Yunnan University

云南大学 Yúnnán dàxué, also known colloquially as 云大 Yúndà

Yunnan University is one of the largest and most prestigious institutions in China, having been founded in 1922 in the capital of Yunnan Province, Kunming. Yunnan University is one of the “Project 211” universities authorized by the Chinese government for special development, and has been included on the list of key national universities for the “China Western Development” program.

Yunnan University became famous in China during World War II as many top professors, particularly from Beijing, went to teach there (Yunnan Province was not directly involved in the fighting). The university also boasts one of China’s oldest and longest running French language training centers, due to the President during this time holding a PhD from the Sorbonne in Paris.

The university is also famous for the acclaimed Herbarium, its in-house publishing centre that has produced over two million volumes of various academic works, and for being one of the first higher education institutions in China to have their own high-tech company listed on the stock exchange when shares in the Yunnan University Science and Technology Corporation were issued on the Chinese domestic stock market.

CSA Program Prices: Yunnan University

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Our two cents...

Kunming is our destination of choice for a full immersion experience: tucked away in the southwest frontier of China, the province boasts some of the most beautiful scenery in all of China, and with a moderate climate all year round it gives you ample opportunity to go out and explore. Kunming’s status as a “smaller” city (though it still has a population of almost 7 million people!), distanced from more developed areas, means that the cost of living is significantly lower than in other big Chinese cities. With far fewer foreigners than Beijing or Shanghai, studying in Kunming gives you a chance to really get involved in the Chinese way of life, to make and spend time with Chinese friends and to immerse yourself in the Chinese language - as we've repeated many times, this is certainly the best way to learn to speak Chinese. If you are adventurous and are ready for a challenge, seeking a change of lifestyle while studying and ready to jump with two feet into Chinese culture, then Kunming is the choice for you! Find out more about what it's like to live and study Chinese in Kunming...

Course Descriptions

Yunnan University has 8 levels for short term students including 1 semester, 12 weeks, summer & winter programs.

Elementary Level: The purpose of this course is to lay groundwork for the study of modern Chinese. The course has an emphasis on oral skills with classes in listening and speaking with initial presentation of the written language, both reading and writing.

A large emphasis is placed on mastering the phonetic system so as set a good foundation for further Chinese studies with the correct pronunciation and intonation. While the learning of sentence patterns is a major component of the course, efforts will be made to help students handle simple everyday tasks such as greeting, introducing friends and relatives, identifying people or objects, asking for one's personal information (including name, occupation, nationality, address, phone number), expressing gratitude to someone, sending someone your regard, making a reply to a complimentary remark, talking about your family, your school and your studies, looking for someone, seeing a guest off, asking the time, making an appointment, making an invitation, making a suggestion, asking for someone’s opinion, buying something, and offering congratulations.


Intermediate Level: The purpose of this course is to continue to lay groundwork for the study of modern Chinese by expanding on the base of Elementary Chinese. The course will provide instruction in all four language skills of aurally understanding, speaking, reading, and writing.

Many of the grammatical constructions introduced in first year Chinese will be repeated in this course with increasing sophistication in terms of style and usage. While many of the linguistic tasks students will learn to handle are similar to those of first year Chinese, the level of language required to carry out these tasks is more advanced. In this course students are required to comprehend and produce paragraph-level Chinese. By the end of this course, students are expected to deal with daily-life related Chinese in a target language environment with no difficulty. Topics covered include: buying things, making an invitation, making an appointment, offering congratulations, asking for one's age, asking for opinions from others, presenting a gift, asking the way, making a telephone call, refusing politely, shopping, entertaining a guest, asking for information, complimenting, making a plan, asking for permission, welcoming a guest, waiting for someone, proposing a toast, talking about ball games, seeing someone off, traveling, and buying tickets.


Advanced Level: The purpose of the course is to continue to develop their skills of aurally understanding, speaking, reading and writing.

Students will continue to improve their linguistic skills with a manageable degree of challenge. At the functional level, this course aims at helping students solidify their ability to comprehend and produce paragraph-level Chinese. It seeks to enable students to understand face-to-face conversations on most familiar topics, give factual accounts, read materials written in formal expression, and write simple essays, reports and other types of correspondence. There is a heavy emphasis on reading from this level covering topics such as current events, social sciences, history, and literature. Discussions on the reading materials will be conducted regularly to develop students' skills of abstract reasoning, narration and description.

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