Mandarin speaking region with most temperate weather???

[thph2006]

Hi all, I'm considering moving to China for an extended period and would like to know which Mandarin-speaking areas of China generally have the most mild year round weather.

I'm hoping to find a region with a local dialect as close to Mandarin as possible since I'm already having a hard enough time trying to master Mandarin. I can't imagine having to master another dialect on top of it.

By the way, my idea of perfect weather would be what we have here in the San Francisco Bay area; mild temperatures and very little rain all year. I know I won't find it in China but the closer to it the better I guess.

Thanks for the tips!

[johnd]

Kunming is probably the place, I think others have commented on this forum about the local dialect.

[simonlaing]

Hi Thph,

I personally think Beijing and the North east winters are pretty cold. There is central heating in these places but there are often strong winds and wind chill.

I have heard good things about Shandong with coastal cities qingdao and qinghuangdao. The accents are basically similar to putonghua.

Nanjing's accent is very close to Putonghua as well. though our summer is fairly hot (think San diego with more humidity) . There are a couple of coastal cities in Zhejiang that might fit the bill. Though Hangzhou is the only one that strikes as pretty as San Fran. The accent is not as pronounced as Shanghai, or Fujian but it is stronger than the North East. The Uni's are not as famous as other places in Zhejiang but if you're studying Chinese at a beginner or intermediate level that probably doesn't matter as much.

Kunming / Yunan has the benift of being hot southern place but high altitude so it isn't humid much. I heard there are significant numbers of mosquitos in the summer there. But I have only visited in the winter so can say if it makes a difference. Also it is more of a tourist province so it easy to get distracted I think. It is also a very beautiful province, even if it has some accent issues. (Part of the accent issues comes from it multiple minorites who (unlike some han) are very proud of their ethnicity and wear colorful clothes all the time.

If you're going for good temps, I recommend Zhejiang, or Yunnan.

have fun,

Simon:)

p.s. Even in these places bigish cities will have pollution smog issues. China runs on Coal is just the way it is.

[Lillee]

If you'd like mild weather, i'm going to have to contradict simonlaing's advice about Hangzhou. I've been living there for one semester now and while yes, it is a beautiful place to live, the weather is anything but pleasant! Friggin cold in winter, sauna-like humidity in summer. It's horrible. And it seems to rain ALL the time!!!

As for the accent in Hangzhou, I'm not in a position to really compare it with other places, but my impression is that in general people there speak the Hangzhou dialect as their first language, so that means that often they speak Mandarin with what I find to be a strong accent. So much so that sometimes it's a struggle to communicate with them. But I think you will have a similar problem in most places you go to in China, apart from Beijing or North-East China. (?)

"The Uni's are not as famous as other places in Zhejiang but if you're studying Chinese at a beginner or intermediate level that probably doesn't matter as much."

- actually, Zhejiang University in Hangzhou is ranked China's number 3 university (though not specifically for teaching foreigners Chinese).

I have also heard people recommend Yunnan as a province with fairly mild temperature year-round.

[Thundercat8]

Yeah, Kunming has a great climate. Not too cold in the winter, nor too warm in the summer. Though, as with anywhere, it can rain a lot in the summer. I think Dalian has quite a good climate too (from what I've heard). Warm in the summer, cool in the winter. Not too cold or too hot as it's by the sea. But I've never been, so I might be wrong!

[anonymoose]

I think Dalian has quite a good climate too (from what I've heard). Warm in the summer, cool in the winter. Not too cold or too hot as it's by the sea.

I guess the concept of hot or cold is relative to what you're used to, but I lived in Dalian for a year, and whilst the surrounding sea does temper the winters somewhat compared with areas further inland, in my opinion it is still bitterly cold. Not only that, but the winter lasts a long time, from about November through to April, at least when I was there.

Having said that, Dalian is a nice city, and if you can tolerate the cold, then I'd certainly recommend it. The summer is beautiful, and Dalian is cleaner than most chinese cities (though snow still goes black within a day), so there are also some big plusses.

