The cheapest city to study ?

[SuatYazici]

Chris  & Sem, I really tahnk you both very much for all what you share here I find it so useful...As I am on a tight budget and plan to study for 1 year Chinese, guys I will be coming after you next year 2016 September.

[Chris Two Times]

Anshan Normal University in Liaoning province?

 

12,000 tuition for one year + 50/day for a single room. I presume Anshan is a third-tier city so 1,300/mo. for basic daily expenses could be doable. A little pricier at about 40,000 for a year, "better"(?) programs could be found for around this price?

 

Is ANU a diamond in the rough? Maybe not. Lots of universities with cheaper programs at 12,000/year.

 

http://en.csc.edu.cn/laihua/universitydetailen.aspx?collegeId=141

 

Warm regards,

Chris Two Times

[Chris Two Times]

Could a year of study at Hainan University be around our benchmark of 30,000 RMB for a year of tuition, two semesters of living in a single in a dormitory and minimal food and day-to-day costs?

 

tuition: 13,200

two semesters of a single room in a dormitory: 6,400

 

http://gjwhjl.hainu.edu.cn/e/action/ListInfo/?classid=68

 

I'm not sure how serious their Chinese language study programs are and I am not sure how rampant Hainanese dialect is in Haikou (uhhhhh...very?)--I guess the question would be, how common are Putonghua speakers in Haikou?

 

But that weather! Lower pollution! Living on Hainan island! That all sounds good to me.

 

Warm regards,

Chris Two Times

[roddy]

Hainan Uni has had some good reports, actually. 

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/24762-hainan-university/

[Chris Two Times]

Taiyuan University of Techonology (TUT) in Shanxi?

 

From the Study in China website it appears that a year of language tuition is 12,000 and a month's rent for a single room in the dormitory is 800 RMB. Taiyuan is a provincial capital and in my mind it is a borderline second-tier/third-tier city. A subway is being constructed and it appears that it could be ready in 2018. It looks like TUT would be on/near Line 1.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiyuan_Metro

 

I imagine that basic day-to-day living costs could be low.

 

http://www.csc.edu.cn/laihua/universitydetailen.aspx?collegeId=231

 

A single room doesn't seem to be listed on the following website, but perhaps the single room option is available by getting a double room and just paying...double?

 

http://www.tyut.edu.cn/ciee/english/index.asp

 

This could be a good "Northern" experience.

 

Warm regards,

Chris Two TImes

[roddy]

I don't recall hearing many good things about Taiyuan, unless you feel your life is missing a layer of coal dust. 

[Chris Two Times]

Yeah, the pollution levels can be a bit higher there and that could be a dealbreaker for some. I wouldn't recommend it to an absolute beginner or a first time in China hand, was thinking it could be for an intermediate student or someone wanting to get out of an expat bubble and blaze one's own trail, a quasi-"off the beaten path" experience, if you will.

 

Warm regards,

Chris Two Times

[Chris Two Times]

Responding to Roddy's post, I just picked this up from the Wikipedia entry for "Taiyuan University of Technology" under "Publications":

 

The publications of this university include: “Journal of Taiyuan University of Technology”, “Taiyuan University of Technology Paper”, “Coal Conversion”, “Journal of Systematic Dialectics”, “Journal of Social Science” and “Shanxi Coal”.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiyuan_University_of_Technology

 

So there you go. Head to Taiyuan and get your coal on! You can even research it and have your findings published in "Shanxi Coal" and/or "Coal Conversion"!

 

Good ole, Mountain West!

 

I also saw in the Lonely Planet guide for China (2011), that Shanxi province gets the highest marks for "History, Culture, and Mountains" (p. 36), so it's got that going for it, which is nice.

 

Now I am thinking that Taiyuan and Shanxi province should get another look. I know that Shanxi Normal University is in Linfen. Granted, pollution levels will be an issue in Taiyuan and Shanxi.

 

Warm regards,

Chris Two Times

[Chris Two Times]

How about Southwest University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE) in Chengdu, Sichuan?

 

The tuition for one year is listed at 14,000 RMB and a room in a dorm is listed at 500-800 RMB/month. Snag one of the 500 RMB dorm rooms and the price tag for a year's study in Chengdu may end up being quite affordable.

 

Chengdu is a second-tier provincial capital on the up-and-up. It's the type of city in which one can either spend on a five-star level and get everything according to one's frivolous desires, or equally, it's also a city where one can easily enjoy a rich life even though on a tighter, more disciplined, frugal budget (I lived in Chengdu from Aug. 2012 to July 2014), hence, making a year of study at SWUFE eligible for mention in this cheapest places to study thread.

 

http://www.mandarinchengdu.com

 

Warm regards,

Chris Two Times

[roddy]

Chengdu always impressed when I visited it - pace of life was always that much calmer than Beijing. 

[Flickserve]

I browsed through a website, I think it was mudanjiang university. Out of curiosity from reading this thread in the past, I clicked on the prices.

Unfortunately I don't have the link now. Their 1 year chinese language program was listed as 10,000rmb and the University is in Heilongjiang. They also had one and two week courses.

[somethingfunny]

 

 

Chengdu always impressed when I visited it - pace of life was always that much calmer than Beijing. 

 

Not sure how true this is nowadays.  Sure, some parts might be quiet but its a wide-avenue grid system and road-side food stalls have been removed and are slowly being replaced by footpath parking.  It's never as bad as I found living in Shenyang for example, but it's certainly getting worse.  Also, over Christmas and New Year it had some of the worst pollution I've seen in China.  In Chengdu, most people complain about the cloudy weather, but really the worse problem is that it's completely flat, meaning you never really see much sky in the first place.

 

Contrast this with, say, Kunming which I visited last month and theres almost no comparison.  In Kunming, there are runners on the roads, and they look relaxed.

[Chris Two Times]

somethingfunny,

 

You beat me to the punch. I lived in Chengdu from 2000 to 2003, and it was pretty grand. I returned to the city and resided there from 2012 to 2014 and it was definitely different. Don't get me wrong, it was comfortable living there and I did enjoy it the second time around, but the edge was definitely taken off and it definitely doesn't really have what it did back in the days/daze. I don't plan to live in Chengdu again, but I always enjoy going back and visiting for several days/daze at a time. I found that the infamous "Chengdu pace of life" has been quickened a bit.

 

With all that being said, I do find that Chengdu can still be a very good place though, and I would encourage anyone to give it a closer look and consider a program of study at 川大，川师大，西南民族大学，西南交通大学 or 西南财经大学。

 

I too was in Kunming this holiday break, just last week as a matter of fact. I last visited Kunming in 2002 and Kunming 2016 actually felt similar to Kunming 2002 for me. I dig Kunming and was playing with the idea of studying there for a year. Kunming felt very relaxed/relaxing. I dug my brief sojourn there last week.

 

...and yes, I found Kunming to be much cheaper than Chengdu, definitely worthy of making it to this "The cheapest city to study?" list.

 

Warm regards,

Chris Two Times

Edited February 24, 2016 at 04:00 AM by Chris Two Times