I and my girlfriend will be in China from June 6 - Aug 6, 2004, and
are looking for an American-friendly Chinese language school to study
at in one of the following cities in China (in order of preference):
Hangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing. Our searching so far has been
disappointing because we can't find a single school that meets our
criteria:
* Must be open during the month of July (most are closed for the summer)
* Must offer courses of 3-4 weeks of instruction or have flexible durations
* Should allow flexible start dates. We'd like to attend class
sometime between June 13 and July 30. If the school offers a
pre-scheduled course within those dates, that's okay too.
* Must be able to accommodate multiple skill levels. I have about 1
year experience, and she has about 2 years
* Classes should be no more than 20 hours per week. If the hours over
20 comprise optional electives which can be skipped if needed, then
that's okay.
* Schools which offer housing are preferable, but not required
* Schools with a web page are preferable, but an email address is
acceptable. Schools with only a phone number are not desired, as our
Chinese has not been good enough to get us through a phone call with a
non-English speaker very well.
* The school must be reasonably priced, with about $100 USD per week
being our maximum.

If possible, we'd like 5 different eligible schools as options.

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Clarification of Question by mmussel3-ga on 15 May 2004 12:57 PDT

For all of you who posted information, thank you -- it's been most
useful. We've settled on what we think our final two schools will be,
so I'm closing out this question.

Here's one that's about US $140 per week.  It's in Beijing, but IMHO
that's the best of your three cities if you really want to learn
Mandarin.  Click on "Programme" on the right:
http://www.lsi-learnlanguages.com/englisch/china/china/index_brighton.htm
There's a three-week "Small Group - General Chinese" class starting on
July 5, open to all skill levels.  Five hours a week.

Here's another one in Beijing that's $420 for four weeks: 
http://www.study-in-china.com/  Click on "Dates and Fees" at the left.
 There's a class running from July 5 to July 30.  Classes run 20 hours
a week and are open to all skill levels:
http://www.study-in-china.com/chinese_language.html

Hope this tides you over until you get your official answer.

Carl

I'm located in China. I did some search for you, and following are
some website links. It looks like TALKINGCHINA is most suitable to
you. They also offer accommodation for students.Pricing is affordable
to you.
http://www.talkingchina.com
http://www.beijingchineseschool.com/english.htm
http://www.shmtu.edu.cn/jixujiaoyu/files/zhaosheng-12.htm
http://wsc.zjfc.edu.cn/indexe.htm
Hope it will help. Good luck!

Tony