Gap Year Program in China: intern, study Chinese or volunteer

I got to know about Go Abroad China through my career advisor. I chose the China immersion program for myself with the help of my parents. It was my frist time ever trying to travel out of the States so as usual i had to pay much attention to every detail to make sure that i am making the right choice. i was a little skeptical about things such that i got hesitant even at the final hour. i do not need all the elements in the service pack so i asked for a customized service quotation which was affordable. I noticed living in Beijing was not that expensive as i thought.
I selected Home stay accommodation arrangement upon advice from GAC staff but i was not sure what to expect as i do not know the caliber of families that are selected. Bonding with my Host family was a little difficult but finally enjoyed it. I noticed that the remedy to my worries is to be open minded. They actually facilitated my immersion; they served as a point of contact for practicing my Chinese after class. I learn how to make some Chinese Cuisine by the help of the host family and they narrated to me much Chinese histories and reasons behind some of their cultural values. I learnt to be moderate in all aspects of life.
The program performance target was to get me master Chinese language within 3 months. The curriculum is made up of language study and Chinese Business Model. My weekdays were tight with studies while the weekends were full of fun. Whenever i get the sense that weekends are near then i get happy. I enjoyed the trip to Inner Mongolia. I saw for the first time how nomadic cultures were, and how they construct their tents. It was an awesome experience.
I will not state here that Go Abroad China is a perfect organization but they tried to meet my expectations and i will not hesitate recommending them to anyone who wants to plan a Gap Year and any of their services. I owe return trip to China because of my host family.Some friends from the same school also participated in other programs with similar content and they also shared a very nice testimony.

You can bet that any 100% positive review about Go Abroad China is 100% fake! One look at their fake staff page and you can get a lot of information about this company.

I was on the Shanghai internship program. GAC put me in a dirty apartment and gave a poor quality internship in a dead-end company. Totally against my dreams and aspirations for China.

Chinese law requires all non-Chinese to register their residence at the local police station in Shanghai. GAC NEVER told me about this and when I phoned them for guidance, they SHOUTED at me and told me not to go!! Why? Because then GAC would have to pay staff to tell all their interns this! I was fine 3000RMB because GAC did not tell me. GAC refused to pay me the money.

I had to consult a lawyer in China and luckily GAC became afraid and gave me a full refund so I could find new accommodation independently.

P.s. GAC is an advertiser on goverseas.com. No conflict of interest there! (*sarcasm*)

GAC is a disgusting company who lies and totally unethical. In 2012 I joined on their Shanghai Internship program. Here are the list of lies they committed against my wife and I:

1. The internship company did not pay a stipend despite GAC promising in writing that they did;
2. Accommodation was a dump, totally unsafe and they pictures they gave me before I came to China were fake;
3. I paid extra for for Chinese lessons but I was never given any. They promise on their website that they hire professional Chinese language teachers with degrees to teach Chinese. This is a 100% lie. They hired a girl, paying her $4 an hour and she had no language degree. Even she hated GAC;
4. GAC has NO office in Shanghai. Ask them on their Live Chat and they will grudgingly admit it! If you have a problem, they don't care and abandon you. They use part time workers, temporary workers as cheap staff and they then disappear;
5. GAC offer paid internships illegally on their website. It is illegal to pay an intern a wage under the Internship (F) visa. They are illegally advertising.
6. GAC find internships by spamming CVs to any random company and cannot find you the internships you want. They give you rubbish internships;
7. GAC did not provide me an internship when I got here, I was forced to wait for THREE WEEKS while they looked for one. They lied to me and told me they found one. When I arrived in Shanghai, the internship was non-existent!;
8. They tried to extort extra money from me because I wanted to leave the dirty apartment they gave me. They wanted to in effect have 2 deposits and cheat the next intern they had coming to Shanghai. When I refused to pay their bribe, they tried to put my apartment up for sale on an online agent! The language teacher they hired at $4 an hour refused their request thankfully!;
9. There are 100s of cheated interns who took the Shanghai internship program. They just don't bother speaking out. I met many ex-GAC interns who had to fight the company to get refunds. Examples include Newin Gretz from Switzerland and Yasho Rajmarathan from India.
10. GAC illegally prevent interns from registering at the police station upon their arrival in China
10. Their staff includes an ex-English teacher who regularly threatens interns with illegal actions if they don't pay GAC extra money.

Please do NOT use Go Abroad China. They are a scam company and do not provide a truly useful experience to their interns. All their reviews are fake or probably from Beijing where the interns don't know any better. They do not care about you. They are Chinese criminals.