UIS Students interested in this course, please send an e-mail to the instructor (Eric Hadley-Ives) to let him know of your interest [put "SWK461" in the subject line]. We want to have a final count of students by the end of March so that we can purchase our tickets. Remember to apply for the scholarships; have everything ready in January for the early February deadline, and we will learn if you received a scholarship and how much you received in mid-March, giving you a couple weeks after the scholarship announcements to decide before the first (flight ticket cost) deposit is due.
UIUC and UIC Students, please contact Professor Eric Hadley-Ives to let him know if you are interested in this summer abroad program. Please put "SWK461" in the subject line of your e-mail.
Students at other universities, please tell Jonathan GoldbergBelle (jgold1@uis.edu) that you want to take the course, and then contact the UIS Admissions Office to enroll as a non-degree seeking student at UIS. You may need to "create an account" with UIS admissions and then select the "Non-Degree Application Type" to proceed. This course is 3-credit-hours; I will be happy to also do independent study courses for 1-3 credit hours if you do extra work involving the ICSD conference in Indonesia.
Anyone planning to go to Tzu Chi independently, possibly following along with our course without enrolling, please contact Eric Hadley-Ives, and he will help you get directly in touch with Erica Tsao (曹慧如) at Tzu Chi University, who will help you with your arrangements. Or, simply contact Tzu-Chi University directly by sending an e-mail to cltc at mail dot tcu dot edu dot tw.
SWK-461 Travel Course This page provides you with:
|
Course Syllabus
Provisional Syllabus for SWK-461 summer 2020
The syllabus is in a provisional state. It may be changed (slightly) as more details of our travel arrangements are made. The reading assignments and writing prompts for the assigned journal are likely to have some minor changes, but will not have any major transformations.
Current Syllabus as of October 10, 2019
Syllabus in PDF format
Syllabus in Word format
Syllabus in Pages format
Four Options:
All cost estimates below exclude food, but include all transportation, lodging, and Tzu-Chi University fees.
The SWK-460 Class offered by UIS:
Get 3-credit-hours for taking the course.
Depart Chicago on a date between May 18th and June 3rd (depending on which day offers the best value for flight tickets and when we have classes at Tzu-Chi University).
Use about one week in Taipei to learn about Taiwan.
Then have four weeks in Hualien studying Mandarin Chinese
and Taiwan/Chinese culture.
Then have nearly two weeks in a service learning program.
Have a few more nights in Taiwan before July (11th to 20th, date to be determined in March or April), when you return to North America.
Submit final written work by July 24th.
Travel cost is approximately $3000-$3200. You also must pay tuition and summer course fees.
The information that follows is from 2019. It will be updated for the Summer 2020 course as our dates and activities are scheduled.
Package A from Tzu-Chi University in Hualien:
Fly out on your own to Taiwan. You are welcome to book yourself on the flight the UIS SWK-461 class will be using.
Your program begins on [date to be determined] in Taipei. Tzu-Chi University will make all your arrangements in Taipei, and provide a tour for you in Taipei and nearby areas until you travel to Hualien on [date to be determined in March, it will be a date in late May or early June].
Starting on [date in late May through mid June, date to be determiend in March] you have [three or four, yet to be determined] weeks of intensive Mandarin Chinese language study and some classes and tours to help you learn about Chinese and Taiwanese culture.
Cost was about $2160 from June 10th to June 30th in 2019, but costs in 2020 may be very slightly higher. You must find your own flights (round trip from Chicago to Taipei should cost less than $1100 if you use www.skyscanner.com and flights.google.com to find your flights). Add a couple hundred for lodging for some days before and after the Tzu-Chi program, and that should be the cost.
Package B from Tzu-Chi University in Hualien:
This was a 2019 option, we will see whether a similar option will be made available in 2020: Fly out on your own to Taiwan. You begin your two week Mandarin Chinese language and culture summer camp on June 17th, in Hualien.
This shorter program requires you to make your own flight arrangements and get yourself down to Hualien, which should be easy to do. I recommend that you use www.skyscanner.com and flights.google.com to find your flights.
The Tzu-Chi University fees for housing, classes, and activities are only about $1,335; significantly less than Plan A because you do not have a week of activities and lodging to pay for in Taipei before your language-culture program begins in Hualien.
Package C from Tzu-Chi University in Hualien:
This was a 2019 option, we will see whether a similar option will be made available in 2020: This is the three-week program my SWK-461 class is doing with Tzu-Chi University. This option starts with classes and activities on June 10th or 11th, and continues to the end of June, three weeks later. The cost is $1,735 for housing, classes, and activities (at current exchange rates as of March 2019).
