A great program, great teachers, and great students in a great city

I participated in the Intensive language program during the Spring 2011 semester. It was 4 hours of class a day in a small classroom, with all your friends from the program, and your teacher. They were all super sweet, dedicated, and diligent. We had homework everyday and dictations as well. We never had more than 5 students in a class, and pretty much everyone got on smashingly.

The program also gets you a personal tutor who you meet with everyday for an hour. If you don't make any progress with this program you are doing it wrong.

Weekends were a blast, students ate dinner together and often planned trips on weekends to other cities or to cultural sights within the city. For nights we often hit Wudaokou, Sanlitun, and varies quiet bars around the city. The Jing is a cool city, and I often think of it fondly.

My homestay was great, they spoke zero English and it was fantastic for my ability, they also cooked sick food that was great to chow down on while conversing with them.

We took a trip to Kunming in the bowls of February. It was two weeks long and was an absolute blast. We went hiking, ate great food, went biking, saw beautiful sights, and got to spend great times as a group together checking out the city, province and local people.

I could not have imagined a better abroad experience. Mr. Eyler, and Mr. Jenne were great mentors and teachers as well. I made great friends that I still keep in contact with today, learned a ton of Chinese, and ended up finding a new passion for modern Chinese history.

If you want to meet cool students that like China, spend time in a cool city, and learn a bunch about China then do this program. I truly do not have enough good things to say about this program.