Planning a trip through China

I'm going to study Mandarin in mainland China for the next few months and this is my current plan.

First, a bit about myself:

-I'm currently in Hong Kong and intend to leave for mainland China in late November.

-I learned Spanish through immersion programs in South America and I'm looking for a similar environment for learning Chinese.

-I'm in Asia primarily to learn how to read, write and speak Mandarin. I'm a beginner in Mandarin, but I started with a tutor about 2 weeks ago and I can read, write and speak about 200 characters (I plan to reach between 600-800 characters by the end of November, when I leave for mainland China).

The plan:

-Pollution in China is of a concern for me (I've read some very bad assessments; water pollution is what concerns me the most) so I don't plan on staying in any of the more heavily polluted areas of China for extended periods of time. For that reason, I'm looking into learning Chinese in the "cleaner" cities. I've been doing some research, and the plan right now is to stay in Dalian for 1-2 months, and then work my way down South. Other possible study cities include: Tianjin, Qingdao, SuZhou, Guilin and Kunming. Right now, I'm looking at being back in Hong Kong by late April or early May.

-For my first month in Dalian, I was thinking of staying with a homestay family using lotus educational foundation. I know that it's expensive, but homestay families helped in SA, and I think it would be nice to jump start things. I haven't found any other homestay options in Dalian either.

-Throughout my trip I'd like to take 1 on 1 private lessons in private schools. In Dalian, I plan to attend TLI for the first month. I'm still looking for good private schools in the other cities (anybody know of any?)

Basically, I plan on heading to Dalian and then playing it by ear. Any tips or suggestions?

Hope you can .

Best,

ZFS