However, the estimated costs are based on early booking (buying flight ticket in Dec or Jan, etc.), and the later it goes, the higher the costs will be. Meanwhile, booking flight tickets and train tickets requires your passport number. If you want to join this course, you need to get your passport ready by Dec, which means that you need to apply for the passport in Oct or sooner if you don’t have one yet. So you might as well apply for this course by Oct. You are highly encouraged to talk to Dr. Yan in person to make a decision on whether you can/want to join the travel course as soon as possible.

Yes, you can. You just need to apply to WCU as “transient student,” and there’s a $50 charge to the Admissions Office to do that. For more details, see the Admissions Office’s information about transient students. For WCU grads, your 92 number will basically be reauthorized for summer session and you’ll be registered/billed for the course just like anyone else. For non-WCU students, the process is a little more involved, but it’s mostly just paperwork.

• Gifts – buying souvenirs for yourself or for others
• Extra activities – what you do in your free time
• Excess food or drink – an allowance of certain amount per day is included in the budget for meals. This covers basic eating in chain restaurants, but if you’re going out to mid-level restaurants (or better), or ordering more expensive drinks during dinner, you’ll go over the budgeted amount quickly.
• Excess travel – The amount budgeted for travel will be enough to get you to/from all required activities. However, anything you do on your own time will need to be covered by you.

See the budget for a list of what is covered, which will help you determine what isn’t covered.

• Gain factual knowledge about global engineering and technology practices. Collect, interpret and use information related to engineering and technology practices within local, national, and international contexts. Apprehend the impact of engineering and technology solutions in a global, economic, environmental, societal and global context.
• Reflect upon the principles, generalizations and theories of global engineering and technology practices beyond United States. Articulate the importance of cultural disparities and similarities when developing engineering practices. Understand and is committed to address professional and ethical responsibilities including a respect for diversity.
• Critically examine complex issues of a global nature in contemporary engineering and technology practices. Recognize contemporary issues. Understand the nature and importance of interrelationships and interdependence between and among individuals, countries, and regions.
• Identify, formulate, analyze, and solve broadly-defined engineering and technology problems. Apply knowledge of global engineering and technology practices to prepare project statements with clear project goals and objectives. Analyze project requirements to propose potential designs, determine the available resources, and apply practical constraints.
• Contribute as a member of a multidisciplinary team to create a project schedule and plan. Function on multidisciplinary teams effectively as a member or leader. Organize and participate in effective team meetings. Develop and document the solution to engineering design challenges as part of a team. Propose clearly-defined metrics to evaluate the performance of a solution.
• Communicate in an engineering environment through technical writing, verbal communication, and delivery of presentation. Develop organizational and communication skills that facilitate active involvement in, and contributions to projects in a wide variety of disciplines. Apply written, oral, and graphical communication in both technical and non-technical environments effectively; and identify and use appropriate technical literature.

Please read the syllabus to learn more about the assignments and grading for the course.

The three credit hours of the ENGR 365 course are determined based on the contact hours and course contents. A student can not elect to receive zero or less than three credit hours by doing fewer or none of the coursework nor to receive more than three credit hours as there are no further coursework to warrant it.

First, in terms of the 140 hour surcharge rule, summer credits are excluded (details at surcharge.wcu.edu). “2. Excluded are credit hours earned through: f. credit earned in all summer sessions;” You will never need to pay the surcharge for later courses due to any summer course.
Be aware, though, the automatic registration system sends out emails as soon as one’s total credit hours surpass 90 hours without removing the excluded courses. It is a staff member in the registrar’s office who does the exclusion manually, and please contact your adviser and the registrar’s office if you have any questions.

Second, in terms of the P6 credits exceeding the required 3 credits for graduation, more credits will only show your interests and efforts on world culture without hurting your progress towards graduation or in any other way. Your experience will be shown in the course titles on the transcript, and employers typically are very interested in and appreciate such unusual courses.

If you do not have a passport, apply for one at any post office. The cost is $135 altogether (https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/passports/information/fees.html). Allow for 6-8 weeks . If you have a passport, make sure that it is valid until Nov 2018 (6 months from the day we leave USA). To get the best deal in flight ticket, you should have your passport ready in Dec 2017.

