Hong Kong
Hong Kong opened in 2010 and is located at the University of Hong Kong. It runs only during first session.
Contents
Site History
The Hong Kong site has been hosted at two different universities: The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology from 2010 to 2013, and the University of Hong Kong starting in 2014.
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology hosted CTY from 2010 to 2013 and was the first to do so. It is located in Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, and is a public university. Its first students enrolled in October of 1991. HKUST is one of the eight statutory universities in Hong Kong.
The University of Hong Kong started hosting CTY in 2014 and is more urban than the HK University of Science and Technology. The University was founded in 1911 and is located in Lung Fun Shan and Pokfulam, Hong Kong. It is one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
Site Overview
Jockey Club Student Village Hall III
Jockey Club Student Village Hall III is a group of buildings where students stay at HKU. There are four blocks (Shun Hing College, Lap Chee College, Chi Sun College and New College) and it works like an apartment complex. Boys and girls may live on the same block but on different floors. Each block has 26 floors (including the first 4 floors which are shared by the 4 blocks) with the 26th floor being the laundry room, which only RAs are allowed to use. There are three elevators per block and there is usually a competition to see which RA group could stuff the most CTYers into one. Some floors may be shared with people outside of CTY, and they can get petty with CTYers, so it is recommended you avoid them.
Each floor has a small lounge which has a fridge, hot/cold water dispenser, microwave, couch, TV and pantry used for instant noodle and s'mores making, but the latter is after lights out or right before and without RA notice. The lounge is also used for hall meetings. As of 19.1, CTYers were told they couldn't use the pantry or the fridge but the rule was not enforced.
Laundry is done at random times. You may have your clothes washed once or twice depending on RA group, so be prepared. Laundry is free but clothes are often misplaced or go missing. Laundry for students is done by a local laundry shop, and you are given a large plastic bag and told to stuff all of your laundry in it.
The only way to reach the Village Hall is by shuttle bus at set times, which depends on the RA group. However, at 19.1, it was changed to a first-come first-serve basis for the 2nd and 3rd weeks, and everyone could be seen making a mad dash to the ground floor at around 7:30 a.m.
Sleepovers are permitted on Friday and Saturday nights; cross-floor sleepovers are permitted if your hall is split into two floors (Marshall's hall, 19.1). Lights out is at 22:30 on normal days, and the lights out time for Fridays and Saturdays depends on your RA, although the official lights out is at 22:45(Alex's hall). Some RAs(18.1 Crystal's Hall)(19.1 Alex's Hall) (19.1 Jenna’s hall) allow sleepovers on the last day. ISOs are unheard of.
Classrooms
- Lee Shau Kee Lecture Centre: Also known as the Centennial Campus. Most classes are held here. In 14.1, Chemistry in Society, Fast-paced High School Chemistry, Crafting the Essay, Mathematics and Money, Mathematical Modelling, and various YS classes were held here.
- K.K. Leung Building: The INBS class was held here in 19.1.
- Arts Building: Computer Science is held here.
Places Where Activities Are Held
- Brick Wall: This is an outdoor place with a grassy area and yes, a (brick) wall between the stairs to the grassy area. Activities held in 14.1 included Tie-dyeing, Speed-friending, Obstacle Courses, Picnic with Anne (the fourth place prize of Casino Night ), and Drip Drip Drop (14.1 girls wore white shirts, to the guys' joy). This was used as a hand-off point at 18.1, however, due to the area undergoing construction at 19.1, the area around the tiananmen memorial was used as the hand-off point.
- The Centennial Centre: Students gather here right before activities and to the shuttle buses back to the dorms.
- University Gift Shop: The studio behind the gift shop is used for Talent Show Practice and other activities. The building next to the gift shop is used for many activities, including movie-watching and Back to Nursery.
- Pacific Coffee: Card games and board games are held here. The chocolate chip cookies are delicious. Depending on your RA group, you might have buffet-style dinner here.
- Flora Ho Sports Centre: A walk from the main campus, activities like Basketball are held here. You get more exercise walking there than participating in the activities there.
- K.K. Leung Building lobby: Much to the annoyance of the university students and passerby, activities such as red light, green light were held here.
- Common Core lounge: Located in the main building. Passive activities such as painting, card games and other things are held here.
Main Quad
The Hong Kong site has no actual grassy "quad," and has the 4th floor podium instead, which is a long semi-open podium that connects all 4 blocks of the dorms. Students have occasional free time in this area, which connects all the dorm buildings. The "quad" is the location for weekend breakfasts and lunches. RA groups also use the quad as a waiting area before weekend off-site activities. The Quad is often used for talent show practice the week before.
RA Craig sunbathes on the steps of the quad every weekend.
