High School Study Abroad in Beijing, China

I'm 17 and was nervous about spending 4 weeks in China without my parents. But honestly, it was incredible. My homestay family was so welcoming – my host mum packed me lunch every day. Mandarin classes were actually fun, not boring. We learned phrases we could use right away. Weekends we visited the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. I made friends from France, Germany, and Brazil. Came home speaking basic Mandarin and feeling way more confident. Already saving up to go back for a gap year. Highly recommend.

This October, my friends and I went to Shanghai for a Chinese school trip, and it was such a fun week full of surprises! We had hot pot, tried stinky tofu (which was... interesting!), and saw the amazing view at the Bund. The best part? I went from only knowing how to say "ni hao" to learning so many useful phrases, like "wo ai he naicha," "wo bu zhidao," and even "666." Hahahaha! One week was way too short—I wish I could’ve stayed longer! I really want to come back to Shanghai for another awesome Chinese summer camp like this. Totally recommend it, and fingers crossed I get to come back next summer!

I am Brent Smith. My son, Kyle，joined GAC summer high school language program in 2023. Like many other parents of a high school student, I was worried that first about our son being in Beijing. After my son finished the program, I am very happy to say that GAC has very safe and well-organized arrangement, all of the teachers both the university and through the one on one tutoring curriculum that set up from GAC were excellent. The host family was nice and took care of Kyle a lot. We are happy to recommend GoAbroadChina language programs for high school students in China.

Wandering the streets of Chengdu with my host sister, we created a game called 这是什么？or 'what is this?' as I knew almost no Chinese upon arrival. Throughout my six weeks in country I pointed at ingredients from the local market, signs advertising the newest tech in the city's downtown hub, and of course, the pandas at the Chengdu Research Base of Panda Breeding all the while expanding my vocabulary and understanding of Chinese culture. By the end of my time in China with AFS I could order my favorite dumplings from a street cart on the way to school and even sang Beijing opera style for our program's closing ceremony! All of this was made possible with the support of AFS and the funding of the NSLI-Y program. My 6-weeks in China simply wasn't enough, so I enrolled in Chinese classes at university and have been in pursuit of reuniting with my host family (and those dumplings) ever since. My exchange experience not only opened up opportunities for cross-cultural understanding, but also prepared me for a globally focused academic and professional career.

AFS-USA responded to this reviewOctober 14, 2022

Thank you so much for your wonderful review Marria! We are so happy that your exchange experience with AFS was so impactful!

I choose AFS because, I felt like with other exchange programs, after you got into the foreign country they just kind of left you. I felt like AFS took care of us while we were in France by organizing weekends and checking up on us!

I am a high school student back in the US and I decided to go to China during the summer holidays (last year). I joined Go Abroad China, their high school program. It was very interesting, first of all my Chinese language classes were held at a university BLCU in Beijing, but I was living with a Chinese family as my hosts. I had class everyday with some other classmates, they tried to keep people around a similar age and Chinese level together. I really liked learning Chinese. In the afternoons they would take us out to see the city, sometimes they organized activities right on campus. It was really cool being in a campus. My Chinese host family was so great to me, I liked the family that Go Abroad China help arrange for me. They could speak some English and shared a lot of Chinese food with me and made me feel welcome. My time there was great, I enjoyed and learned so much.