Best Experience in Asia Ever.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Taipei with Berkeley Abroad. Academically, they place you on the first day and then you're put into 3 different classes, 2 language-focused ones and 1 business Chinese textbook (they use the one written by a Penn professor, chenggongzhidao based on case studies). Apparently this program's been around for some 20+ years, and it was well-organized. The faculty is great, the teachers are TOP NOTCH, and the TA's (they organize out-of-school day and weekend trips) are genuinely caring. This is Taipei, so food is not only cheaper but BETTER (than Murican Asian food), the shopping is great, I love Night Markets (lingxia yeshi ftw!). The only trouble I encountered, actually, was monetary incidentally because I only brought about $500 in spending money--that to cover 6 weeks of shopping for the year (tips for shopping: clothes, stationery stores and agendas, food). People in Taipei are courteous.

There are lots of different levels of Chinese; I was already fluent beforehand, but I still felt challenged and learned quite a bit of new things. The classes are small, under 10, and the teachers go to great lengths to have you learn. (It's quite a bit of work on your part too.)

For those of you interested in business in Asia, understanding the culture, as well as challenging yourself in language, this is the program for you.