Highlights of the SWK-460 course
About a week in Taipei to visit museums and Shih Chien University and Academica Sinica.
Four weeks of intensive Chinese language study in Hualien at Tzu-Chi University. There are also classes on Chinese culture and activities such as outings to learn about aborginal Formosan tribal cultures.
Eight days of service learning. Some students may go to Chiayi, Taiwan to serve in an elementary school or a residential care facility for profoundly and seriously developmentally disabled children, while others will stay in Hualien. A variety of service learning sites are possible in Hualien, possibly including a psychiatric hospital, a youth center, a women's center, the Tzu-Chi Foundation, or summer camps for children. Probably everyone will experience a day of service at the Tzu-Chi movement's original temple complex, and everyone will also have a day of service at a recycling center.
Free weekends while studying Chinese language and culture at Tzu-Chi University and doing the service learning. The professor will be happy to help students arrange weekend activities. Tzu-Chi University and some local hostels in Hualien also offer weekend activities. Hualien offers:
- good access to beaches for snorkeling, surfing, and swimming (ride a public county bus down the coast south from Hualien),
- mountains for hiking (visit Taroko Gorge National Park for breathtaking mountain and canyon scenery, accessible from Hualien by local county busses), and
- cultural visits to villages and hot springs in the East Coast Rift Valley (take local trains south from Hualien).
The day after we complete our service learning projects, we will all go to a place together (those who were serving in Chiayi and those who were serving in Hualien), possibly in the mountains or possibly in western Taiwan or possibly on an offshore island.
Following a few days spent in some interesting Taiwan locality, we will return to the Taipei area for a day or two of final recreation before departing Taiwan.
Note that the schedule below is from 2019, and our 2020 summer schedule will be similar, but not quite the same:
Provisional Schedule Summer 2019
Until we purchase our tickets in March, the dates that follow are not definite. The cheapest tickets generally involve overnight layovers in Asian gateway cities such as Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, or Seoul. If these layovers are 16-23 hours in length, this can be an enjoyable extra feature (the worst case is 5-9 hour layovers leaving insufficient time to get a good night's sleep or see much in the layover city). There are direct flights between Chicago and Taipei, but those usually cost $200 to $300 more than routes with overnight layovers in Tokyo or elsewhere. Since a hotel room and mass transit for a a 15-22 hour layover in most Asian cities can cost about $50-$60, per person, we would only take the direct flights to Taipei if the cost savings of other routes was less than $100.
Friday the 31st of May.
We meet at O’Hare Terminal 1 at 2:30 p.m., and wait
in line together to check in for our afternoon flight (scheduled
departure at 5:25) to Japan. Time aboard the aircraft is usually 13 to 14
hours. You can watch movies and take a long nap on the flight.
Saturday the 1st of June.
We cross the International Dateline, so we arrive in Tokyo (Narita airport) at about 8:30 in the evening (around 6:30 a.m. Chicago time). We take mass transit to Asakusa Station in Tokyo and spend one night there.
Reading assigned for May 31st through June 6th:
Bennett
(2011). A developmental model of Intercultural Sensitivity Available online at: http://www.idrinstitute.org/allegati/IDRI_t_Pubblicazioni/
47
/FILE_Documento_Bennett_DMIS_12pp_quotes_rev_2011.pdf
Bennett (2013). The Ravages of Reification. Available online at: http://www.idrinstitute.org/allegati/IDRI_t_Pubblicazioni/
77/FILE_Documento_Intercultura_Reification.pdf
From Taiwan’s Struggle (2014):
Establishing a Taiwan-Centered Identity (written by Le
Teng-hui) pages 19-26.
Two Different Cultures: Taiwan vs. China (written by
Lee Shiao-feng) pages 35-46.
Julie Power (2016). “Taipei's National Palace Museum: Inside the 'Le Louvre' of Taiwan” On the Traveler website. URL: http://www.traveller.com.au/taiwans-national-palace-museum-preserves-2000-years-of-historical-treasures-that-survived-a-perilous-journey-gojpfx
Sunday the 2nd of
June.
