Middlebury in Kunming

I would recommend this program to people dedicated to improving their Chinese language skills, and/or interested in carrying out an individual research project in Chinese. The academics are manageable but perhaps relatively rigorous compared to other study abroad programs. Kunming is a great city, and the province of Yunnan is beautiful: mountainous, good air quality, amazing rice fields. I loved that the program offered lots of opportunity for and encouraged travel, which was relatively easy and affordable to do within and around China. Something special about my experience was that I joined a pick-up ultimate frisbee team based out of Kunming that was composed of some American ex-pats and some locals. I played with them once a week and even went to a few tournaments with them around the country. It was a really unique and fun experience for me to be introduced to the frisbee culture in China! It also helped with my language skills to spend so much time with locals.