Hey everyone,

i am a doctoral student from Germany and during my PhD I want to go to China doing fieldwork at chinese schools. I want to go to Pu'er for one year. As I already tried EVERYTHING to get in contact with universities and institutions I want to ask if anyone has any advices for me? I sent more than 40 e-mails (in chinese). I sent emails to every University in Yunnan, also to Beijing. I contacted Bureaus and Institutions but so far no one ever answered me. I already talkes to the Pu'er University but for this year they have a strict examination system, so I can´t apply as a scholar. As it is obviousely easy to just go to China and ask the people and Bureaus if I can do my research, I still have the problem with the visa. Because I want to go for one year, best would be a scholarship at a University or a directly invitation of the local government (impossible I guess). So does anyone know who I could contact, has maybe contacts or whatever? I want to start this year in October and it´s driving me crazy that for now I really don´t know what else I could do.

Thanks for helping!

that really wasn´t a reaction I would need now, but thanks

I tried contacting the ministry of education by email once and never got a response. Thats why I find it amusing. Good luck!

You might try to not mention you plan to do research. Seems to me you would need permissions which could be a problem for your visa sponsors. You realize that any conclusions of your research must be only good news or praise. TIC

The only other possible avenue I could think of would be to contact a university in your home country that already has strong links or joint programs with a Chinese university, or a campus here in China.
Having said that, even if it could be done, unless you can hook into an existing research program the timeline is probably too short.
Contacting the aforementioned universities may give you the answer as to whether or not it could be achieved. Sometimes a phone call to a research prof. is much more likely to get a response than an email.

What kind of fieldwork do you want to do at a Chinese university?
Have you tried contacting or visiting the Chinese Embassy?

thank you for your answers!
The funny thing is, my german University has a really strong connection to China (mostly to Beijing and Shanghai) but my supervisor didn´t offer me any help, so I already told him that I have problems of getting the right contact. But still no help ...
So I want to do research at the junior and middle high schools, this actually, wouldn´t be the biggest problem, because I already know the schools because I already lived there for one year and worked as an english teacher.
BUT the biggest problem is getting the visa for one year, as china is really strict....
And yes, I also contacted the chinese embassy, still no answer. Really really frustrating.

I also though about working again as an englisch teacher for one year? Last time it was a volunteer job. But maybe there is a company wants to hire a foreigner so that I can do a few classes a week and doing my research. But applying for a working visa may be too complicated for the companies ...

See numerous ads and forums on teaching English here. Many universities and private teaching schools will indeed get you a working visa.
However, if you state somewhere that you want to do "research" you will have to jump through a lot of bureaucratic hoops and get a research visa.

Going on Chinese course gets you a six month visa which you can renew. You have to pay student fees so a little expensive. 8000 RMB a year. The private schools are fairly relaxed about attendance so you would have time for research