What to choose? A language school or university?

If you are looking to study Chinese in China for a few months, consider not to enrol in a Chinese language school, but in a university programme. I raise this issue here because I was asked about the topic and think it may be helpful to weigh in on the topic a little bit more.

The rational is, speaking from my experience and observation, the Chinese language schools in China are mostly very new, meaning that a constructive and customized curriculum for short-term study is far from ready, not to mention a carefully designed curriculum for long-term study. On the other hand, the university programmes have much longer history and are better developed, especially for long-term study.

Onto curriculum - to know more about the quality of chinese programmes at the Chinese school or uinversity, it is important to enquire about their curriculum in details, and how they implement it. Well, most likely they will just tell you they are following this or that book - if you know of one school/university which says they are developing their own curriculum by combing materials in an appropriate and creative way, it might just well be worth your attention.