I study in Shaanxi province,China. And the university summer vocation in the mainland is the same time as in Taiwan. However, some universities has begun to reform the education of themselves. My university, Wuhan university, ect. have a short semester after the final exams. It will last nearly a month. So, we have our summer vocation in late July. Of course, my university don't let us take normal classes. In the first two weeks, foreign teachers from U.S. gave easy but useful lectures. In the last weeks, we haveoptional courses about EE, software development, ect. I wish I could help you!

A 'semester' is always one of two. The word 'semester' comes from the Latin word for half. So a semester, by definition, is always a half-year term. Half-year terms are common in the USA. In the USA, the words 'college' 'semester',and 'vacation' are used (whereas British English uses 'university' 'term' and 'holiday' as equivalents). In American English, the word 'holiday' is not a synonym for 'vacation' : a 'holiday' in US English is a short celebratory period of a day or two, such as Thanksgiving or Christmas. The equivalent of 'semester' for a three-term system is 'trimester' (from the Latin word for a third), but this word is not generally used. In British English, we use the word 'term' for the divisions of the academic year. British universities have three terms, usually early October to mid December, then January to March, and April to June. The summer holidays are from late June to the beginning of the autumn term. This may vary slightly from one university to another.

Australian Universities have their breaks during the Australian summer - usually from mid November to mid February. I presume other southern hemisphere countries have the same timetable.