Learning Chinese in Shanghai - Adult education

I have been living in Shanghai almost 4 months now and during this time I have been attending language courses in different language schools in search of the language school with the most suitable course design and teaching methods.

According to my personal experience I can recommend following schools:

Mandarin House for an intensive private language course. I suggest an intensive, 2- hours-a-day course for 6 weeks. This will permit you to learn the basic vocabulary (about 800 words) and the most relevant grammar topics. 

ChineseTime for an intensive private language course. This language school has good teachers, uses a Learning Management System, eLearning content and teletutoring via Skype. 

Eastern China Normal University (Hua Dong Shi Fan Da Xue) for an intensive course focused on the Chinese writing system. Price: 4months 500 Euros (5000 RMB).

For Business people that are prepared to pay more I recommend New Concept Mandarin, whose teaching methods are similar to "superlearning".

The majority of language schools offer the possibility of attending one hour trial lesson. This is a good chance to evaluate not only the quality of the teaching but also other important aspects such as the school environment (classroom equipment, windows, heating system) and to get an idea of the people that are attending courses in the school. 

A language school can usually organise the accomodation. Depending to the position of the apartment there might be high price differences. For a room in a 2-persons flat the rate is around 130-200 Euro per month. For a room in a family the rate is around 300 Euros (breakfast and dinner are included).