[skylee]

eh.... Taiwan ..... ?

[xianu]

Having grown up in northern california (Sonoma county and uni in santa cruz), I can tell you for a fact that Hangzhou is VERY UNCOMFORTABLE in the summers. I have been in Kunming in the summer, and it is still hot, like those strange hot days you get for about a week each year in SF, but I have heard it is temperate the rest of the time. I lived in Beijing for a year during college, and I had a hell of a time with the winter - got all depressed because of the layers I had to wear (I think at the coldest, I had about 4 pairs of longjohns under my jeans), and I felt like I hadn't seen my legs in about four months. I general, all the places I traveled in China during the summer seemed too hot except the northeast, and too cold and/or wet in the winter, except the guangzhou region. Taipei was actually really nice in the winter, though the sun didn't come out quite as often as I would have liked. I was just in SF in mid-july, and I think I got there on a tuesday right after it rained. The humidity/relative heat on that day is comparable to what I remember in Kunming, though the sun feels hotter (thinner atmosphere, more direct sun), but from my experience and what I have heard of Kunming, I think it might be your best bet for a single year-round place. For all you folks who are amazed at my weather assessment, let me tell you, Northern California has the BEST weather I have ever experienced.

[Lu]

I'd recommend Taiwan as well, not too cold in winter (the winter I was here it was about 5 degrees at the coldest, and that was said to be an especially cold winter), rather hot in summer, but airco is everywhere. Taiwanese is very different from Mandarin, but most people speak Mandarin, to a point that my Taiwanese teacher complains that so few people in Taipei speak Taiwanese. The Taiwanese/southern accent is not a problem.

But you asked for a place in China, Taiwan is not really China.

[skylee]

But you asked for a place in China, Taiwan is not really China.

I disagree. But this is not the point of this discussion.

[Rincewind]

This we site lets you review temperature graphs for the past 12 months so you can compare the weather last year with what you had in San Fransisco. http://www.weather-in-china.com/graphics-qingdao-china-CHXX0110,2.html?month=7&year=2007

I think Dalian or Qingdao are good choices for less extreme weather. The are distinctly warmer in the winter than the weather just a short distance inland. In summer they are warm but not quite as hot as other places. Since they are by the sea they are probably as close to SF as you are going to find. I think most people would agree that they are quite attractive cities too. The language or accent shouldn't be a problem in either city.

[gamequeen]

not everyperson speak mandarin at the moment.

so i am confusing now

[cui ruide]

I'll lend my experience...

1. Beijing is very, very cold in the winter, but also very dry. The dryness is both good and bad--the bad being that you're thirsty and dry... The good is that it makes the winter easier to bear (in my opinion). When I first got there in January, I was wearing long johns and wool socks nonstop, with the heat cranked. By the end of my month, I never turned on the heat; left the window cracked; and had even phased out the wool socks and long johns... Winter is pretty clear of pollution, but there were bad days when I didn't want to go outside.

2. Hangzhou's winter is worse than Beijing's... I showed up there in mid-February and never felt warm until april practically... Hangzhou's very humid, and I think a humid winter is the worse kind... No matter how much the heat was turned up, the cold lurks and clings, filling your clothes... The summer is ridiculously hot and humid--bearable only with ac. I think it's one of the 4 chinese furnaces? The mosquitos are also hellish... So many...and they hurt. In between these two modes, it rains a lot.

3. A Kunming summer is nice. There's no ac, though--so some stays trapped inside can feel pretty stuffy. It's nothing like Hangzhou though... Mostly pretty cool with cool nights. Drier climate, too. That said, the summer's the rainy season, so it can really come down for a bit. I can count the number of mosquitos I've seen or felt on one hand in the 9 weeks I've been here.

Hearsay addendum: "Beijing summer is hot; there are sandstorms; and the pollution is horrible." "Kunming winter is really cold 'cause there's no heat (except space heaters)."