Info on QINGDAO OCEAN UNIVERSITY or other Qingdao institutions

[sunrise]

I have pretty much made up my mind to head to Quingdao next month - to study for one semester, and am currently researching where to go.

If someone could provide me with any answers to the following questions - that would be great:

1 What other good options are there for study at Qingdao (apart from Qingdao Ocean University - QOU)

2 When does the Spring term start at QOU?

3 Any opinions on study at QOU?

4 What are costs like of living in Qingdao. How is rent for a room / small apartment?

5 How is the Putonghua in Qingdao ?

6 How does the weather develop from mid feb - august? Do the summer months get hot and humid ?

I think that's about it. Many thanks in advance for any info

[sima99]

Hi, I am in the same situation as you deciding to go to Qingdao to study this semester. So I have done quite a bit of research on the matter and can tell you what I've found. QOU seems to be the safest bet, I havet heard anything bad about it and it has quite a good reputation in Shandong as being one of the best universities. I have read somewhere that Qingdao Uni's Chinese language course is not that good in terms of teaching. You should have already applied to QOU, but it may be possible for them to let you in anyway. Their foreign office seems to be quite helpful. Enrollment begins on the 1,2 and 3 of March. Classes start on the first monday of that month. I think the rent in Qingdao might be a bit cheaper than Beijing, should be about 1000rmb a month. The dorms are about 50RMB per day. As for the putonghua, it appears to be very standard I think so it should be a good place to study. As for the weather, I think its a bit cold for the first few months but by may and june will get warmer, and won't get as hot as Beijing since its so close to the ocean. If anyone else here has studied there any information would be helpful, especially in regards to specifics of University life there.

[sunrise]

Hi Sima99 - thanks for your post. I have just noticed on their website that application should be made 2 months in advance - so I guess I'm a little late. Fingers crossed, they will not be too strict about this.

Useful to hear that teaching quality at Qindao Uni - can be poor.

Found a couple of links you might be interested in:

http://www.myredstar.com - seems to have various info on Qingdao and a classifieds section.

http://paulie.nomadlife.org/ - this is the blog of someone who spent a year studying in Qingdao - makes for interesting reading.