WCU IPS recommends this trustworthy website for visa application (it has been used by WCU before, and they can help you to apply for visas to many countries): https://www.passportsandvisas.com/ (update: our students used this site and they provided very speedy service. Unfortunately this site no longer works). For a 10-year Chinese visa, the cost is $264 altogether. You are free to use any other agent. The service fees may differ at different agents, beyond the consular fee of $140. Some visa is for one-year, which can be enough. Just be sure of what you are getting.

Whatever you do, pack lightly! Plan to take a carry-on and a backpack – no checked luggage.

• I can’t stress that enough (but I’ll try).
• The website One Bag is a good resource that goes into detail about one-bagging it for trips abroad.
• This YouTube video on bundle packing that shows how to get 16 garments into a carry-on.
• Scan through Lifehacker.com’s packing-related posts to get more tips. Some are geared more toward frequent business travelers (like this YouTube video, which is way beyond my packing abilities), but the tips still might be helpful.

• We don’t include flight costs in the required payment to WCU OneStop (added in the budget, though, to give you an idea on the overall cost and allow it to be covered by financial aid) because of students taking different itineraries home, using frequent flyer miles, leaving from a different city, etc.
• For the flight over, we will try to go as a group. Dr. Yan will provide students with the flight numbers as it gets time to book (around Dec or Jan). If you cannot fly with the group for some reason, talk to Dr. Yan and we’ll look at options for how to meet us there.
• For the flight home, students will be encouraged to come back home together. Dr. Yan may stay behind in China for some more time, but she will accompany the student group to the airport for the departure.

• We will mostly stay in YHA Youth Hostels with best ratings in town at the prime location of each city, and we may choose an airbnb apartment with at least 3 rooms (for male students, female students, and faculty) and 2 bathrooms (for male and female) to save costs while experiencing the local community. The Youth Hostels are often booked by the number of beds in a big room of 6 to 10 beds with bunker beds. It will be safe, clean, well-maintained, and you will meet other travelers from around the world. The intended lodging options are listed in the potential itinerary, and you are welcome to check them out.
• No coed roommates are allowed.
• Given the small cap of this course in 2018 (3 to 10 students) and the big room with 6 to 10 beds in a youth hostel, all the male students are probably roommates, and all the female students are probably roommates. Otherwise, wherever possible, you will be given the option to choose your roommate(s) ahead of time. Those who do not have roommates in mind will have ample opportunity to meet others taking the course during the spring semester and will be able to match up accordingly.

Please maintain your routine immunization, and you may also check out the Health Information for Travelers to China for more details.

Occasionally we may have another faculty member from one of the universities we will visit accompanying us during the day. We will not join tours that are rushed by a guide.

1. If you activate the international roaming service of your cellphone to use in China, you can maintain your regular phone number. However, it can be expensive. Please contact your cellphone provider to understand the terms and rates.

2. If your phone uses a SIM card that can be taken out to put in a new SIM card, or if you have a unlocked phone that uses a SIM card, you may purchase a local SIM card at the airport or in town in China. There are SIM cards that can be used for a month with certain amount of minutes, and you can purchase and load more minutes after that, if needed. The local SIM card will give you a Chinese phone number. You and your family can purchase a calling card to call each other for several cents a minute.

3. If you do not want to activate your roaming service in China and your phone does not use a SIM card (for example, the SPRINT phone uses CDMA without a SIM card, and the prepaid phones typically don’t use SIM cards), you may purchase a second phone that is simple and inexpensive (possibly in China) to use the local SIM card, only for voice-call or message purpose. Such a simple phone typically does not allow you to use apps such as wechat, and please still bring your regular phone to China to use apps with WiFi.

4. Out of google search, I found this website that said that phone-rental in China is possible. Note that we have not used this service and we do not endorse it.

If you decide not to use the cellphone service in China, please still bring your phone, as WiFi is widely available in China, and you can get in touch with your family and friends using the app, wechat, while in China.

Also, please keep the phone numbers of the instructor and the contacts at activities (which will be provided when the activities are confirmed), in case you ever need to use a public phone to get in touch with us.