Studying and living in china

[F_Kal]

Greetings,

I've been searching quite some months now a good city in china where I can study mandaring for the next year. I'm sorry for bugging you, but honestly I did try searching, but could't reach any conclusion. If somebody could help I would really appreciate it!

Mainly I am interested in finding a place where

1)Life quality is good: I come from Greece and would care for

a) a nice climate with not too cold winters, or humid summers. I'm planning to be there from Septembre to June...

B) no severe pollution, meaning, healthy environment/air (and parks wouldn't be too bad!)

2)People in the streets speak mostly mandarin with -quite- standard pronounciation. Meaning that if there are some differences(or accent), these won't be prohibiting communication with eg.people from Beijing and be easy to eradicate at a later time.

Can you recommend any particular University Language Center? I'm not interest in only-studying but also hope to have time for myself It doesn't have to be the toughest school. If my "studying+lesson attending" hours are around 4-6 daily it's ok for me. I've been studying chinese for 1,5 year which makes me beginner to intermediate (closer to beginner though circa 500 words)

3)I've been considering Taiwan as well...any ideas about Taiwan?

I hope somebody can point me towards the right direction because I'm lost...

[ChouDoufu]

I'd suggest giving Hangzhou a try. It's near Shanghai and has great air quality (at least it seemed great when I visited for a few days: I had been in Beijing so long that I forgot what fresh air smelled like). The weather is pretty decent, although it rains quite a bit. The winters are considered cold but only because it's not cold enough for most buildings to have heaters installed! Since it's close to shanghai you can go there on weekends and party if you so desire, so it offers a good balance between crazy metropolitan city and more down to earth provincial city.

I'm not sure about Standard-mandarin being spoken there, but I don't believe that should be as much of an issue as people make it. Your teachers will speak standard mandarin, you will be able to listen to standard mandarin on TV. I've always found it useful to encounter as many different accents as possible, and find that standard mandarin is the easiest to understand.

Taiwan has pretty good weather. Their mandarin is slightly different from mainland mandarin (some small grammatical differences and some vocab differences). Obviously Taiwan also uses traditional characters. Taiwanese people sometimes have a pretty cool accent (listen to their president Chen Shui-biao and you will see what I'm talking about), but a lot of people find it sort of annoying.

hope this helped.

[onebir]

I'm surprised no-one's suggested Dalian or Qingdao yet - both meet most/all of your criteria. Shenzhen might too & it's pretty warm all year round I think.

If you drop the standardish mandarin requirement you could add Chengdu, Kunming, Xiamen.

[F_Kal]

I really appreciate your replies people! Even though I was aware of all these cities, I came to overlook them! Thanks to you, my draft list contains as-of-now:

hangzhou,qingdao,dalian,shenzhen,tianjin

Any further comments on any of these (or any other) that could help me narrow down?

For instance some "good" language center, or what you think it would be to live in a place like that for 9-10 months (of course I'm asking for personal opionions)

Thank you again!

[venture160]

scratch off Tianjin. Nothing interesting there.

[shanghaikai]

Mainly I am interested in finding a place where

1) Shanghai is probably the most metropolitan city but you won't like the weather or the pollution (though I don't think its really that bad, or at least not as bad as Beijing.) There are plenty of parks and greenery in Shanghai. In fact, its something they strive for. Nearby Hangzhou was a good recommendation but the weather is only a 1-2 degrees different from Shanghai usually. More laid back though.

2) Most Chinese language programs in the major universities in China will offer a course level that fits your current skill level. The only thing I would keep an eye out for is getting into a class with mostly Western people rather than Koreans/Japanese. You see, there are lots of the latter studying Chinese here but their cultural and academic background gives them an advantage with regards to written Chinese even if their oral ability is lacking. In contrast, most Westerners have a much harder time with written Chinese. If you take a placement test or interview, be careful of them putting you in a class with mostly Japanese/Korean students simply because your oral abilities are similar. You'll end up getting annoyed with being the one guy struggling with the text.

3) This is the question I really wanted to answer. Taiwan is really hot and humid. You probably won't like that. As a whole, it is slightly further along in overall standards than China (just as Hong Kong). With regards to the language, however, remember that they use the traditional complex characters in Taiwan. While there is an increase in people speaking Taiwanese, Mandarin won't be a problem...BUT it is not "standard" Mandarin if you're using Beijing as a measuring stick. Overall, Taiwan has the "southern" accent when speaking Mandarin, and sometimes a Fujian accent. Either way, you're unlikely to hear the "r" sounds Beijing and "northern" Mandarin is in/famous for. Northern Chinese say Southern Chinese is not proper and Southern Chinese mostly don't give a damn because they often equate the northern accent with lower-class rural country folk.

[F_Kal]

again thanks for the repiles! I've also come to the conclusions that Taiwan may not be the best place for me, at least not better that a lot other options in mainland China!

shanghaikai: your comments are hugely appreciated and some things I had not come to realise before!

Thanks again!