Learn Calligraphy & Lettering in Xi'an / Beijing

Honest level: Beginner -> Advanced — ask the school exactly how far that goes in the time you have.

Non-degree Chinese Painting & Calligraphy Program

A non-degree program at China's foremost art academy, taught at the Xiangshan campus in Hangzhou with around 20 class sessions a week. Students work in small bilingual (English/Chinese) groups on brush and pigment technique, ink brushwork, study of master works, calligraphy and seal carving, building from fundamentals to creative composition. Available as full 18-19 week semesters or as shorter 2-8 week workshops; completers receive a certificate from the International College.

Next sessions: Sep 2026 · Feb 2027

An immersive, small-group residency at China's leading art academy, learning brush calligraphy at the source through traditional technique toward a school certificate.

Schools in Xi'an / Beijing

Checked by hand against each school's own course pages. No school paid to be listed.

• China Academy of Art (International College, Xiangshan campus)
  Non-degree Chinese Painting & Calligraphy Program
  A non-degree program at China's foremost art academy, taught at the Xiangshan campus in Hangzhou with around 20 class sessions a week.
  https://caa.at0086.cn/site/admission/show-5653.html
• China Academy of Art (Calligraphy Dept, Hangzhou)
  Short-term Chinese Calligraphy & Seal Carving program (International College)
  China's first institution to establish a calligraphy major (1963), its Hangzhou School of Calligraphy runs short-term 2-to-8-week programs for overseas students covering brush emulation of the five script styles and seal carving.
  https://en.caa.edu.cn/study/schoolsdepartments/school-of-calligraphy/departmentofcalligraphy
• Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA, Beijing)
  Non-degree / foundation programs (Calligraphy major)
  Beijing's national fine-arts academy, founded in 1918, offers calligraphy as one of its undergraduate majors and hosts international foundation and non-degree study options, though it lists no dedicated short immersive calligraphy course for travellers.
  http://global.cafa.edu.cn/
• Xi'an Beilin Stele Forest study programs
  Xi'an's Beilin (Forest of Stone Steles) Museum holds some 3,000 engraved steles by Tang masters such as Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan, and can arrange calligraphy workshops on site, but no formal multi-day study program is verifiable.

The credential

CLAS National Diploma in Calligraphy (Foundation -> Advanced) or SSI Fellowship · Certifying body: Calligraphy & Lettering Arts Society (CLAS) National Diploma / Society of Scribes and Illuminators (SSI)

A recognised qualification an outside body stands behind is not the same as a certificate a school prints itself. We name which it is — you should ask the school the same.

Also for Calligraphy & Lettering

What I check before I send you anywhere

I'm Arnaud. I cook for a living, and I've spent fifteen years on the water — so I know the difference between a real school and a good-looking website. I built the Atlas because I got tired of the second kind. Here is what a place has to clear before it goes on here, and what I'll tell you straight when it doesn't.

• The craft is actually alive there. A working scene, with people who do this every day — not a demo put on for visitors.
• There's a real teacher behind it. Named, still practising, and certified where the craft has certificates.
• The credential is what it claims to be. A state diploma and a certificate a school prints itself are not the same thing. I check which, and I say which.
• I tell you how sure I am. Most pages here are verified by hand. A few say "still checking" — I'd rather admit that than pretend.
• Nobody pays to be here. No commission, no selling the trip. The order on this map is the strength of the community, never the size of the wallet.
• If I wouldn't send a friend, it isn't on the map.