Should I study?

[nycnyc]

Greetings everyone,

I am planning on going to China this year and would like to travel extensively as well as improve my Mandarin. Unfortunately, it seems I can only get a 30-day visa as a tourist. An overseas Chinese friend of mine has offered me his vacant apartment in Beijing for as long as I like, so the housing is taken care of. My questions are as follow:

I would like to stay in China for at least 6 months. Is it possible to fly to Hong Kong and get a 90 day tourist visa? And then is it possible keep renewing the visa every 30 days?

Second, I haven't yet decided if I should take any classes. But here is a bit about what I am looking for and maybe you can offer some suggestions. I will be living in the HaiDian area of Beijing (close to Beida I was told) so I would like to stay somewhere around there. Also I am looking for a program which isn't too expensive and too bureaucratic (I would like to apply pretty much hassle free without having to fax over transcripts and the like). I've read on this site that Beishida, BLCU, and Tsinghua are all recommended. Would any of these be close to Haidian and also would be inexpensive and easy to get into? Any other schools I should consider?

Thank you in advance!

nycnyc

[lau]

if you need something cheap, non-birocratic, then go for the small private language centers! i have seen stuff about 地球村 school in this forum, including adress and contact details. it's near BLCU and BeiDa, you just show up, tell them you want to attend classes, give them money, and you're in. what to study is your free choice. to show up or not - as well. i've seen information on the walls there, that they help with getting student visas as well. costs somewhat around 15-18 RMB a lesson. 15x20=300 RMB以上 a month.

there are many other places like that scattered around the area where you plan to live.

if you do not need any official papers saying you attended classes and grades, and do not care too much about class sizes/ teaching quality and stuff like that, than go for it.

study on your free time, learn stuff that you want and take only HSK preparation classes in the school - this way you'll end up having a paper stating your language level in the end. cheap, convienient and nice.

[mrtoga]

Your problem is the visa though. To be honest I would just attend one of the universities around the Haidian area - it is not a huge amount of paperwork to get the visa issued and after that you don't need to worry about extending etc.

[imron]

If you go via Hong Kong, you should be able to pick up a 6 month/ 1 year F visa there. This is what many people do, and getting this is just a matter of handing over the money to the visa issuing office. I've not done it myself, so I can't tell you exactly where you need to go, but I'm sure someone else on this forum can tell you.