IES Beijing: Go for the language, Stay for the Travel Opportunities Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

During the fall and spring semsters it sometimes feels like you are spending so much time and work and have no time to go explore, but you generally still see alot of China and Beijing, even with all the work. In the summer you have exponetially more freetime. If you need class credits go in the fall or spring. If you want to just chill do a summer session.

On-site administration of your program

IES program director is a great guy who has an abundance of enthusiasm for his work. The rest of the onsite staff are all also really helpful, and I seldom had a problem but if I did they were always availible to assist me.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

My host family actually lived oncampus, as many of China's University campuses are not closed campuses but coexist with apartment buildings and such. I walked to class within 3-4 minutes, I felt very safe in my neighborhood. My house/IES facilities are about 15 minutes away from one of the more popular night life areas and 30 minutes from the other. I had a great experince with my host family, they provided all my bedding and would have given me more then 3 meals a day if I would have let them.

It's China, so there was bound to be plenty of things I didn't like, but on the whole the food was good, I have become much more open to all types of food. Almost everything they cook contains oil and meat is rarely/never boneless.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

IES's highlight, in my opinion, is theri Fall and Spring 2 week mobile learning clasrooms. In the Fall I traveld from the North Korean boarder to the Russian boarder and the plains of Inner Mongolia. In the Spring it was twoo weeks in Yunnan, a tropic province, where I hiked Tiger Leaping Gorge, lived in a tibetan homestay in the mountains and visited Shangri-La.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Beijing is safe as long as you are smart about where you are and who you are with. The foreign hospital that IES uses is awesome, they are all foreign doctors, who are kind and easily accesible, but it is a 40 minute cab ride there. I got a series of vaccines, which your doctor can tell you which ones to get. For asthmatics I would recomend an inhalor , becuase of the pollution, but I only had a slight thraught problem the first few days and then my body didn't seem to mind.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

All my professors, that werent Chinese, were fluent in Chinese, there were also Chinese roomates in the doorms, and my host family only spoke Chinese. Chinese was always needed every day. Most people did not speak english, but you can find english speakers without a problem.

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• Host Family
• Dorm

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• Americans