We have the morning and early afternoon in Tokyo. We could visit the Asakusa Shrine, one of the major Tokyo temples. Asakusa is a fun neighborhood to explore. Around mid-day we could stop in Narita town on our way to the airport to walk around and see another shrine. We have an afternoon flight to Taipei, so after about 3 hours and 45 minutes in our
aircraft, we will arrive in Taipei in the evening, and go through passport
control and customs (usually takes less than an hour from getting off the plane
to getting out of customs). We will take
either a bus or mass transit to Taipei’s main station (departing the airport
between 9:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., most likely), arriving there in less than an
hour (before 11:00 p.m.). From the main
station it’s only a few blocks of walking to get to our hotel. We will stay at the Diary of Taipei - Main
Station hotel (we stay in rooms with two twin beds and private bathrooms, cost
is about $35 per person per night).
Monday the 3rd of
June.
You will have jet
lag. The sort of jet lag most people get
when they arrive in East Asia from North America makes people wake up very
early (maybe at 4:00 or 5:00 a.m., or earlier), and get very sleepy in the late
afternoon. I assume you will get tired
and want to sleep around 7:00 p.m. today, so the schedule is:
Breakfast on your own.
9:00 a.m. meet together
and walk south to the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, stopping for
breakfast along the way.
9:45 - 11:30. Visit National Democracy Memorial (formerly
the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall).
12:00 - 2:00. Visit National History Museum and Taipei Botanical
Garden.
2:05 - 3:00 Stop for another meal or snack
(dinner) (probably at 蕃薯藤自然食堂-台北植物園店, 台北市中正區南海路41號5樓)
3:30 - 4:00 Visit Taipei 228
Memorial Hall.
4:10 - 5:00 Visit National
Taiwan Museum.
Class dismissed in 2/28 Peace Park outside the National Taiwan
Museum at 5:00.
Tuesday the 4th of
June.
This will be a relaxing day for study and independent exploration of Taipei. I may have an activity that will require a few hours of your time as we visit places associated with social welfare or government.
Wednesday the 5th of
June.
Your jet lag is decreasing. You probably can sleep in until
6:00. You can probably be alert in the
evening until 7:00 or later.
7:30 a.m. meet together for
breakfast.
8:30. Catch a red line train from Taipei Main Station north to Shilin station, then take bus S18 or 255 or 304 or 815 to the National Palace Museum
9:00 - 1:00. Visit National
Palace Museum
1:00 - 2:30. Lunch.
3:00 - 4:30. Visit Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines
4:30 take bus BR13 to Zi Qiang Tunnel stop, or
take bus 645 or bus 620, or if we feel up for it, take a hour hike over the
ridge to Shih Chien University.
5:30 - 6:30 Visit
social work students at Shih Chien University
Dinner with social work
students.
7:30. Any who wants to return to our hotel with me can depart Shih Chien University. If you have the ability to stay awake, you are welcome to remain with students at Shih Chien University and come back on your own. The Mei Hu Main Land bus to Taipei Post Office is a direct 32 minute bus ride (14th stop is right by our hotel). Or, you could take the MRT, riding a brown Wenhu Line train to Zhongxiao Fuxing, and then switching to any (blue, green, or red line) train heading west toward Taipei Main Train Station.
Thursday the 6th of
June.
The plans for Thursday the 6th and Friday the 7th will be flexible and depend upon the weather. On whichever day has better weather for hiking, we will go for a hike on trails around Taipei. After the hike we will visit a museum or historical area or famous temple.
Friday
the 7th of June.
10:00. Use mass transit
to get to Nangang Station, and then walk to Academic Sinica.
11:30. Visit the Academic Sinica area to see the
museums there. Visit the Museum of the Institute of History and Philology, the
Museum of the Institute of Ethnology, and the Lingnan Fine Arts Museum.
5:30. Probably meet some students from Shih Chien
University for dinner.
Otherwise, free.
Try
to read the following by the end of the day on June 7th:
Light reading today:
Lucy
Chao “The ‘35 Generation’ seeking freedom, living for the moment” in Commonwealth,
vol. 632 (28 September 2017). URL: http://english.cw.com.tw/article/article.action?id=1677
Brian
Benedictus (2014) “Why China and Taiwan are divided, really”. in Ketagalan
Media. URL: http://www.ketagalanmedia.com/2014/08/31/why-china-taiwan-divided-really/
Saturday
the 8th of June.
8:30 a.m. meet together
for breakfast.
9:00. Begin a morning tour to see Bopiliao
Historical Block, Lungshan Temple, Bangka Park.
12:00 - 1:00. Lunch together
Use the Afternoon for study and indepenent exploration of Taipei.
