Program Reviews

Teachers are super friendly and classes are engaging. Went to my teachers house for tea, and went out to eat with them as well. They truly become your friends.

My homestay was super comfortable. Food was fresh, local and homemade. At the end of every day, I could practice speaking with my host - using the new vocabulary and grammar I learned at that day. My host showed me around the city, brought me to her social dances and to meet her friends and even when to a birthday party. I met so many new Chinese students. Life in Guilin is slow and peaceful. The locals here are very friendly too.

This has to be the best value for money course in china. First, the one-on-one instruction makes a huge difference as to the speed to which you can assimilate the language. My teachers (Penny, Nini and Lisa) were always super patient and took time to explain new words and grammar points, in a way that wouldn’t have been possible in a regular classroom. Everything in CLI is made for immersion: all the teachers and interns make a concerted effort to speak to you in chinese. Finally, i felt like i was really a part of a community. Living among everyone, sharing lunch, going together on activities (which by the way bring you to unforgettable places around guilin) made for true friendships to blossom. I don’t exaggerate when i say that i will always remember my time at CLI. If i can, i would definitely come back for a month or longer

Guilin is a wonderful place to study Chinese as it is local, slow-paced and extremely friendly.
CLI was recommended to me by a friend, and my Chinese learning properly began here after trying to find classes elsewhere but nothing quite working.
I've been to CLI 3 times now and I love it every time ~ there are a lot of activities to engage in if it's your first time in China, a host of friendly peers and staff and freedom to explore the surroundings.
Since being at CLI I kept my lessons online with one of the teachers as I enjoyed our lessons so much! I would now consider us friends as well as student/teacher.
I highly recommend CLI

I loved my time at CLI. I was there for a month and wish I could have stayed longer. After a month of language instruction, I developed a higher confidence level, especially with my listening comprehension.

I had three wonderful teachers and will continue working with one of them with online lessons. Each class lasted for two hours. I met with my comprehensive teacher daily, and we covered HSK 4 material. He was very patient, helpful, and deeply understood Chinese grammar.

I met with the speaking and listening teacher three times a week. Because there was no textbook, it was my most challenging and favorite class. We conversed for two hours straight. We did have preselected topics, such as Chinese culture and idioms, but having a free format stretched me because I had to rely on my ability and the vocabulary the teacher taught me. There were times I left this class mentally exhausted, but it was tremendously satisfying that I could do what I did.

My third class was a reading and writing class. If you don't hand-write Chinese characters, don't sweat it! CLI is very flexible with its students. I typed my assignments. The reading assignments helped me better grasp what modern China is like and the changes the society has undergone. I especially liked cracking "dad jokes" with my teacher, who taught me the term 冷笑话。

But the entire staff acts as teachers, albeit less formally. Every conversation is in Chinese， whether over lunch or a discussion in the hallway. Guilin is a great place to study because there are few Westerners and locals are very amiable. The school provides weekend trips to stunning locations, and during the evenings, there are abundant opportunities to get involved with sports or cultural activities.

If you want to learn Chinese, you cannot go wrong with CLI or Guilin!

Received a warm welcome that made me feel home despite being far away. Felt very quickly immersed in a pure Chinese speaking environment.
Outstanding teachers able to adapt to your need and deliver a tailor made class.
Nice and helpful management team looking to meet any of your needs

Lunch maybe too spicy but I heard they are working on it:)

Most importantly the progress has been exponential!!

I’ll come back but next time for a longer stay.

Suitable for all age as along as you wish to immerse and the kids embrace the experience

I just came back from two weeks spent at CLI. I have no clue how to express how impressed I was with this school. Everything was fantastic. At pretty much every step I was given a lot of caring attention. I lived with a Chinese family, which gave me an extra chance to try more of Guilin's food, take a few walks around the neighborhood and practice my Chinese after the lessons.

What I particularly loved about the school is how transparent it was. Each person had a clear responsibility, so I knew who to talk to regarding extra events, learning schedule, my homestay or errands like getting a Chinese SIM card. Also, the teachers were incredibly friendly and engaged. I feel like we quickly became friends. There were lots of opportunities to try Chinese outside of the classroom - during the events, at the shop with other students or enjoying an outdoor lesson when the weather was good. The cherry on top was a goodbye banquet, during which I saw a performance of traditional Chinese music.

I have great memories and will definitely come back, this time for longer.

My family and I - two adults, one 14 year old - studied at CLI Guilin for two weeks in July 2021. We had individual classes four hours a day, five days a week.

The teachers were fantastic. We appreciated the three teacher system, where you did not spend the entire day with any one teacher.

We stayed at CLI over the second week. Rooms was clean, simple, economical. We'd stay there again.

