How is Zhejiang University? Does a smaller city pay off?

[seraph]

Hi everybody,

can somebody tell me how the Chinese language program at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou is like? What about teaching quality and class size?

For studying Chinese I would have the option to choose between Beida in Beiing, Fudan in Shanghai and Zhejiang U. in Hangzhou. I heard that the latter two have a better reputation but I somehow feel more attracted to a smaller, hopefully greener city like Hangzhou. What do you think? Is this just nonsense and I am mad if I don`t go to the big famous universities? I`d appreciate any comments

thx

[susana]

I'm having the same problem, and as far as I know , BLCU and BEISHIDA are the best universities to learn chinese in Beijing, I don´t know about Beida but I suppose it must be a bit better than Zheijian uni. However, it all depends on how much effort you put on your study. I'm trying to convince myself about it , XD.

If you go to beijing there would be lot of places to visit, restaurants, pubs, shops and also foreigners. Thats a good think, you can make lot of friends. As long as you don't waste your time going out all the time, everything would be fine.

About Hangzhou, I read somewhere that Zheijian has a good language program, best among all others there. And if you want to improve fast you can pay a tutor, It's quite cheap. I think that's what I am going to do. Hangzhou must be very beautiful, i wish i could go and check it before the start of the course . Someone recommended me to do it but I,m a bit scared of going alone. So if you go before i do tell me if it is that beautiful, please ^_^

Are you going for a short or long term?

[seraph]

Hi susana!

I plan to study for one semester. Well I too heard that Hangzhou should be a very nice city and comparably cheaper than Beijing. John from chinesepod has some nice insights on his blog here:

http://www.sinosplice.com/life/archives/2003/06/04/studying-chinese-in-hangzhou

Still I am somehow hesitant to give up Beida. It`s supposedly the best university and having the name in the CV sounds kind of tempting ;)

Lately I have also been thinking about going to Fudan, as a kind of "third solution"..

[wenhailin]

hi, my friend is currently studying chinese at zhejiang uni (zheda) and really loves the city and the course. and i have visited him twice during last semester, and had great fun both times. its got a decent nightlife from what i have seen, west lake is really pretty and the uni campus is quite big and peaceful. the chinese language classes have a huge range of levels, and the teaching seems to be good.

the beijing universities that you mentioned are all at wudaokou, which is a really cool place, it caters for foreign students really well with loads of restaurants, cafes and nightclubs. however, from classmates i have spoken to who have studied there, it seems you get very little study done with so many foreigners around to hang out with. seriously, these are disciplined student friends of mine and they have said that in a semester there they got barely any study done. of course, you get very good at learning all the different beer names

i study at nanjing university and really like it, but i don't know if that is one of your options. i think you will find that more or less, the chinese language courses at most universities are fairly standard ie, teachers only talk chinese, textbooks are going to be fairly boring and the tests are laughable. you have to put the pressure on yourself to learn wherever you are. finally, a recent survey by one of the two famous shanghai universities placed nanjing uni as the 2nd best uni in china, ahead of beijing uni. zheda also did fairly well in the rankings i think.

hope that info helps a bit!