Reading today (8 short
readings):
Nonviolent
Struggle in Taiwan: A Personal Memoir (written by Tsay Ting-kuei pages 73-86.
Development
of Human Rights Consciousness in Taiwan (written by Jolan Hsih) pages 107-119.
The
International Status of the Taiwanese People (written by Peng Ming-min) pages
123-128.
Westerners’
Perceptions of Taiwan and Taiwanese Anxiety (written by Andrew C. Chang) pages
149-162.
George
H. Kerr (1974) “Formosa and continental
China before 1895: An island frontier” (Chapter 1) pp. 1-16 in Formosa:
Licensed Revolution and the Home Rule Movement 1895-1945.
Li
Li Huang (2016) Interpersonal harmony and conflict for Chinese people: A
yin-yang perspective. Frontiers in
Psychology 7, 847. doi:
10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00847. URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4896957/
J.
Michael Cole (2017) “Double Ten and the
narcissism of small differences in Taiwan”. in the Taiwan Sentinel. URL: https://sentinel.tw/double-ten-narcissism-taiwan/
Keven
Ke (2015) “Little Gold: A Modern Traditional Tale” by Kevin Ke, pp. 211-222 in Night
Market: An Anthology.
Sunday
the 9th of June. You are probably adjusted to the time zone by now.
9:00 a.m. Class meeting
for discussion of Taipei and what we have learned and read.
10:00 a.m. Your free time in Taipei begins
(three-and-a-half hours).
1:30 p.m. Return to our hotel to pick up your baggage.
2:20 p.m. We take a train from Taipei Main Station to
Hualien.
5:00 p.m. Arrive in Hualien, get picked up by Tzu-Chi
University staff, and brought to our dormitories for an orientation tour.
Reading for the 9th of
June:
Madsen.
(2007). Democracy’s Dharma pages 1-84.
Monday
the 10th of June.
Chinese
class in the morning from 9:00 to noon (there
are two 10-minute breaks starting at 9:50 and 10:50, and you actually get out
of your third hour at 11:50). An hour of
classroom instruction works out to 50 minutes, actually)
Chinese
class in the afternoon from 2:30 to 5:30 (there
will again be breaks for the last ten minutes of each hour of class, at 3:20,
4:20, and your last class may finish by 5:20.)
After
all that Chinese, read a little English tonight:
Madsen. (2007). Democracy’s Dharma pages
131-156.
Tuesday
the 11th of June.
Chinese
class in the morning from 9:00 to noon
Chinese
class in the afternoon from 2:30 to 5:30
Class meeting at 8:00
p.m. for discussion of our readings until 9:00 p.m.
Wednesday
the 12th of June.
Chinese
class in the morning from 9:00 to noon
Chinese
class in the afternoon from 2:30 to 5:30
Readings assigned for today from Taiwan’s
Struggle (2014):
America’s
Security and Taiwan’s Freedom (written by Jay Tsu-yi Loo) pages 163-171.
Silent
Annexation: China’s Unification Strategy (written by Wong Ming-hsien and
Annette Hsiu-lien Lu) pages 189-204.
Thursday
the 13th of June.
Chinese
class in the morning from 9:00 to noon
Chinese
class in the afternoon from 2:30 to 5:30
Reading today From Taiwan’s Struggle (2014):
Economic
Integration in East Asia; The Perspective from Taiwan (written by Wu Rong-i)
pages 215-222.
Taiwan in the Global Economy: End of the Miracle?
(written by Frank S. T. Hsiao) pages 235-254.
Friday
the 14th of June.
Chinese
class in the morning from 9:00 to noon
Chinese
class in the afternoon from 2:30 to 5:30
Class meets for a
discussion at 7:00 p.m. This is our
third class discussion meeting (after our Sunday morning and Tuesday evening
meetings). We will discuss our readings
and the completion of our first 30 hours (!) of classroom Chinese language
instruction. After the class meeting,
anyone who is interested is welcome to go to the Hualien night market.
Reading today From Taiwan’s Struggle (2014):
Economic
Integration in East Asia; The Perspective from Taiwan (written by Wu Rong-i)
pages 215-222.
Taiwan in the Global Economy: End of the Miracle?
(written by Frank S. T. Hsiao) pages 235-254.
Saturday
the 15th of June.
Your first free day
with nothing scheduled. You are on your own,
but you are welcome to join your professor, who prefers very inexpensive
day-trips using local public transportation (local county busses or trains) to
visit places of natural scenic beauty.
