Thanks for the info all....good to have another option in KUST - I shan't be putting my money down until the week before the semester starts, so will check both out on arrival in Kunming. Thanks for the feedback, globeral, but can you go into more specifics about how they have "no consideration for the students". All else I've read about KCELC from other people so far has been broadly positive - one poster on chinese-forums.com did mention that they were dissatisfied with a teacher, but had no problem when they asked to switch classes.

I'm currently studying at Dong Fang, a private school, on Dongfeng west R.d. If you enroll for the minimum number of hours (10 hrs/week), you have just one teacher that teaches from a "comprehensive" textbook. You can choose to pay for additional hours, and add courses like listening, speaking, and reading/writing. The teachers are overall a little better. I don't think that is a bad choice.

Hi Rainer - could you give further info on cost and whether they offer a student visa?...I'm still planning on KCELC, but will consider dong fang before slapping my money down. Cheers,

KCELC is the English name for Dong Fang Yu Yuan Xue Xiao meaning Dong Fang is the same as KCELC.

I don't know too much info about KCEL's tuition, i only know small class (10 hours/week ) pay 3800 RMB,1 to 1 (10 hours/week) pay 55RMB/person/hour, 1 to 2 (35RMB/hour) and 1 to 2 6800RMB/person/20weeks.semester. Now i am in 1 to 2 classes pay 35RMB /hour. More informations browse their website www.elcec.com . Phone number is 0871 5358860.
i will go to Germany to meet my families. That is a good school,maybe i will come back after 4 months. haha, i love china!

these are on their website, i hope it can help you!
Kunming College of Eastern Language and Culture Chinese studying tuition level
Classes Items Studying hours Tuition

Beginners Chinese class

Elementary Chinese class

Intermediate
Chinese class

Advanced Chinese class

Small class
(5-16persons) 20 hours/week 6200 RMB/person/20wk.semester

18 hours/week 5800RMB/person/20wk.semester

14 hours/week 5000 RMB/person/20wk.semester

One to One 20 hours/week 20000RMB/person/20wk.semester

10 hours/week 11000RMB/person/20wk.semester

65RMB/person /hour

One to Two 20 hours/week 13000RMB/person/20wk.semester

10 hours/week 6800RMB/person/20wk.semester

35RMB/person/hour

One to Three 20 hours/week 11000RMB/person/20wk.semester

10 hours/week 5800RMB/person/20wk.semester

30 RMB/person/hour

One to Four 20 hours/week 9000RMB/person/20wk.semester

10 hours/week 4800RMB/person/20wk.semester

25 RMB/person/hour

Training in HSK Small class
(5-16persons) 10 hours/week 30 RMB/person/hour

One to One 10 hours/week 65RMB/person/hour

Training in BCT Small class
(5-16persons) 10 hours/week 30 RMB/person/hour

One to One 10 hours/week 65RMB/person/hour

Short-term training in Chinese class（up to three months） Small class
(5-16persons) 18 hours/week 25RMB/person/hour

One to One 10 hours/week 65 RMB/person/hour

Special subject training class Small class
(5-16persons) 16hours/week 600RMB/person/week

One to one 10 hours/week 65RMB/person/hour

KCEL offer a student visa, i got my study visa from their.

Hello Everyone,

I am a German/American who is planning on going to KCEL for a year long mandarin study. I plan on going to their main campus. Anymore feedback on the language instruction compared to others, finding apartments nearby, and if one needs a car if they live in the center of the city, can walking or bicycle be enough to get by? Also is the visa pretty straight forward, I was told to show up with a tourist visa and KCELC will change it to a student Visa. Thanks. Jade

You definitely will not need a car. Cross that off the "to do" list. Plenty of apartments in the same general area. Like they told you, just show up with a tourist visa and they will help you convert it to a student visa. They did it for me earlier this year. Teaching quality ranges from satisfactory to excellent, depending on who you get.

Hi, guys. I'm Julie Zhao, the new manager of the western campus of Kunming Eastern Language and Culture (DongFang YuYan XueXiao).

I appreciate your comments about the western campus, even though they were negative, because they mean there are many people still thinking about our school.

Dong Fang isn't a new school, and these past seven years we've grown largely from word-of-mouth among the foreign community in Kunming. In fact, we've grown enough to open three different campuses, the main one in XiaoXiMen, and then a northern campus and a western campus.

I began overseeing the western campus two months ago. It originally opened at the beginning of this year, but had to close in August due to management problems at that time. This gave many students difficulty, especially those who had already registered here. We are so sorry this happened, and we apologize.

We know we made mistakes, and of course we are not perfect, but we have carefully researched where we went wrong, and we have revamped our western campus so that these mistakes will not be repeated.

We are now offering classes for beginner, intermediate, and advanced Mandarin students. Even if you are the only student to sign up for a particular class, we will still hold class and will still charge only the basic class price, not the one-on-one rate. We handle visas for any students taking 10 or more hours a week.

I'm very pleased to welcome you to our school, and I eagerly welcome your suggestions.

Our office number is: 0871-5364978

My mobile: 13769182942