http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_cl00XMTc4MDc1NzY=.html This is a Hangzhou travel video,you will find it is a beautiful city for travel. But if you want to learn Chinese mandarin,I suggest not to Hangzhou,people in Hangzhou speak Wu dialect.NT said Qingdao and Dalian, I dont think so, for you will get strong accent from the two cities.I think the best city for learning Chinese Mandarin is Beijing.For the local accent is the most nearly Chinese official language.Although,some people could speak English,but they could explain with Engish when you cant understand.Also you could choose some other local citizen who cant speak Engish to help you with your Chinese Mandarin. At last,I suggest to go around Hangzhou,i have been to the city,it is really beautiful .

in my opinion,wherever u go.if u explain ur idea,and people will speak chinese with you,not english.If u enter in a restaurant,u speak chinese,the waiteress will speak chinese with u too.The truth is u should speak chinese before we speak english,and we will be glad to speak chinese rather than english when talk with a "老外"(except someone wanna parctice english).lol...

look, i think the recommendation of NT is very reasonable.

So, Hangzhou may be the better choice than Beijing, in case you really want to be forced to speak Chinese! I think in the end your learning result will be better. I know someone who went to Hangzhou to learn Chinese for a year and his Chinese is really impressive!

I also think Beijing is less expansive than Shanghai, still Beijing is of course one of the most expansive cities in China. Anyway, food and other things of everyday life are still cheap enough, in case you don't need something exclusive or don't want to go to foreign restaurants often. As I can say about my own language learning experience in China: You will learn Chinese best in the cities where you will be forced to speak Chinese! What I mean is, in Shanghai or Beijing you will speak English very often, when going shopping, when going to foreign restaurants, when talking to chinese students who try to practice their English. The main problem is that if you don't use your Chinese is everyday life, it will be hard to really learn this language. That's why my personal suggestion is: Don't go to Beijing or Shanghai. Best would be to go to a smaller city where not so many people speak English, just because you will be forced to use the Chinese you learn! I think this is highest priority. Of course you should also go to a city where people speak Mandarin, not a strange dialect or Cantonese or whatever. But this is only secondary, because in the Chinese language class they will anyway teach you perfect Mandarin. Still it's nice to understand the people outside the language class of course ;-) Therefore m suggestion is: Don't go to Beijing (although everyone will tell you it's best place to learn Mandarin because it's the local language, but in the end you will end up speaking English all the time!), better go to a not so huge city where less people speak English (cause not so many foreigners visit these cities). I have talked to many students who learned Chinese in China, the ones in the big cities never was so happy about their choice. The students who went to cities like Dalian, Qingdao, Chengdu and so on always learned Chinese much better, just because they were forced to use the language!