36,000 hours of one-on-one Chinese lessons. Students from 35 countries. One community in Guilin, China.
In 2025, CLI delivered over 36,000 hours of one-on-one Chinese lessons to students from at least 35 countries: 23,000 hours in person at the CLI Center in Guilin and 13,000 hours online. That's 36,000 hours of meaningful communication, breakthrough moments, laughter over lunch, and friendships formed across languages and borders.
As we enter our 17th year, we're grateful for the students, teachers, pengyous (朋友, péngyou), and team members who continue to make CLI a place where connections form with the Chinese language as the medium.
One of the things that makes CLI special is the diversity of its community. In 2025, students traveled to Guilin from at least 35 countries across six continents.
Some came for two weeks, others for six months. Some were university students earning college credit, others were professionals on sabbatical, retirees fulfilling a lifelong dream, or heritage speakers reconnecting with their roots.
One detail that stands out in review after review: students keep coming back. One student in 2025 was on his ninth visit to CLI. Whether it's two weeks or two months, the connections students form with their teachers and the Guilin community have a way of pulling people back. Read all 102 reviews on GoOverseas.
At the heart of CLI's approach is one-on-one instruction. Every student is paired with three different teachers, each focusing on a different aspect of language learning: speaking/listening, reading/writing, and comprehensive Chinese.
With 20 hours per week of fully personalized lessons, students progress at a pace that group classes can't match. There is no hiding in the back of a classroom. Every minute is active learning, with speaking, listening, reading, writing, and real-time corrections.
The learning doesn't stop when class ends. At CLI's daily lunches, students and teachers sit down together for a home-cooked meal. At least one table is designated Mandarin-only, and students who wear the CLI Language Pledge Bracelet keep the Chinese going all day.
Nothing captures the CLI experience quite like hearing directly from students. Watch Imani and Blake share their stories.
Because CLI students can begin their program on any Monday of the year, the rhythm of community life follows a unique weekly cycle. Each Monday begins with a welcome dinner for new arrivals, and each Thursday ends with a farewell dinner for departing students.
This tradition has run nearly every week since CLI was founded in 2009. Farewell dinners are festive. They're held at favorite local restaurants, often a spot requested by the departing student themselves. The entire CLI community is invited: teachers, students, team members, and pengyous (朋友) from nearby Guangxi Normal University.
Students often give short speeches, sometimes in Chinese, reflecting on their time at CLI, thanking their teachers, and promising to come back. These dinners capture something essential about CLI: it isn't just a place where people study Chinese. It's a place where meaningful relationships form.
Guilin's karst mountains and the Li River have been celebrated in Chinese art for over a thousand years. The saying 桂林山水甲天下 (Guìlín shānshuǐ jiǎ tiānxià, "Guilin's scenery is the finest under heaven") dates back to the Song Dynasty (960 to 1279 CE). For CLI students, this landscape is the backdrop to daily life.
Students climb 七星公园 on lunch breaks. Karst peaks are just minutes from the CLI Center.
Weekend trips to Yangshuo take you down a river celebrated in Chinese art for centuries.
Day trips to the iconic 龙脊梯田 feature a mountain landscape shaped over 2,300 years.
Shared bikes roll through rice paddies and villages on roads lined with karst peaks.
Guilin's markets become classrooms. Few locals speak English, so every errand becomes practice.
Start any Monday. Stay as long as you like. Join a community that, after 17 years and 5,000+ students, still feels like a family that keeps getting bigger.
