Deciding which university and where to go to learn Mandarin in China can cause a huge headache. A country with a population of over 1,321,851,888 people, is equivalent to covering over 1/5 of the world's population. China is also the fourth largest in area with territory in the world. We are here to help you to define 4-6 top universities to learn Mandarin, across the 3 top cities in China.

Beijing being the cultural, political and educational centre, and the origin of the "official language" (Mandarin) of China, is the most recommended place to learn Mandarin. Below are the top 3 universities in Beijing.

Beijing Language & Culture University (BLCU) was founded in 1962, and has the longest history of specialising in teaching Mandarin and Chinese culture to foreigners. There are foreigners coming from over 160 countries studying Mandarin at BLCU, and today it has more than 800 full-time teaching staff.

Tsinghua University (THU), established since 1911, has a reputation of the most Chinese universities placing Tsinghua as the highest ranking university in China. Their promising motto "Self-discipline and Social Commitment" explains it all. The most common course taken here are their accounting courses, by reason of signed agreements with ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants).

Since Shanghai was one of the world's busiest ports in 2005, it has become the largest cargo port in the world then. Shanghai's modern lifestyle has attracted many foreigners to come and learn Mandarin, as well as many multinational businesses to have a headquarter office in Shanghai. This westernised and modern city is one of China's most vital cultural, financial, commercial, industrial and communications centers.

Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) was established in 1896, now standing as one of the oldest and most significant university in China. SJTU has more than 1420 professors, with more than 100 of them being famous scientists and specialists. SJTU has over 38,000 full-time enrolled students, and a wide variety of courses to choose from. The Ministry of Education and the Shanghai Government jointly runs SJTU.

Fudan University, established in 1905 "is one of the oldest leading, co-educational, and most selective universities in the People's Republic of China." Fudan University ranked highest in their physical and social sciences.

Guangzhou is the third most populous metropolitan area in China. Due to labour costs increasing in Hong Kong, this has opened doors for Guangzhou - more and more manufacturers have opened new plants here. This has led Guangzhou to be one of China's wealthiest cities, but it also attracts farmers coming into the city looking for factory work. There are two famous universities in Guangzhou, the Sun Yat-sen University, and Jinan University (JNU).

Usually in universities, the teacher to student ratio for learning Mandarin Chinese classes is usually 1:20. There are short term and long term courses to choose from. The short term courses usually last for up to1 semester (around 4 months). The long term courses usually last for 1 year to 2 years (2 to 4 semesters). All short term and long term courses/programs usually start at the end of February (after Chinese New Year) till mid-July, and the fall semesters usually start in early September, and end in mid-January.

Beijing is the recommended location for studying Mandarin Chinese, as it is the origin of the official language of China. If you have only a limited time to learn Mandarin, or the timing of the universities is inconvenient for you, there are other alternatives. You can master Mandarin Chinese in a short period of time, any time of the year at an academy. For those who prefer learning in smaller classes and flexible time schedules, they may rather prefer to study at an academy. PRC Study specialises in teaching Mandarin to foreigners, and offers a variety of immersion courses to choose from. http://www.prcstudy.com/mandarin_chinese.shtml