MA in Linguistics, Yunnan?

[bluetortilla]

Hi.

I've been in Guangzhou for over six months now and originally planned on getting an MA an Sun Yat-Sen U. in Linguistics, and then moving on to Yunnan for research. I have been accepted there pending my passing the 6th Level of the HSK.

It occurs to me now though that perhaps I should skip Sun Yat-Sen and head straight for Yunnan, which is where I really want to be anyway. I know a more thorough search on the net would reveal all my options, but my cursory findings haven't told me much. If one were interested in Comparative and Historical Linguistics (Morphology in tonal languages), would Yunnan University be a good place to get started? I see that they have a school of foreign languages, where I would imagine an M.A. in Applied Linguistics could be obtained. How much flexibility and independence does that department offer? It would be tough getting bogged down in TESL all over again, although some of that would be fine (I am of course highly interested in language acquisition).

If it helps, I am a U.S. citizen with an unrelated major (political science). I am however fluent in Japanese, have enough credits to qualify for a minor in that language, and have passed the first level of the JLPT.

Thanks for any help/advice.