Learning Chinese is not as big as an obstacle as you might think, especially when it's that or find a way to past US immigration and afford school + living in the USA. When I lived in Taiwan, I knew a tremendous amount of south american students that had come for the graduate programs because the schools were on-par with American universities, the cost of living was extremely low, and Taiwan is very open to immigration.
People are talking a lot about China in this thread, but I think Taiwan is the country to watch for. They already have a highly-educated population and are a major player in global high-tech hardware.
On the other hand, a train ride to Fulong beach is 1hr and costs 1$, or you can hike Elephant Mountain or one of the millions of other mountains, or you can bike through the mountains, or climb at one of the hundreds of walls, or pay $.50 to get into a gym....
I've never been as fit as when I lived in Taiwan :P
People are talking a lot about China in this thread, but I think Taiwan is the country to watch for. They already have a highly-educated population and are a major player in global high-tech hardware.