kunming options -> rate these schools

[mr.stinky]

i think i've maybe perhaps decided on kunming, at least until i change

my mind.....i've found six institutions that look promising. can anyone

provide any good or bad experiences with any of these? it seems most

of the comments i've read concern YU/YNU. either should be suitable,

with bias towards YNU. search shows no reference to sinostudy on

this board.

SINOSTUDY kunming college of chinese studies (also in dali for $$$)

http://www.sinostudy.org/

YOCEC yunnan overseas culture and education center

http://www.yocec.net.cn/english/xxjj.htm

YNU chinese teaching center for international students

http://www.ynnu.com/lxszs/programs.htm

YU center of chinese for foreign students

http://webstar.ynu.edu.cn/ynuclc/emain.htm

ELCEC college of eastern language and culture

http://www.elcec.com/

YUFE yunnan university of finance and economics

http://www.ynift.edu.cn/English/EnglishIndex.htm

there's also this college in yuxi 98km from kunming. only half a

day's bicycle ride, and a population of 40k. anyone been to yuxi?

YTC yuxi teachers' college

http://www.yuxitc.org/index.htm

[b0b0]

I am also planing to study in kunming beginiing this semester and do not know which option to chose. I tried to get some more information in kunming but too bad - everything closed during chinese new year :-(

So does anybody know some details about the options mentioned above?

- what time of the day is the course helt? (only in the morning?)

- which date does the semester starts and when does it end?

- how many people are in one class (average) ?

- what kind of people are there? (many westerners / many asian / totally mixed)

- how many hours tutuion per week?

- price of one semester

- how do they test your chinese level? what kiond of courses are there? (beginner, .... )

it would be cool if we could tabulate it.

b0b0

[Tsunku]

I wouldn't recommend moving to Yuxi. It is a boring city about an hour's bus ride away from Kunming. It isn't convenient really to go back and forth all of the time between the two. The city is really small, you won't meet any foreigners there really besides the other people at the school, and forget about any kind of nightlife other than crappy Chinese discos. I read in your other post that you're into isolation, but I find Yuxi way too boring to be worth it. Kunming isn't a huge city like Beijing. The size is comparable to that of Dallas in population, but not as spread out into suburbs and such. I don't really see any advantage to choosing Yuxi over Kunming, as Yuxi isn't really in an idyllic natural setting or anything, it is just your typical outlying town.

The Kunming College of Eastern Languages has been getting good reviews from my friends. It is also cheaper than the universities. I took classes at Yunnan Normal University two years ago and found it satisfactory. Most of the university classes will be pretty much the same, with YNU and YU being the most "prestegious" universities, not that that matters at all, as you're not persuing a degree course. YNU's programs particularly bring a ton of students from Vietnam, Lao, and Thailand every year.