Your professor may be doing one of three things, and students are welcome to come along with him.
1)
if the weather is favorable, he may take a morning bus from the Hualien Train
Station down along the coast to the Jici beach area [磯崎海水浴場] (good beach for swimming, snorkeling, surfing, and short hikes
with good views of the coast). Buses
1127, 1140, and 1145 all stop there.
It’s about an hour south of the train station by bus, and there are busses
going there and returning to Hualien every thirty minutes or so.
2) Also depending upon the
weather (no storms in the forecast), the professor might take a morning bus
(Bus 1141 from Hualien Train Station) up into the mountains through Taroko
Gorge to Tianxiang [天祥遊憩區]. If this is the option on
Saturday, anyone who wants to would be free to take the bus all the way up to
Lishan (4-5 hours bus ride) and stay for a night up there somewhere at 2000
meters (6500 feet) elevation.
3) Another good day-trip would
be to take a local train from Hualien south down the East Cost Rift Valley to
an interesting village or villages such as Ruisui (瑞穗),
Fuyuan (富源), or Dongli (東里), where there are
opportunities for cultural immersion, hiking through scenic areas, soaking in
hot springs, and agricultural tourism.
Reading today From Taiwan’s Struggle (2014):
Taiwan’s Environment at a Pivot Point (written by David
Chang-yi Chang) pages 267-280.
Sunday
the 16th of June. A second free day to relax, study Chinese, or go for an outing
into Hualien City, the surrounding areas, or take a day-trip to a local scenic
or cultural destination.
The same options mentioned as
possibilities for Saturday the 15th of June are possible, including Taroko
National Park and Jiqi Beach. Other
possibilities include the Fuyuan National Recreation Forest, The Matthew Saddle
Wetland Ecological Museum, the Danongdafu Forest Park, the Hualien Lintienshan
Forestry Area, or the Shi-Ti-Ping Scenic Recreation Area. These would all involve
a morning departure from the bus station by the train station (or by train from
the train station), with a late afternoon or early evening return.
Monday
the 17th of June.
Chinese
class in the morning from 9:00 to noon
Chinese
Calligraphy class from 2:30 to 4:30
Class meets for a discussion
at 7:00 p.m. This is our fourth class
discussion meeting. We will discuss our
readings and the compare notes about our weekend adventures.
Tuesday
the 18th of May.
Chinese
class in the morning from 9:00 to noon
Chinese
class in the afternoon from 2:30 to 4:30
Aside from today and Monday the
24th, there are no further days with more than three hours of Chinese language
instruction. Notice also that we have only 5 hours rather than six hours of
language classes today and Monday the 24th. Generally we have just three hours of language classes most days from
tomorrow forward.
Last
reading assignment of the summer to be completed between the 16th and 18th of
June (only 32 pages):
Rimui Aki (1996) [translated by John Balcom] “The Sound of
a Flute in the Mountains” (pages 129-132 in Indigenous Writers of Taiwan: An
anthology of stories, essays, & poems. Edited by John and Yingtsih
Balcom, published by Columbia University Press in 2005)
Lekal (2000) [translated by John Balcom] “Elegy” (pages
56-65 in Indigenous Writers of Taiwan: An anthology of stories, essays,
& poems. Edited by John and Yingtsih Balcom, published by Columbia
University Press in 2005)
Adaw Palaf (1992) [translated by John Balcom] “Let’s Go For
a Big Feast Outdoors” (pages 129-132 in Indigenous Writers of Taiwan: An
anthology of stories, essays, & poems. Edited by John and Yingtsih
Balcom, published by Columbia University Press in 2005)
Husluma Vava (2001) [translated by John Balcom] “The
Hunter” (pages 71-85 in Indigenous Writers of Taiwan: An anthology of
stories, essays, & poems. Edited by John and Yingtsih Balcom, published
by Columbia University Press in 2005)
Wednesday
the 19th of June.
Chinese
class in the morning from 9:00 to noon
Tea
Ceremony class from 2:30 to 4:30
Evening discussion meeting at
7:00 p.m.
Thursday
the 20th of June.
Chinese
class in the morning from 9:00 to noon
Fun
Game from 2:30 to 4:30
Evening discussion meeting at
7:00 p.m. to begin planning the service learning that begins on July 1st.
Friday
the 21st of June.
Chinese
class in the morning from 9:00 to noon
Chinese
Opera Mask Making from 2:30 to 4:30
Saturday
the 22nd of June.
