Late Summer-Early Fall Programs? Beijing V. Elsewhere?

[opinari]

Hi all,

I'm graduating this year from graduate school, and hoping to spend a month or two improving my Chinese. Unfortunately, I'm only free from August to October, so I don't really fit within the normal short-term programs.

As it stands, the only such programs seem to be at BLCU, BNU, Fudan (Shanghai), and Zhengda (Taiwan). I'm not sure about my HSK level, but I tested into the fifth-year chinese program here at my university. I'm also pretty self-motivated to study if that's an issue.

I'm currently leaning towards either BLCU or Fudan since they offer the most class hours. I'd prefer somewhere like Hangzhou or Dalian if they had programs in August though. I also have friends/family in Taiwan though.

1) Do you guys know which program out of those listed is the best?

2) I went to BNU for Princeton in Beijing a couple years ago. Is the normal BNU program similar?

3) Are there any other programs (in cooler places! ) that you'd recommend?

4) Is the 30 hrs/wk intensive program at BLCU a good idea?

I really appreciate your help and thanks for reading this!