Which city to choose (another one yeah ;)

[renao]

Hey! I've been looking around for about a week now on which city to choose for studying chinese but it still feels impossible to choose, since I can't go there myself to check it out. If you want to help me, I will make it as easy for you guys as possible :] Here are my preferences:

1. Weather. I'm from Sweden. I will probably go in winter. So it's important that the weather is nice, it's the most important aspect for me, haha. I want to be able to walk around in shorts and t-shirt, sit out and eat/drink/chill until the evening without using blankets every day. Most awesome would be if there are beaches, but I think that might be too much to ask.. Sunshine is very important though, lots of sun! Light makes me happy.

2. Language. I want a place with not too many foreigners, and where the chinese won't be able to use english very well. I don't care about local dialects though, as long as the majority can speak mandarin with or without heavy accent.

3. Socializing. I don't need a hundred bars and nightclubs with new people all the time, but a few nice ones would be good, and a feeling of the nightlife that is not too sleepy. If I meet the same people several times is just nice, as long as it's not all the time on every venue. It's nice to have people you know around you. Also pretty girls is a huge plus ;)

4. The first three ones are the most important. Other stuff: I want to live relatively cheap. The city should be not too polluted. I'm considering to teach english. And to take some other courses too, like cooking, or meditation. I'm a bit in to thai language too, so if there are lots of thai people, it's good. I want the course I'm taking to be focused on conversation. If I can choose I'd live in shared apartment with chinese people close to city centre and the school. Lastly, I don't care if there are western stuff there like starbacks on the streets and olive oil in the stores. Again, the first three ones are the most important.

All in all - sunny, nice weather with lots of opportunities to meet chinese friends and girls

Alright, I've been thinking a lot about Kunming. I'm unsure about the socializing part, what I like is climate and nearness to south east asia for traveling. And how about Chengdu and Chongqing? I don't hear much about those cities. Was looking at Hainan, but maybe it's too sleepy nightlife? Xiamen? Obviously no city will fill each criteria, but I hope someone could give me some good advice Btw, I will be studying one semester (for starters ;)

[shinewind]

All in all - sunny, nice weather with lots of opportunities to meet chinese friends and girls

Sunny - this will exclude many cities in Sichuan Province. A friend of mine went there (Chengdu City) to join a gas project and returned before long, saying there’s NO sunshine in the city in winter.

Nice weather – you said you wanted to walk around in shorts. If you mean in winter that’s never gonna happen in Northern China. So this time half of the country gets off your list.

lots of opportunities to meet chinese friends and girls – this is actually simple. You can get that almost everywhere. That’s one good thing about having a big population.

So my list for you will be:

Hai Kou (first choice, close to beach, almost shorts all year around and not very populated) Xia Men (close to beach and nice sunshine) ;Dalian/Qing Hai (beautiful city but wearing shorts in winter? No.) ; Kun Ming (all good except no beach);

I was going to recommend Shen Zhen (great city with nice beaches and very close to HK) but considering its population I think… NO. OH, also living in these cities won't be as expensive as in Bejing or Shanghai.

Anyway, good luck (especially with girls )and enjoy your stay!

[WestTexas]

Sounds like OP just wants to go on vacation. I think this is the most ridiculous list of city qualifications I have ever seen. The problem is that many of the conditions are somewhat mutually exclusive. You basically list a slew of qualifications that lots of foreigners want in a city, then say you want to move somewhere with few foreigners. That's not going to happen. Also, you want to live somewhere extremely warm. The problem is that the warmer parts of China also tend to be the places where the local language is not Mandarin, so the locals may have strong accents. Also, there are more foreigners in the warm, pleasant parts of China. In addition, the southern part of China is generally more expensive than the north. Haikou might fit all the criteria, I haven't been there so I don't know. But Xiamen is fairly expensive and has lots of foreigners, Kunming has lots of foreigners and the locals do not speak great Mandarin, and Dalian is cold in the winter.

[wedge]

Just looking at first criterion -- I don't think there is a single place in mainland China where you can normally wear shorts December-February. Even in Hong Kong you really need to wear a jacket for much of the winter. Hainan island might be the only option.

