1 week immersion

[leosmith]

I'm going to China for a vacation in August. I want to take a 1 week full immersion Mandarin course before meeting up with my friends. We're meeting in Beijing, where we'll be spending some time. I'd like to spend my Mandarin week away from Beijing, so that I can experience a little more of China. I'd like to be in a place of natural beauty, somewhat peaceful and where speakers speak with standard accents.

I'm mainly asking for suggestions of a town/city. I figure if I know the location, I can find the classes, but if you know of a good school I'd like to hear of it. Thanks!

[gato]

Dalian is a good choice. It's supposedly the most beautiful city in the Northeast. The locals also speak standard Mandarin.

You can try Taipei Language Institute's Dalian branch.

http://www.tli.com.tw/tli/eng/en/4-1.asp?class=4

Class size and course contents are flexibly offered at TLI Dalian, including different levels of courses for Individual Classes and Group Classes (2 or more students).

Individual Classes provide a highly intensive, personalized form of instruction, which enable students to learn Chinese at the pace suitable to individual needs and abilities. Individual Class schedule can be flexible.

[leosmith]

Thanks Gato. I sent them an email for mor info. Hmm, I see I posted this in the wrong place. Hopefull people will see it anyway.

[onebir]

I figure if I know the location, I can find the classes

I don't think it's a good idea to count on this - you could easily throw away your week if the teachers &/ materials aren't good. TLI's good on both counts & basically geared up for 1-1 classes* so you'd automatically get variety of teachers over the week. This gives you a bit of insurance if you don't hit it off with some of them. + you can ask for a change & if you're only doing a week the (somewhat exorbitant) expense hopefully won't matter too much.

* don't count too heavily on being able to do the small group classes - when I did them in Beijing there were no suitable classmates around (or so I was told :s)