TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — After switching from Beijing to Taipei, Harvard University's new summer Mandarin study program next year will include 60 students, who will have a chance to visit famous sites in the city such as the National Palace Museum, Shilin Night Market, and Yangmingshan.

On Tuesday (Oct. 12), news broke that Harvard University would move its summer Mandarin study program from Beijing to Taipei due to the ‘perceived lack of friendliness’ in the communist capital. The Harvard Beijing Academic summer study program will be moved from Beijing Language and Culture University to National Taiwan University (NTU) in Taipei and renamed the Harvard Taipei Academy

The inaugural Taiwan version of the 8-week program is set to kick off at NTU in 2022 and will include 60 students, reported CNA. An NTU administrator told the news agency that discussions had started in 2019 and the program was actually supposed to kick off in Taipei in 2020, but due to the pandemic, it has been postponed to the summer of 2022.

The official said that the details of the courses and teachers are still being arranged. According to the Harvard Taipei Academy website, the program will be centered around intensive courses in intermediate and advanced Mandarin, covering speaking, oral comprehension, reading, and writing.

Outside the classroom, there will be excursions to famous sites such as the National Palace Museum, Shilin Night Market, Yangmingshan, and Jiufen. The curriculum will also include exposure to Chinese and Taiwanese culture through activities including Tai Chi, calligraphy, mah-jiang, Chinese chess, papercutting, and making dumplings.

The NTU representative asserted that the "free academic environment of NTU will lay a solid foundation in Mandarin for the Harvard students." In turn, the official expressed the hope that the interaction with the Harvard students through extracurricular activities will broaden the international horizons of NTU students.