Shanghai Jiaotong University

上海交通大学 Shànghǎi Jiāotōng dàxué, also known colloquially as 交大 Jiāodà

Founded in 1896, Shanghai Jiaotong University is one of the oldest Universities in China and is regularly considered one of China’s top schools, confirmed by its status in the Chinese C9 league of universities.

Shanghai Jiaotong University has been referred to as the “Eastern MIT” due to its reputation for producing top engineers and as a top public research school.

The school is split into six campuses located in different areas of the city. The main campus, and the campus in which Mandarin language classes for foreigners are taught, is located in the Xihui district of Shanghai, close to the city centre.

Notable past attendees of SJU include Jiang Zemin (former President of China), Luc Montagnier (a Nobel Prize Laureate for the discovery of HIV) and Ding Junhui (China’s top snooker player).

CSA Program Prices: Shanghai Jiaotong

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Jiaotong University

Our two cents...

With the campus located in downtown Shanghai, this is our most popular course for our students coming to learn Chinese in Shanghai. While its curriculum is not quite as intense as Fudan University, Jiaotong University's location in the city center gives students the chance to experience more of the hustle and bustle that the city is famous for, so if you are not only keen on studying Chinese, but also interested in experiencing the fast-paced Shanghai lifestyle and being close to the financial heart of the city, then Shanghai Jiaotong University would be the logical choice for you! Find out more about what it's like to live and study in Shanghai...

Course Descriptions

Jiaotong University has 9 levels for short term students including 1 semester, 1 year and Summer 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 for directions, making a telephone call, shopping, entertaining a guest, asking for information, complimenting, asking for permission, welcoming a guest, 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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