a closer look at the north east part of this exotic island with NCCUC OIP office by taste buds and other senses

On September 6th, 2023, 156 NCCUC exchange students from all over the world joined the orientation and cultural tour in Yilan County hosted by the Office of International Programs, NCCUC. The one-day tour in north east Taiwan allowed exchange students to indulge in Taiwanese cuisine, interact with local students and gain a better understanding of the exotic Taiwanese culture.

To start the day, International Programs Ambassadors (IPAs) prepared a series of detailed introduction of both Taiwan and NCCU, getting rid of the worry and anxiety on exchange students. While unveiling the gems of Taiwan, the exchange students got to know more about ancient Chinese letters with imagination. During the orientation, the ambassadors not only introduced NCCU in details from administration system to survival guide, but also guided the exchange students around campus, giving them a clearer picture of their up-coming everyday life.

The first stop of the culture tour was for the delicious jar-roasted chicken(甕仔雞). Worrying that the exchange students might be scared of the whole chicken, the jar-roasted chicken was served without head and neck. However, most of the exchange students are still surprised when they see the chicken feet while others said that it reminded them of the wishbone custom back in their home countries. Moreover, since the jar-roasted cuisine was served as a whole chicken, each table had to assign a “warrior” to do the hand-on tearing job just like a surgeon for everyone. Although the unusualness at first, you would never know if you don’t give it a try, the jar-roasted chicken had gained much favorable comments with its unique firewood smell, standing out among all the other local cuisine, including stir-fried white water snowflake(炒水蓮), fried shrimp roll, braised pork rice and so on.

After enjoying the delicacies to their content, the next stop was I- Cake Invention Museum, where the participants got to make their own Ovomaltine flavored Yi-Lan biscuits (宜蘭餅). The local Yi-Lan biscuits are said to be the thinnest biscuits in the world with only 0.1cm thick. With the tutor’s comprehensive and vivid instructions, the participants followed carefully while pinching and rolling the dough. After a series of hard work, the participants could finally enjoy their own freshly-baked Yi-Lan biscuits and be stunned by how crunchy the biscuits are.

The following visit of the trip was National Center for Traditional Arts(國立傳統藝術中心) where the exchange students were able to immerse themselves in very local Chinese atmosphere by strolling down the antique red-brick-wall allies and visit Wenchang Temple(傳藝文昌祠). Because of the sudden heavy rain, some of the exchange students sought shelter at the Hanlin Tea Room(翰林茶館) who claimed to be the ancestor of bubble milk tea. As a result, the exchange students got to discover Taiwanese culture with their taste buds by enjoy the “OG” bubble milk tea. Since the charm of bubble milk tea has swept the whole world with its special taste, there are bubble milk tea shop in north Europe as well. However, Arno Tuhkanen from Aalto University School of Business, Finland, shared that his first try back in Finland couple of years ago was not as fabulous as this time in the origin country.

As a must-visit tourist spot in Yi-lan County, Luodong Night Market was the last but not least spot of the culture tour. At a much more affordable price than that in her home country, Denmark, Sara Troelsen from Copenhagen Business School had savored a variety of local snacks, including stinky tofu, fried sweet potato balls(地瓜球), crispy sparerib(排骨酥), white gourd tea with lemon smoothie(冬瓜檸檬冰沙), just to name a few. Among all of them, the angelica mutton soup (當歸羊肉湯) was impressive for her. In comparison with the soup back in Denmark, angelica mutton soup tastes less thick. “We always put smashed potato into soup, making the taste of the soup thick.”she explained. Speaking of the differences between Asian and Scandinavian cuisine, Josefin Mårtenson from Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden added that the latter one tastes plainer, because there are usually only potato, meat and sauce. Besides, unlike the variety of flavor in Chinese cuisine, salt is merely the only condiment in the traditional Scandinavian cuisine.

Caroline Wu (吳冠葶) the moderator of the orientation from Department of Risk Management and Insurance mentioned that the culture tour not only aimed to create a memorable time for exchange students’ first adventure in Taiwan, but also wanted to provide them an opportunity to get along and feel at home by knowing each other before the semester get started. As a result, they could fit in well in Taiwan and enjoy the rest of the semester in NCCUC.

According to sharing from most of the exchange students, they are astonished by how friendly Taiwanese are. Besides, younger generations in Taiwan are capable of basic conversation in English, which made their journey on this beautiful island much easier than they thought. After all, who can resist this exotic country with diverse amazing cuisine and culture!