In 14.1, after an early dinner of sandwiches on the first Saturday, Myles' hall decided to order pizza (US $90, or HKD 700 worth) instead of stomaching sandwiches ("The only condition is you give me a slice" - Myles). Carrying the pizza boxes past the crowd of students was the epitome of badassery.
Restaurants
Different from the traditional cafeteria, HKG has various restaurants. The site provides the students with prepaid $40 meal coupons to buy meals. Most restaurants such as Union and Maxim's serve Hong Kong styled fast cuisine, and international CTYers could try the famous milk tea. As of 2018, meal coupons are accepted at more or less 7 restaurants (Maxim's, Ebeneezer's, Subway, Swire, Delifrance, BIJAS Vegetarian and Cafe 330). This number was increased to 10 at 19.1 with the addition of EAT,OBC Grill and Pan Asian. Each class and hall has their own lunch and dinner schedule which must be followed, so if you get double delifrance syndrome, good luck.
- Maxim's: The furthest place from the Centennial Centre (CC). Offers pepper lunch, which students enjoy. Restaurants are not safe zones, so quite a few Blammo-ings take place there. The meal time tends to coincide with that of university students who stayed over the summer, so there's always a mad dash to the line. Seats are hard to find so bringing extra items to claim seats is a smart idea.
- EAT/Union: Similar to Maxim's, but way closer to the CC. It serves the same types of food but is slightly more enjoyable and is right outside the shuttle bus drop off, making it convenient in the mornings. It was closed as of 18.1. At 19.1, it reopened under the name "EAT by sodexo". ew.
- The Grove: The most classy restaurant, the Grove provides Western cuisine as well as local cuisine and is favored by CTYers. Rum Raisin ice cream had a load of rum. Famous for their Chinglish intercom speaker when they call for the ticket 222 as it sounds like "choo choo choo." No longer available as a restaurant choice.
- Cafe 330: Expensive and not worth it. The only benefit of eating there is that you could beg your RA to bring you to Park 'N Shop or sneak out to Park 'N Shop (the HK version of Walmart but not as nice). CTYers rarely go there to eat. Offers vegetarian and vegan options. Mostly dissapointing.
- 一粥面: "One Congee Noodles." Although this place sounds bland, you can have one of the best meals on campus here. The congee there is amazing. However, starting in 2018, it is no longer available as a choice.
- Subway: You either hate it or you love it. There is often a race to get cookies.
- Delifrance: Food is affordable, but paying extra for dessert is recommended as it is quality. The doughnuts are scams. Do NOT eat outside, or you will be giving the mosquitoes a fine meal. Servings are too small to satisfy the average CTYer's appetite, so be prepared to pay extra for an actual lunch. Double delifrance syndrome.
- Swire: Occasionally serves raw food by accident. All CTYers eat low-quality breakfast "buffet style" there. During 19.1, Swire attempted to cut costs by serving set breakfasts. This was quickly scrapped. Has creepy decorations of human faces on the ceiling. Most-hated restaurant due to poor food quality. In fact, at 19.1, one of the teams at the weekend activities named themselves "no Swire".
- Ebeneezer's: Great if you like Indian/Arab food, spice and pizzas; not too good if you don't. A mean uncle receives your order and then asks you to go away. Food preparation time is long, so people rush to be the first in line. Long, long pizza waiting time. Try the falafels
- OBC Grill: One of the 3 new restaurants run by Sodexo at 19.1. All of the Sodexo restaurants have a special CTY menu, which consists of 4 choices and changes every day, with the exception of OBC. Food is expensive but the burgers are worth paying the difference.
- Pan Asian: Another Sodexo-run restaurant. Serves mainly Asian cuisine.
- Starbucks: There are two Starbucks on the HKU campus: one at the student union building, and another next to the main library. Since there is a staggered dinner schedule, some halls eat from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. while other halls eat from 6 to 7. Due to this arrangement, all halls have an hour of free time before study hall/dinner. Most RAs bring their hall to Starbucks to get a drink and generally chill out in the Students' Union building while waiting for dinner/class to start. Until (19.1) the whole CTY got banned from Starbucks the second week. The ban was never officially lifted but was not enforced by the end of the week.
Traditions
As the Hong Kong site opened in 2010 and is therefore relatively new, there are fewer traditions compared to the more tradition-heavy sites in the U.S.