[anonymoose]

During the winter, the south of China will obviously be warmer than the north, but even in cities such as Xiamen or Shenzhen, being able to walk around in shorts is not certain. I'm not into nightlife very much, so I can't comment much on these aspects, but in terms of environment, I think Xiamen definitely beats Shenzhen.

As for Kunming, I went a few years ago during the winter, and even though Kunming has the reputation of all four seasons being like spring, it definitely felt very wintery to me. It wasn't snowing, but it was cold and wet.

The only place that I can think of that meets your requirement for weather is Xishuangbanna. However, the largest city there, Jinghong, is very small by Chinese standards, and I'm not sure if there are any places you could formally study Chinese there. On the other hand, this region has a large Dai population, who's native language is a dialect of Thai, so who knows, you might be able to get some practise in there. (All I know is that Dai speakers can understand Thai, but to what extent they are similar, I couldn't say. Also, as far as I know, most Dai speakers are not literate in Dai language.)

[imron]

I don't think there is a single place in mainland China where you can normally wear shorts December-February

In Xishuangbanna you can. However I think it will probably fail on some of the other requirements. As West Texas mentioned, some of the requirements are really mutually exclusive.

[wushijiao]

For the record, I once wore shorts in Kunming in February. Although that may have been atypical.

In any case, Kunming, Xishuangbana (or perhaps some other places in Yunnan) might be best.

[gato]

Xiamen probably meets your criteria the best. The main contradiction with what you are asking is that Chinese people don't really go to night clubs and bars, so places with few foreigners won't have them.

Here's what chinese-forums's very own Joshua Webb has to say about Xiamen:

http://www.chinese-f...post__p__208781

Xiamen

[jkhsu]

Does it have to be mainland China? What about Kaohsiung, Taiwan? I've never been there myself but I hear from friends that the weather is mild in the winter.

[abcdefg]

Kunming is mostly sunny and dry in the winter, but it's still cold, especially at night. Houses have no heating, so it's cold inside as well as out. Kunming people typically wear long underwear plus a couple other substantial layers, not Bermuda shorts and tee shirts in the winter.

I was in Hainan near the end of February. It was cold and rainy in Haokou, but Sanya was warm and mostly sunny. Again, not shorts and tee shirt weather, but at least long underwear and down coats not needed.

All in all - sunny, nice weather with lots of opportunities to meet chinese friends and girls

Your criteria are not realistic. You won't find what you want in China.

I'm a bit in to thai language too

Go to Thailand and study Thai. Winter is the most pleasant time of year there. And if you chose the right city, beaches, night life and friendly girls should be sufficient for normal needs.

[langxia]

Come to Beijing. No Rain during the winter, most of the days you can't see much of the sun but it is there. As you are from Sweden you should be used to a colder weather and can wear shorts all the time. (I actually regularly saw a guy that was wearing shorts all winter, I thought it was a bit weird and chinese people will definately think it is weird) Oh and the beach should be reachable in 2 or 3 hours.

Only the part about foreigners might be a downer as there are some here.

[Lu]

Consider Taiwan. A cold winter in Taipei is when the temperature gets below 15 degrees, further south (Gaoxiong) it's summer all year round. The locals speak Mandarin, the people are friendly and enough girls are into foreigners, if you go somewhere else than Taipei (Tainan, Gaoxiong, Hualian, wherever) there won't be many foreigners. Although the foreigners tend to congregate in the nightlife. There are beaches near Taipei, in Kending and probably in other places as well, I haven't looked everywhere.

[renao]

Wow, I never thought I'd get this many replies First I just want to say that I realize that all these criteria are impossible to meet in one place. But it's better with too many things than someone just saying "hey I wanna study in china, which city is the best one?". Really, I just wanna have a good time while learning chinese, I know I can do that anywhere because I love learning languages and nice people are not rare.

I was going to recommend Shen Zhen (great city with nice beaches and very close to HK) but considering its population I think… NO

But the major downside would be that people don't really know mandarin well, right?

Sounds like OP just wants to go on vacation

Of course, the best way to learn a language is having fun while learning it ;)

During the winter, the south of China will obviously be warmer than the north, but even in cities such as Xiamen or Shenzhen, being able to walk around in shorts is not certain

It doesn't have to be certain, and not every day. It would just be nice if the chances for it are high. Also I think I might be willing to wear light clothes more than people from more southern countries, even at temperatures not so hot. I mean, in summer, average high temp in my city is 20 C and average low is 12, and I think that is very nice.

