I'm glad to hear you're also interested in Chinese summer camps. I had a Chinese summer camp experience before I came to China for a bachelor’s degree. And it was that summer camp experience that made me have a strong interest in China and decided to study in China. I came to Shanghai, China from Morocco in the summer, 2019 and get bachelor admission of September intake in the same year then came to China again in Autumn. So far, I have been in China for more than two years so I guess I can list you the top 3 summer camps in China for international college students.
1). What’s a Good Summer Camp in China?
In other words, how to evaluate a summer camp is good? There are a lot of different camps for different people on different topics such as summer camps for medical students related to traditional Chinese medicine, learning-type summer camps with the theme of e-commerce, summer camps with the theme of architecture, etc. But the most common Chinese summer camp for college students is about Chinese language learning and Chinese cultural experience. I will introduce you to the most popular Chinese camps in Chinese universities (Chinese language learning and Chinese culture experience) in this article so more people will be benefited from reading this.
What should a summer camp in China on the theme of Chinese language & culture look like? As far as my personal experience is concerned, the most important factor in evaluating a summer camp is the quality and content of the course. Think about the purpose for you to come to China then do you think that to learn some basic Chinese and its grammatical rules and to understand the vast and profound knowledge of Chinese history and society in a limited time is what we ordinary travelers expect? So if the Chinese summer camp courses cover Chinese language learning, Chinese traditional culture learning, and Chinese cities & famous scenery exploring and excellent company visiting then it’s a complete camp at least and we can have a comprehensive understanding of the country’s politics, economy, history, civilization, society, education, and so on. As for the quality of a summer camp, we should have more evaluation criteria like the price-performance ratio, the organizer (university) ranking, the city ranking, the recognition of international students, and so on. I think it is only after a comprehensive assessment of these factors that we can have concrete reasons to comment on the quality of a summer camp. To make my point clear, I made a list of the best summer camps in China below.
2). The Top Summer Camps in Chinese Universities for International College Students
Table Notes：
1. I scored 14 common summer camps from different universities on different dimensions, score 1~2 or 1~3 on each dimension, the higher the score, the better the camps. Then I ranked each camp based on its combined total score in the last column so that it’s easy to be seen what’s the best Chinese university summer class.
2. A score of three in the university rankings means that the host school is in the top 10 among China’s universities, is a prestigious institution with authority. A score of two in the university rankings means that the host school is in the top 50 of China’s universities, which is very good. The schools that get point one in the university rankings are behind 50th place of Chinese universities, but they are also good Chinese universities with good short-term classes.
3. Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen are the most developed cities in China, so they scored 3 points. Nanjing, Qingdao, and Hangzhou are among China’s newly developed cities, universities there scored 2 points, and the remaining schools that scored 1 did not mean their city was bad, but just relatively less well-known. An additional point about the city is that, although Guangzhou, Guangdong is a developed city, officials there are particularly slow in processing Chinese university (summer class) applications from overseas students and in issuing visa documents, and the waiting time can be as long as several months, there’s even something happen like that you can’t get a visa even if you accepted by the university. Therefore, the cities in Guangdong got zero points in the city rankings.
4. The third column is the value for money score, which is higher if a school has a better and cheaper summer camp course.
5. In the fourth column, if a university has more than 4,000 international students in school every year, it gets two points; otherwise, it gets only one point. The number of international students reflects a university’s international education history and management experience, as well as the popularity of a university among international students.
6. The fifth factor is the content of the course I mentioned before. If the content of the course is more excellent and the form is more abundant, then the score is higher.
7. If your budget is adequate, consider Peking University more please, which has been running summer Chinese classes since the 1980s and has a wealth of experience. In the eyes of many Chinese, Peking University is the best university in China. If you don’t have a big budget, I highly recommend Southeast University Summer Camp, which is one of the top three and most cost-effective summer camps in China and has more than a decade of camp experience, plus its location in Nanjing, a very attractive historical city, really shouldn’t be missed.
3). How to Attend a Summer Camp in China During the COVID-19 Pandemic?
If you are already in China, then you can join the offline summer camp in a Chinese university freely as long as the school accepts your application. But make sure the camp you sign up for is an offline summer course in China first.
If you are out of China, then you may only join summer camp online except you can get a visa from the Chinese Embassy like the South Korea students. I have a friend from South Korea who applied to summer camp at Donghua University in 2021 already got a visa from the Chinese Embassy and bought a plane ticket to China at the end of June. Even if it’s an online Chinese summer camp for you, I wish you will have a productive holiday! BTW, I wrote another article on how to apply for summer camps in China. If you are also interested, just click the green words, please.