- Blammo: Almost everyone took part in the 14.1 BLAMMO, even the RAs, much to the surprise of TAs and the more Hong Kong-cultured students. It was a new concept for many that weren't used to CTY. Bathrooms, showers, own dorms, classes, and activities were safe zones, though one could be be Blammoed at 15:01. Callista Huang was rumored to have seven decoy plastic spoons in her bag. Not sure how someone could use that many. At 19.1, Blammo was revived by Shawn and La-Min from Marshall's hall under the name Bahp. Transparent plastic "congee" spoons which were supplied by DRL Tyler were used. Each spoon has a piece of blue tape with a number written on it. The rules for bahp are pretty much the same as regular Blammo, except for the fact that the piece of blue tape must be visible in order to count as holding a spoon. The game came to a chaotic end at breakfast time on the final day where Stephanie from Jenna’s hall was crowned unceremoniously, when all the remaining players became too afraid to eat due to a last minute rule change.
- Casino Night: Occurs on the first Sunday. Prizes were picked by halls in accordance with their place after Casino Night. One of the prizes included Moongazing with RA Ian, which was running up the stairs from the 4th floor all the way to the 25th floor of the dorms. Enjoyable. Another was choosing which colour Myles would dye his hair for the third week. As of 18.1, all Casino Night prizes are packs of microwaveable popcorn. Casino Night was held on Second Saturday at 19.1, where all the prizes were cakes left over from the VIP lounge.
- Passionfruit: Passionfruit 14.1 was held in the outdoor area joining all the dorms together at 6:00 AM. All students were allowed to speak. While actual Passionfruit juice is scarce in HKG, the RAs purchased sports drinks and various berry drinks and piled them all in the center. No one prepared much of a speech, but many stood up to talk. During 18.1, much to nevermores' outrage, Passionfruit was held only within RA groups at noon. The RAs used either coke or an unidentified sugary orange coloured substance instead of real passionfruit juice for the toast. At 19.1, Passionfruit was held at the 4th floor podium at 5:30 a.m. in the morning. CTYers had to sign up with their RAs for safety concerns. As a result of Passionfruit Juice being unavailable, DRL Tyler informed the CTY Traditions Committee that Juice Boxes (or Yakult) will be used again.
- Liquid Nitrogen: (Only for Chemistry in Society) The CHMS group brought in liquid nitrogen and dumped it into other course classrooms. (14.1 kind of failed.) The same class destroyed an overhead projector during the first week while presenting their course to the site. A reaction of boiling water with liquid nitrogen engulfed everything in vapour.
- Acting Improv: It was offered as an activity during the last week of 18.1 under the name "Improv games." The description was "Circles are the best shape to do anything fun." It had nothing to do with circles and had more to do with Jacob Sartorius, Sweatshirt, and Jumanji.
- Talent Show: Occurs on the second Sunday. CTYers show off their piano playing, singing, Rubik's cube solving and dancing skills. Some RAs perform too.
- Movie Day: Occurs on the second Saturday. At 18.1, the RAs took the whole camp to an actual cinema on one Sunday but not the other but at 19.1, they borrowed 2 lecture halls in the K.K. Leung building and screened movies there for 2 consecutive Sundays. The second movie night was interrupted due to protests and CTYers were left hanging as to what happened to the kid in home alone
- CTY Traditions Committee: Since HKU is a relatively new site, in 19.1 DRL Tyler created the CTY Traditions Committee, which was also led by Returning Nevermores Shawn Quek and LaMin Lin. The Committee was aimed at starting or reviving Traditions found in other sites at HKU. New and Returning CTYers are encouraged to join the Committee as long as they hold interest in CTY's traditions.
- Dances: Dances are held at the Lee Shau Kee Lecture Theater or the Hall at the dorms and last from 7p.m. to 9:15p.m. There is no fixed list of songs at CTY-HKU. Each hall gets to nominate a couple of songs, and during American Pie, most of the traditions are only roughly followed. Everyone yells Die, Live, Sex and orgy at the end of each chorus, but the tradition of yelling "fists of rage" was only followed by RA Kevin, DRL Tyler and some other staff members at 19.1.
Spirit Week
- Twin Day: Self-explanatory. Myles Nuzzi outdid everyone by bleaching his hair overnight to match Ian Shank's natural blonde hair, surprising his hall in the morning.
- Love Tape Day: Occurs on the third Thursday. The RAs hand out strips of masking tape to everyone, pretty much forcing students to participate. Don't forget to ask permission before sticking love tape on someone. If they don't want tea, don't give them tea.
- CTY Day: A mastermind plot to ensure that all CTYers are wearing the CTY T-shirt during the closing ceremony. Also a place for S(tudent)RA LaMin to wear seven lanyards. This plot was successful in 18.1 but subsequently failed during 19.1.
- Rainbow Day: SUPPORTING THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY HECK YES
- Mix and Match Day/Wacky day: At 18.1, CTYers were encouraged to "exchange shirts, pieces of clothing or genders with their friends." Most turned up wearing a mismatched pair of shoes. This was renamed wacky day in 19.1.