Free day in Hualien.
You are again on your own for
the weekend. You are welcome to hang
around campus and study Chinese, join other students on their adventures, or participate
in any cultural or adventure programs sponsored by Tzu-Chi University or local
tour companies or hostels.
The professor is likely to do
a day trip such as one of the possibilities mentioned for the previous weekend, and students are welcome to come along.
Sunday
the 23rd of June.
Free day. Do whatever you
like.
Monday
the 24th of June.
Chinese
class in the morning from 9:00 to noon
Chinese
class in the afternoon from 2:30 to 4:30
Evening discussion meeting at
7:00 p.m. to continue discussing the service learning we will do in July. As different students will be serving at
different sites, this is a time to get together with other students serving
together with you to make some plans or consider the logistics of getting to
and from your site (I suggest you rent, borrow, or purchase bicycles).
Tuesday
the 25th of June.
No Chinese classes today. Instead, Tzu-Chi University will organize an
Aboriginal Tribe tour for us. This is
unlikely to be a “touristy” visit to a song-and-dance show, and is far more likely
to be a significant meeting with indigenous Formosans to respectfully learn
about their real cultural traditions and current community issues.
Wednesday
the 26th of June.
Another day without Chinese
classes. Today our host university proposes
to give us a Hualien Sightseeing Tour.
Thursday
the 27th of June.
This is the third day for a
day-long tour. Today our host university
proposes a Hualien Creative Industrial Cultural Tour.
Friday
the 28th of June.
Chinese
class in the morning from 9:00 to noon
Closing
ceremony in the afternoon from 2:30 to 4:30.
Class meeting at 8:00 p.m. to
finalize plans for the service learning that begins on Monday.
Saturday
the 29th of June.
Free Day.
Your professor may be busy coordinating your
service learning last-minute details. However, if everything is already settled, and no further work is
required, he may take a 36 hour break from the class to visit his in-laws in
Chiayi (a train ride early Saturday morning to Taipei, and then high-speed rail
from Taipei to Chiayi, and then a taxi or shuttle bus from the high speed rail
station to Chiayi to see his wife’s siblings and nieces and nephews and
cousins). If time allows this, he will
spend Saturday night in Chiayi, and return to Hualien on Sunday evening. Any students who wants to ride along and see
Chiayi is welcome to join along. It
takes about five to six hours to get from Hualien to Chiayi and back again is
another six hours, so with a departure at 8:00 in the morning this really only
gives you about 24 hours in Chiayi, but that may be enough.
Sunday
the 30th of June.
Second free day. If you did an overnight weekend trip to
Taipei or Chiayi or any other place in Taiwan, come back this evening.
Monday
the 1st of July.
First day of service learning. Five to eight hours.
Tuesday
the 2nd of July.
Second day of service
learning. Another five to eight hours.
Wednesday
the 3rd of July.
Third day of service learning.
Thursday
the 4th of July.
Fourth day of service learning
Class meeting at 7:00 p.m. to
celebrate American Independence Day and discuss our service learning activities
Friday the 5th of July.
Fifth day of service learning
Saturday
the 6th of July.
Day of rest or activity. You are on your own and free to do whatever
you like.
Sunday
the 7th of July.
Day of rest or activity. You are on your own and free to do whatever
you like.
Monday
the 8th of July.
Sixth day of service
learning.
Tuesday
the 9th of July.
Seventh day of service
learning.
Wednesday
the 10th of July.
Eighth day of service
learning.
Final night in the Tzu-Chi
University dormitories.
Pack up and prepare for
traveling again.
Class meeting at 7:00 p.m. to
debrief and discuss our service learning experiences.
Thursday
the 11th of July.
Tzu-Chi University has planned
a day trip for us to Yilan. We will
probably take a train there, leave our luggage in the left-luggage area (or
lockers) at the station (or on a bus the university arranges for us), and visit
the National Center of Traditional Arts (an outstanding open-air museum in
Yilan). In the late afternoon we will take the local county bus
from Yilan up to the Wuling Farm area in the mountains.
Friday
the 12th of July.
This is our day in the relatively cooler mountains. We may hike
through the mountain forests and see a waterfall, and learn about the
aboriginal culture of the central mountains.
Those who are feeling up to it
can spend the day on a mountain trek with an ascent up 1300 meters to high
alpine areas, starting at a trailhead at about 1900 meter elevation and hiking
up to a ridge at 3200 meters (10,500 feet), an ascent of 4,270 feet. Those who
don’t want to endure such an arduous trek are welcome to just relax and enjoy
the relatively cool temperatures at Wuling Farm, where there are interesting
natural features and easy hikes.
