<p>First, I would recommend that you NOT go to a school in Beijing or Shanghai. Both have huge foreign communities and lots of English-speaking locals, so it will be difficult to immerse yourself in Chinese language and culture. In smaller, less international cities, almost nobody speaks English and many people have never even seen a foreigner before. Also, the cost of living is much lower. Harbin is a good place.</p>
<p>As for where you should study, I would check out Tianjin. I worked there for a year, and Nankai and Tianjin Universities both have good programs for foreigners wanting to learn Chinese, plus they have the advantage of being close to Beijing if you want to go there for a weekend. I’ve also heard good things about Zhejiang University in Hangzhou and Nanjing University.</p>
<p>… however that person may not be the only person who will ever want to study Chinese, and some such others may know how to use the CC “search” function.</p>
<p>I love that you mention Kunming. Most of the people here are from the North, so of course they will say that the worst place to study is the south. I’m african american, but I’ve been in the North and South of China, and I loooove the southwest so much better! I love the accents, and places like Guangxi, Hunan, and Yunnan are the best places to be! It’s a little more rural, but the people are so awesome, and not a lot of foreigners, but lots of ethnic minorities (like Zhuang, Miao, Dong etc). I learned standard Mandarin, but I prefer to speak with my Guilin accent! Yaay south!</p>
<p>Also, going to a big name university is not important. Go where you will be most happy and what works for you. As you know, name isn’t AS important in America as it is in China. It’s just…a lot of students and China study hard (gao kao) and want to go to Beijing, so they can’t understand why you would want to go anywhere else.</p>
<p>I personal didn’t really “jive” with Beijing, but it works for some…</p>
<p>Definitely Hangzhou!!!
Best sights ever in China!!!(personal opinion, no offence:))
It was once the capital of China, like thousands of years ago.lol
I think you are going to love it, since culture elements are so important to you.</p>
<p>Does anyone here know anything about Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU)? This is one of the sites being used by the Critical Languages Scholarship Program to send intermdiate and advanced learners for the summer. We are curious about it. </p>
<p>Hi! I would recommend you to go to Beijing for Mandarin study. They do not have quite of an accent there (don’t judge me!). Beijing is a cultural center too.</p>
<p>I realize this thread is kinda dead(ish?)
I definitely recommend Shanghai. Great city to be in, but you’ll need friends for it to be fun. A lot of people from my high school spend a gap year at Fudan to study chinese. I go to an international school in shanghai.</p>
<p>I guess it would be even harder for someone like me then to study Chinese in China. How would Chinese people look at a person like me. A foreign born Chinese who speaks Fujian dialect and Cantonese but ZERO mandarin. Will people look down on me? Where would be the best place to go where there is less discrimination against foregin born chinese looking to study chinese in China?</p>
<p>I’m sorry that I reply to you so late.Because I’m a freshman in university and I was busy preparing the college entrance examination when you asked for help.Now I’m in University of science&technology Beijing.
I recommend that you should go to a city in Shandong Province,for instance,Jinan or QIngdao.In the point of my view,Confucious,which was born in Shandong, is a very inflencial man in Chiense history.Still today,some of his thoughts have an effect on Chiense people.So,you can learn more Chiense culture there.
Yours sincerely,
caomao</p>
<p>As it has been said many times in the other replies there are really a lot of places to study in China and more or less all big cities have lot of options to offer for students. If i were you, i would go for Notherrn dialects and definetely would prefer Beijing. If you still too biased against Chinese capital then you can try Shenyang, as there is Liaoning University there. Besides I have heard many good reviews about Xian Jiaotong University [Jiaotong</a> University<a href=“also%20Xian%20s%20a%20very%20nice%20and%20historic%20place”>/url</a>.
Coming back to Beijing, yes, there are many foreign students there, but still there are much more chinese students in China and you can easily make friends with them. BLCU, Beijing University and many others can offer good chinese courses. Since there are many foreigners in the capital and the demand for language training is high, there are also many chinese language schools, such as Frontiers <a href=“http://www.frontiers.com.cn%5B/url%5D”>www.frontiers.com.cn](<a href=“http://www.xjtu.edu.cn/en/]Jiaotong”>http://www.xjtu.edu.cn/en/)</a> Hutong School [Chinese</a> Language School | Hutong School](<a href=“Hutong School | Global Chinese language school with 14 locations worldwide. — Hutong School”>http://www.hutong-school.com/) Beijing Chinese Language School [BCLS</a> welcome!learn chinese in china, study chinese in china, study mandarin in china,Chinese Language School China](<a href=“http://www.bjchineseschool.com/]BCLS”>http://www.bjchineseschool.com/) etc. Good luck with your studies! I hope you will enjoy China and learning Chinese!</p>
<p>Hi,sourmangoo.I would like to recommend Beijing as your destination. Though there may be more foreigners than any other places I China, Beijing is still the best choice to study native Chinese. As a matter of fact, you can seldom find typical and ancient architectures and costumes in other places. In Beijing, you can study unadulterated madarian Chinese as well as the culture. In China, people from other places would like to speak dialects rather than mandarin in daily life, which may influence your pronunciation to some extent. Dialect in Beijing is almost in the same mode with mandarin, you won’t worry that your pronunciation may confuse Chinese from different areas. Also, Beijing is the best choice for studying. Most top colleges are there,also, you could find all kinds of colleges there cause Beijing has great number of colleges which other area could not be compared with. You will got a lot of choices there. And Beijing is an appealing place . I think you will love it after your living there for a time. Anyway, you will have a beautiful memory if you study there.</p>