A course for absolute beginner?

[mr tin]

Hi everyone - I just came across this website and am delighted and amazed to find a whole community of people interested in studying Chinese in China.I'm an absolute beginner who would like to spend a year - or possibly more - studying Chinese in Beijing. I would prefer to be in a university environment if possible (as opposed to a private school). I'm looking at Beijing because I've been there before and liked it. I also have several supportive friends living there. My goal is to become proficient enough in Chinese to be able to conduct business and to have a good time living in Beijing while I'm at it.So far the Tsinghua Chinese Language Program looks the most attractive. Incidentally, I see that they have a separate application date for the Spring Semester: December 15th, which I would think means that it should be possible to begin a program in the Spring - does anyone know if this is correct or what the dates of the semesters are?I've been unable to find any information in English regarding similar programs at Beida - that's another place I would love to study. If anyone has a link, I'd appreciate it if they could post it. I gather that BLCU doesn't accept absolute beginners, so that rules that one out. Are there other good programs in Beijing?I was also looking into the Chinese government scholarships and trying to figure out how that might work with a Spring start date. It sounds like the deadlines (at least for EU citizens) are in the Spring, so that might be tricky.Any advice or pointers would be greatly appreciated!