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[Flyover]

After four years of living in China and trying to just "pick up Chinese", I decided to have a serious go at learning Mandarin this year. I want to take a three months break this summer and study Mandarin somewhere where they everyone speaks standard Mandarin (i.e. Northern China), preferably with an immersion experience, good teachers and as few expats as possible.
Anyone can recommend a good school or program? It would need to be flexible time wise as I might have to adjust dates according to work requirements. A pleasant city also would be an advantage.

[x0vash0x]

It's not absolutely necessary for a beginner to move north to learn putonghua. Every Chinese language school will teach you putonghua and not some regional dialect.

[...]

I believe Anhui University has a pretty good program, but I don't think they have intensive short-term programs. You'd have to ask.

Yeah, not sure why you think it's necessary to move north to learn Chinese unless you really want to.

Also, Anhui university is a very popular option: http://www1.ahu.edu.cn/gjjy/main/Showen.asp?ID=31

You're probably better off with this though: http://www1.ahu.edu.cn/gjjy/main/Showen.asp?ID=28

[Anhuiflowers]

I would not recommend to go to Zhengzhou, the Mandarin in Henan is not very standard. Beijing is considered quite standard, but some cities further North (Harbin, Chengde) are supposed to speak even clearer and without the Beijing "er", which is not standard.
I studied Chinese in Beijing at LTL http://www.livethelanguage.cn and they are very good school. I think they have programs in Shanghai and Chengde too, but if you want to be in a standard Mandarin speaking area then Shanghai is obviously not an option. Chengde might be good for the accent spoken there too, but I have never been. Beijing is a fun city.