The only place that I can think of that meets your requirement for weather is Xishuangbanna. However, the largest city there, Jinghong, is very small by Chinese standards, and I'm not sure if there are any places you could formally study Chinese there.

Whoa, I just checked average temp there, pretty hot! Winter looks really nice, but I want to stay one semester - 5 months - and if average high temp is 32, that's too much, haha. I don't like it over 30 C, then I'd rather have it cold.. Sorry if my definition of nice weather is strange.. hehe

Xiamen probably meets your criteria the best. The main contradiction with what you are asking is that Chinese people don't really go to night clubs and bars, so places with few foreigners won't have them.

Here's what chinese-forums's very own Joshua Webb has to say about Xiamen:

Xiamen is starting to climb up to the first place on my list. The nightlife thing is probably the only downside, but hey, maybe the best thing would be to cross this from the list, and meet people the chinese way instead, whatever that may be. I'm not sure, how do people meet if not through school/work or common friends and interests? And especially when it comes to flirting.

I read through the thread, veeery good info!

I was in Hainan near the end of February. It was cold and rainy in Haokou, but Sanya was warm and mostly sunny. Again, not shorts and tee shirt weather, but at least long underwear and down coats not needed.

I've been looking on those cities. My main concern is that I heard people don't speak that much mandarin. And the local dialect is more of a language than a dialect?

Your criteria are not realistic. You won't find what you want in China.

Go to Thailand and study Thai. Winter is the most pleasant time of year there. And if you chose the right city, beaches, night life and friendly girls should be sufficient for normal needs.

Yeah, that would be awesome, though the language I want to learn is chinese. Well maybe I can't have 30 degrees every day in winter, but still, as long as it's mostly sunny, and temperature mostly sticks between 15-25 C, I'm happy, would that be too unrealistic?

Consider Taiwan. A cold winter in Taipei is when the temperature gets below 15 degrees, further south (Gaoxiong) it's summer all year round. The locals speak Mandarin, the people are friendly and enough girls are into foreigners, if you go somewhere else than Taipei (Tainan, Gaoxiong, Hualian, wherever) there won't be many foreigners. Although the foreigners tend to congregate in the nightlife. There are beaches near Taipei, in Kending and probably in other places as well, I haven't looked everywhere.

I've been considering it, and it's not crossed off my list. It's just that the characters will take a loooong time to master (more than my time there) and then I want to focus on the simplified. Also I've heard it's more expensive, and more westernized. Probablly more convenient, and comfortable, however I do want a cultural crash, haha. Do you think my assumptions are valid?

Thank you all for all good input so far. I'm really keen on Xiamen now. Kunming still seem good, even though I won't be able to wear shorts during winter. It's sunny though, and that's more important. To meet people I guess I'll do some language exchange. Looking at notice boards and the internet. Maybe take some course when my mandarin skills gets better. What other ways are the chinese using since they don't go much to bars?

[pprendeville]

I wouldn't like to be Santa Claus receiving your Christmas wish list. I rekon you can't be more than 21 based on those criteria.

[Lu]

I've been considering it, and it's not crossed off my list. It's just that the characters will take a loooong time to master (more than my time there) and then I want to focus on the simplified. Also I've heard it's more expensive, and more westernized. Probablly more convenient, and comfortable, however I do want a cultural crash, haha. Do you think my assumptions are valid?

Indeed more convenient and comforable. I suppose you could say it's more westernized, but it's still very much its own place with its own culture. I left a few years ago, but it's not particularly expensive. Food is pretty cheap, rents are not expensive either, and that's in Taipei, things get significantly cheaper when you go south. But yeah, they do use traditional characters, so if you have a strong preference for simplified, you need to go to the mainland.

[renao]

Indeed more convenient and comforable. I suppose you could say it's more westernized, but it's still very much its own place with its own culture. I left a few years ago, but it's not particularly expensive. Food is pretty cheap, rents are not expensive either, and that's in Taipei, things get significantly cheaper when you go south. But yeah, they do use traditional characters, so if you have a strong preference for simplified, you need to go to the mainland.

I'll look into it a bit. If the characters are the only downside, I couldn't see myself care about that