Saturday
the 13th of July.
This is our day to come down from the mountains and make our way to the area near Taipei’s international airport.
Sunday
the 14h of July.
This is the last day of the travel portion of the class. We will take a flight back to Chicago today. The cheapest flight seems to be a direct flight on United out of Taipei and going to San Francisco, with a short (just under two hour) layover in San Francisco before a flight to Chicago, and an arrival time in Chicago around 3:00 p.m., leavning time to catch the 7:00 p.m. Amtrak to Springfield if anyone is returning to Springfield.
Costs as estimated (not final or certain)
Provisional cost estimates by category for summer 2020
($3,200 total cost estimate)
$950 Flight between Chicago and Taiwan (Hong Kong Airlines or similar airline offering round-trip for under $1,000 US)
$1,750 Costs for dormitory and classes and activities with Tzu-Chi University (rough estimate)
$260 Hotels and hostels when we are not staying at dormitories in Tzu-Chi University (rough estimate)
$140 All busses, trains, mass transit, and tours and admission fees. In Hualien you may want to rent bikes or purchase a used bike for the 30+ days we are there, but this is something you can do on your own (budget $20 to $200, depending on how much you want to travel and whether you rent/purchase a new high quality bike or merely borrow an old cheap bike).
$100 Travel insurance and UIS costs for various fees
The tuition for a 3-credit hour course at UIS for in-state undergraduates with guaranteed tuition is approximately $941. Fees for a summer (no matter how many credit hours you take) are approxiately $660 if you have your own insurance, and approximately $1,250 if you get student health insurance as part of your fees.
Food is not covered. I will treat the class to a few meals, and I am not subsidizing my travel costs much by having students pay extra (I am mostly paying my own way, which is unusual in such travel abroad study courses). You can eat good meals in the Tzu-Chi University cafeteria in June for about $2.50 per meal, but it will not always be open in July. The whole time we are there you can walk a few blocks off campus to a shopping area where there are about a dozen restaurants and quick food stands, and meals cost generally between $2.00 and $10.00 (in American money). Budget $15 per day and you will eat very well indeed; a $10 per day food budget may suffice. You will probably spend less on food during the summer while in Asia than you would if you remained home in the USA and just prepared your own meals at home. There are nice restaurants you could go to in Taiwan and spend the same as you do in the USA, but such places are not close to the Tzu-Chi University campus. One more note about food; Tzu-Chi is a Buddhist university, and it is both a non-smoking campus and also a no-meat campus. Strictly vegetarian. You are not allowed to bring meat or snacks made from meat to your dormitory while living on campus. You can go off campus and eat all the meat you like; there are many meat-serving restaurants just a few blocks from the main campus gate.
We want to collect the down payment and have you register for the course in late March or early April. March 31st is the deadline I would like us to meet so we can keep costs lower by booking our flights in the first week of April, rather than waiting until later in April or May.
The first deposit should cover the flight tickets, so we will want $1000 in the first deposit due around March 31st. An additional payment(s) totaling approximately $2,200 will cover the remaining travel expenses. It is probable that we will ask you to pay on your own for some lodging or transport, and then not have you pay for those nights or travels in your UIS course travel fee. For example, some students may do their service learning outside of Hualien in Chiayi City, and so they may need extra transportation costs, but lower housing costs, and so for the costs associated with the two weeks of service learning we may just have students pay their lodging and transport costs on their own in Taiwan (deducting possibly $100 or so from the course fees, but expecting you to bring about $100 to cover those costs).
Learn More
Links to more information about places we will visit
Hualien
Taipei
Diary of Taipei Hotel near Taipei Train Station
National Palace Museum in Taipei
Wuling Farm
Mandarin Chinese Language Center at Tzu-Chi University
Registering if you are a student at UIUC or UIC.
UIS Students can simply sign up for the course. The course is also available to students from other University of Illinois campuses.
UIUC and UIC students:
If you plan to take a summer course at your home institution, you need to do Concurrent Registration. You could, for example, take an online summer course while you are taking the East Asian course (there will be internet access in Taiwan and Indonesia so that you can participate).
If you will only take
this one course, or only UIS courses this summer, you need to use Intercampus Registration.
