Lin Yuanzhe, who was admitted to Hong Kong City University of Science and Technology this year and graduated from Taipei First High School with a full scholarship, had already researched his future path and attended university fairs by sophomore year with clear goals in mind.
He said that after chatting with National Taiwan University students, he felt that his seniors' abilities didn't meet his expectations. For instance, the books they were reading in their first and second years were ones he had already finished—including economics, stocks, and markets. This made him feel that Taiwan's universities don't cultivate unique personal abilities, which is why he chose to go to Hong Kong to broaden his horizons.
Many top high school students like Lin Yuanzhe share this mindset. After actually visiting Hong Kong, they discover that Hong Kong schools emphasize practical skills over theory, have a more pragmatic culture, and are more actively and boldly pursuing what they want compared to Taiwan. Taiwanese students, meanwhile, come across as obedient—not lacking courage to fight for things, but seeming withdrawn by comparison.
According to statistics from Business Today interviews, in the past five years, more than half of high school students applying to overseas universities have done so. Just this year, after the national college entrance exam results were released, Taipei First High School had 120 graduating students going abroad to study—13 to University of Hong Kong, 15 to Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and 23 to Hong Kong City University, plus 77 students going to Mainland China (Beijing, Shanghai combined), accounting for 64% of all students studying abroad. Even Taipei First Girls High School and Attached High School show the same trend: 27 students from Taipei First Girls going to Hong Kong and Mainland China (accounting for 48%), and 24 students from Attached High School going to Hong Kong and Mainland China (accounting for 55%). Notably, these numbers were zero two years ago.
Many might ask: Hong Kong's cost of living is high, tuition is expensive—how can students afford to study there? But to attract large numbers of top talent, universities across the Taiwan Strait have already prepared various countermeasures, including tuition fee waivers and full scholarships with generous subsidies. This allows Taiwanese students to study there without bearing school costs, and even receive living expenses to support themselves locally. This demonstrates the determination to recruit top talent.
These benefits represent genuine support for families without sufficient funds to send their children to study abroad. But is the student life and environment in Hong Kong and Mainland China really so different from Taiwan?
Students from Hong Kong and Mainland China are active and take the initiative to pursue what they want in life. For Taiwanese students, however, habits of following parents' commands, consulting others' opinions when making decisions, and relying on teachers' guidance when choosing majors mean that from childhood, our education in Taiwan has been about studying hard and finding a job. For us, the workplace is limited to Taiwan, not internationalized. Therefore, the differences in personality and environment between students across the Taiwan Strait may be the hardest thing to adapt to.
Many Hong Kong and Mainland students are very active and diligent in their studies and club activities—fighting for front-row seats in class, asking teachers questions nonstop after class. A friend I exchanged with at Tsing Hua said that the evening study rooms are always packed starting from day one of the semester, not just during midterms and finals.
Moreover, in club activities, second-year students already start organizing their own events. But these aren't the small-scale activities Taiwanese students know—like departmental club freshmen welcoming parties or evening galas—but rather international exchange activities.
The Silk Road visiting activity was entirely planned by a second-year student
A Tsing Hua student once told me that during an exchange program to Mainland China, he participated in a 14-day journey along the Silk Road. All accommodations, travel itineraries, and rich exchange activities were arranged by a second-year student from Lanzhou University.
About 60 students participated in this activity, coming from over a dozen universities with different personalities and backgrounds. All housing, transportation, and attraction arrangements were managed by this one person with no issues whatsoever—quite impressive. This already-excellent Taiwanese student from Tsing Hua consequently reflected on himself: "What kind of university life have I wasted?"
Only by going out do you realize how much you lack.
On Hong Kong and Mainland university campuses, international students' faces are more diverse. Hong Kong especially, being a financial hub, hosts many students from Europe and America coming for short-term or long-term academic exchanges and discussions.
Therefore, choosing to study in Hong Kong offers far more opportunities to meet people of different nationalities than staying in Taiwan. Additionally, there's the matter of internships. In Taiwan, internships typically happen in the summer between sophomore and junior year, and many positions just let you "observe," or have you run errands buying lunch. Enterprises won't truly let you learn and grow by executing projects. These internships are completely useless.
During my own graduate school media internship, I genuinely felt I was wasting time. Fifty students squeezed into one department simultaneously, with no room for progress or growth, and no real chance to learn from a mentor since departments rotated weekly. It was nothing but a quick tour. To this day, that internship has helped me confirm that I won't return to that company—and nothing else.
But internships at Mainland and Hong Kong enterprises are very different. They can directly execute major projects within companies. Recently, there was a viral article about a Mainland China internship where someone was assigned the task of organizing a welcome event for 150 interns—just him and one partner. This couldn't happen in Taiwan, but in Mainland China and Hong Kong, they let you do it.
In terms of workplace environment, Mainland China attracts talent across all fields through high salaries. More students are willing to develop their careers there. Not only are there sufficient funds, but these companies are also willing to invest heavily in talent. For most ambitious high school students, this represents an excellent springboard. Naturally, those with the opportunity to go to Hong Kong or Mainland China would seize it.
