Meg-san & Mrazz>>>
Glad to hear you guys will be coming to CUHK this summer. I'm a second year student at CUHK so hopefully I'll be able to help you with some of your questions
1) The dorms are usually 2 students in a room, although some residences will offer single rooms but at higher rates. If your going to be living at i-house, then my understanding of it is that its a suite that you'll share with other students. I've never lived there myself, but those are from what i've heard from friends. Here's a link that might be of more help:
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/osa/ihouse/ver2/index2.htm
The CUHK campus is the biggest one in all of Hong Kong but there are buses which can bring you around campus and they are pretty frequent. I-house is alocated near the edges of the campus but its still possible to get to central campus in around 15 minutes or so. I've seen students actually biking the whole way, so if you like biking and plan to own one, then it'll be good exercise as well.
2) CUHK is the only university with its own railway station named after it. Assuming that you want to get to Central, then it'll take you around 30 minutes of travelling from our "University Station" to Central. But if you want to go shopping then there's a huge shopping complex located in Shatin Station which is two stops away from university Station. The transportation in Hong kong is totally awesome, and there's shopping centres everywhere so you won't need to worry about having to travel too far. I recommend that you buy what we call a "Octopus Card" , this is bascially an electronic card which you can use to pay for all kinds of things and will work for virtually all forms of public transporation in Hong Kong(except taxis, you'll need to pay cash for those).
3) Off the top of my head, I can count at least 11 different restaurants and Canteens located within CUHK. They all offer different varieties of food with a bigger concentration on Chinese food. The prices are also generally cheaper then outside becuase we're university students, so I think the university tries to get the canteens to have lower prices. In Hong Kong, you can eat practiclaly anywhere, and the food is pretty cheap too.
4)There are 2 bank branches in CUHK. One is Hang Seng bank located Fulton Building in Central Campus. THe other one is a branch for the Bank of East Asia which is lcoated in Chung Chi College and just opened recently.
5) Local students can choose to take summer courses so there will definitely be some in your classes. I've been noticing an increase in international students over the summer too. Alot of our students may have just come back from exchange and are very enthusiastic and friednly towards international students so you don't need to worry about that. Some may be shy at the beginning, so you'll just need to approach them and start talking to them. But once you get to know them, then i'm sure they'll make you feel right at home.
Hope this helps. You guys made a great choice in choosing CUHK and Hong Kong