STEP 1: Contact Evan Stanley at the UIS Registrar. (this should have been done by February 28th, but it is probably still possible to do intercampus registration up into April; just contact Evan Stanley and ask him about it.)
Whether you are from UIC or UIUC, and whether you will be doing concurrent registration or intercampus registration, you need to contact your UIS ally in our registrar’s office. The man you need to contact is Evan Stanley, Assistant Director of Records and Registration / Assistant Registrar, Office of Records and Registration, UHB 1076 (telephone is 217-206-6389; e-mail is estan2 at uis.edu. You can send an e-mail giving your name and telling Evan that you want to take the SWK-460 summer travel course to Taiwan and Indonesia. Ask him if there is still room in the course (we can take up to 25 students, but I will be glad if we are lucky enough to attract 15).
STEP 2: Fill out the form for concurrent registration or intercampus registration, and have your dean at your home school sign the form. (This ought to have been done by March 7th, but the deadline is "soft" and we may be able to have student to intercampus registration all the way into April; ask about it and see what can be arranged.)
You then must fill out a form (of course).
For concurrent enrollment, use the Application for Concurrent Registration.
If you are doing Intercampus Registration, the form you need is the Application for Intercampus Registration.
The course you want to enroll in at the host campus is "SWK-460" Summer East Asia Travel.
Next, you need the dean in your home college to sign the form. For example, if you are at the School of Social Work at UIUC, have Dean Anderson sign the paperwork (Steve knows about the summer program and will be pleased to help you). If you are at the UIUC College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Dean Feng Sheng Hu signs your paperwork. If you are at the UIC Jane Addams College of Social Work, Dean Hairston signs the paperwork. At the UIC College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Dean Astrida Orle Tantillo signs your form. (actually, some of these deans may have their assistant dean or associate dean sign your form).
STEP 3: Submit your signed form to your home university's registrar
Before you submit the form (concurrent or intercampus registration), be sure you have your home college undergraduate dean's signature.
The concurrent registration form has a space for College Approval (Primary Campus), and you should get your own campus dean to sign that, but there is also a line for the Secondary Campus to approve, and you can let your own home campus registrar's office collect that signature for you.
The intercampus registration form only requires a signature from your home college Dean (approving undergraduate college Dean).
The deadline for summer courses is May 15th, but you should submit these forms in March, ideally by March 15th. We want more students to take the course, and we can probably arrange for you to register for the course and come along with us even if you register in late April or early May. Your program costs may be slightly higher (for the costs of the trans-Pacific flights), or you may be asked to make those arrangements on your own, but we can add additional spots in the hotels and during the Tzu-Chi University segment of the summer course all the way into early May.
Want to go without taking the course [Information from 2019, but similar options will be available in 2020]
You, your family members, or your friends or significant others can join along with us without taking the course, but you must make all arrangements on your own and with Tzu-Chi University.
Tzu-Chi University has three options for students who want to deal directly with them and arrange their travel without the help of the U of I. This is a good option if you want to go, but you want to spend less time, or you don't need the credit hours, or you don't want to pay tuition and fees to the University of Illinois.
There is a brochure describing your options here (pdf)
Our class is doing "Package C" (4+ weeks in Hualien). We have two full weeks of Chinese language study and cultural enrichment followed by a third week with some language study and a few days of study tours. This is followed by another nearly two weeks of service learning, with the final day offering a day trip to Yilan. You can choose this arrangement, and check with me to get our flight schedules and hotel arrangements. I will share this with you if you are a U of I student or a U of I student asks me to share the information with you. You can make your own arrangements and essentially go along in parallel to our class.
"Package A" offered by Tzu-Chi University is shorter. You arrive in Taipei six days later than we do (arrive June 11th, probably departing USA on June 9th or 10th). You miss the first week of intensive language and cultural training we experience with "Package C", but you join us for the second and third weeks at Tzu-Chi University and the nearly two weeks of service learning activities that follow. Although Package A is a week shorter, it costs more than the NT$46,000 ($1,560 US) that Package C costs because Tzu-Chi University will make arrangements for you and help guide you around in Taipei. Package A costs NT58,000, or US$1,970
"Package B" Is like "Package A" without the first week touring Taipei. You essentially join those of us in the class doing "Package C" in our second week of intensive Chinese language and culture classes. It is the cheapest option at NT$36,000 ($1,225 US)
If you just do Package B, make your own arrangements in Taipei, and get tickets as cheap as the ones I think we will be using, you could get a five week experience in Taiwan for about $2,500.