Since there's no "College in China" forum, I'll just post this here. Hopefully it's the right place.

I was planning on doing a BA in Chinese and minoring in Japanese, so I could go on to get an MA and PhD in Chinese and become a professor. Unfortunately, I got rejected from the university I was applying to. Twice. There's apparently some law that says if you graduated in the top 10% of your high school class, you automatically get admitted. So the seats fill up really quickly, and I'm sure someone wanting a second bachelor's degree isn't too high on their priority list  Since it's the only good Chinese program in the state that isn't at a private university, and I can't afford to move out of state and pay the ridiculous out-of-state tuition, it looks like I won't be doing a BA in Chinese after all.

So my wife and I are planning on moving to China or Taiwan in about a year, and staying for a year or two (or maybe more). I'll hopefully be able to study in a non-degree Chinese language program there (maybe even an MA program later) and hopefully study Classical Chinese along the way. After that, hopefully I could get into a grad program in the US. We'd hopefully both teach English while there to support ourselves. To be honest, this idea sounds like a hell of a lot more fun than sitting here in Texas for the next several years.

Lots of "hopefully" in that last paragraph.

So...questions I have:

1) I'll still need (and want) to learn Japanese, and IMO sooner rather than later. It's a requirement for PhD programs, so I don't have to learn it for several years, but I'm itching to learn it already. If you were in this situation, would you focus hardcore on Chinese for the next year and just let Japanese wait several years (considering it will be ACATT once I'm in China), or would you study both at a more relaxed pace? I've been using Assimil Japanese and I'm liking it a lot, and I mainly need passive knowledge of Japanese for the time being (no plans to move to Japan any time soon).

2) Is it tough to get into non-degree Chinese language programs at universities in either China or Taiwan, or are they not too selective about it? I'd hope to be able to go to a recognized school (Tsinghua, Nanda, BLCU, PKU, National Taiwan U, etc.), but I'm not dead set on it if I could get quality instruction at a less well-known school and then just get a certification (HSK or TOP-Huayu).

3) What schools/programs would you recommend? I'd sort of prefer China, but I feel like Taiwan's educational system might be better, plus they use traditional characters, which I prefer. But then...it isn't China.

4) Anything else I should know? I'm looking into government scholarships (MOE in Taiwan and CSC in China), are there others I should be aware of?