Our 14 year old wasn't happy with us for 'making' her do two weeks of Chinese classes during her summer break, but even she came around. Her teacher took her on walks where they played games, and she beat most comers at Mahjong.

Most importantly, we all felt more confident with our Chinese language skills after two weeks. We'd definitely consider going back next year.

CLI is fantastic and highly recommended! We loved our 2 week immersion program and only wish we could have stayed longer. Living in Beijing for nearly 2 years, my husband and I have taken Chinese lessons here and there, but our busy work schedules prevent us from spending enough time on it and really focusing. Our teen takes Chinese at school but finds it more academic, less conversational, and didn't feel confident speaking or navigating daily interactions. In China for the summer, we wanted to find a cool language program that would work for us as a family, all at different levels and with different learning styles. At CLI we each had our own 1-on-1 intensive classes during the day (the system of 3 teachers to 1 student is great) but met up in the kitchen at lunchtime for delicious communal meals with other students, and went out exploring Guilin or signed up for CLI activities in the afternoons. The husband liked the hikes, the teen loved the Mahjong lessons and volleyball excursion, and I was a fan of the CLI game room with ping pong table and well-stocked board game collection. The extensive library was great too. All of our teachers were excellent, patient and kind, the CLI team was super flexible with class scheduling, and you could choose the intensity of homework - relatively low in our case, to be honest, it was summer vacation after all! In general we could not have asked for a better experience (even the teen admitted she liked it, which is saying a lot). We stayed at a hotel in town for the first week, went on a weekend trip to a resort south of Guilin over the weekend, and then moved to the CLI dorm for the second week of class, which was comfortable and had everything we needed. We want to come back next summer!

CLI is a warm and welcoming learning community where you will immediately feel comfortable, no matter your level of Chinese learning. The teachers are very kind and dedicated, willing to adjust your lessons to whatever content and style you prefer. I am a foreigner living long-term in China, and came for 2 weeks to give my language learning a boost. I had many colleagues recommend CLI to me and I have to say that it truly exceeded my expectations. Guilin is a beautiful place - it is a walking/biking friendly city with everything you need, great food and snacks, and parks everywhere. I found it easy to immerse myself in studying while still feeling relaxed and enjoying myself. CLI arranges plenty of activities and weekend trips and there are plenty of beautiful spots to explore in and around Guilin.

I first found out about CLI from a quick google search on "Immersion programs in China". CLI showed up high on the list, and some research verified that it was legit. After doing some comparison shopping into other programs, CLI remained the best-value, best-looking program for a short-term program. Another huge perk was its excellent location in Guiling, one of the prettiest cities in China (It's also a short train ride from Guangzhou and Hong Kong).

From beginning till end, it was an unforgettable experience. After an outstanding pre-departure experience, I arrived to the CLI center Saturday afternoon and was warmly greeted by an intern - one of the local Chinese university students hired to support the CLI program. She took me up to the recreational room and I was immediately thrust into one of the almost-constant games of Mahjong. An hour later, I was invited to dinner by another student, an Australian professor-turned-expat, whose colleague was throwing a fancy dinner for him. I couldn't believe my luck, as I had the chance to participate in a traditional Chinese formal-style event, complete with excessive delicious food and generous Maotai Baijiu toasting.

One of the huge perks of CLI is that its students come from literally all walks of life. Summers and semesters tend to have far more college-aged students, but my time at CLI had a large variety of ages, professions, and backgrounds. Some of my best friends here were law students on break, professors of music and engineering, other college students, and international people from everywhere. It's a great chance to not only improve your Chinese knowledge, but also your general knowledge of the world.

The actual city itself, of course, was incredibly beautiful. There are constantly activities scheduled and planned by CLI, and an intense guide-book constantly being updated with suggestions from current and former students. Guilin is a smaller city, by Chinese standards, which means it's cheaper and more authentic than the bigger ones like Beijing or Nanjing. You can get a bao for literally 1 yuan, or some famous Guilin Mifun for 5 yuan. The CLI campus is well-situated next to a busy city street, as well as walking distance to city center and a nearby Wanda mall.

In terms of Chinese education, it's absolutely excellent. You're assigned 3 teachers: Comprehensive, Reading/Writing, and Listening/Speaking. They are personally assigned to you, with flexibility in teacher-choice and schedule, and they coordinate amongst each other to ensure you get the best education possible. Classes run from 0820-1020, 1030-1230, 1400-1600, and 1600-1800. You can use any textbook you want, but they are very strong at teaching the HSK series as well as the Integrated Chinese series.

Overall, I cannot recommend this program enough. Come check out CLI as soon as you can!