Job Discussion Forums

[Professional TEFLer]

Does anybody know anything about Linyi in the Shandong Province?

Is it a big city?

Do they have the all important places like Starbucks and a place to buy protein powder?

Any good martial arts schools there?

How close to a big city?

I'm hoping to hear from someone who has or is living there because I may be heading that way.

Thanks!

[roadwalker]

Since nobody with actual in town experience chimed in, so far, try looking at wikipedia. You'll find Linyi is a prefecture-level city of about 2 million in the urban core. So small by Chinese standards. No Starbucks according to Starbucks' online store locator. I also looked for trains on travelchinaguide dot com. There are regular trains but no high-speed trains come by. That means you are four or more hours from other major cities such as Jinan or Qingdao and an overnight train or flight to further destinations. So not isolated, but not extremely well-connected. I also tried to find some travel blog-type reports but none for Linyi except for a businessman singing the praises of a factory in Linyi. So I guess it's not overpopulated with foreign teachers or wandering foreigners.

Get a foreign teacher contact from the school you are considering working for. If they can't provide one, that's not a good sign.

[choudoufu]

here's a dude who visited:

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=1&page_id=97468&v=Em

"Linyi seemed to me a very dynamic and developed place. The streets were very clean, everything seemed well taken care of, modern, efficient. Coming into the city there were literally kilometers of aparment buildings under construction. I wonder if they will be able to sell them all. And even in the outlying areas going south the shoulders were very clean, or being cleaned by teams of hundreds of workers with huge brooms, and the green areas lining the roads were actually gardened. I was to see the contrast to this when I changed from this province to the next one. "

train to qingdao:
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/display.aspx?tp=1&to1=Qingdao&from1=Linyi

sleepers to beijing:
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/display.aspx?tp=1&to1=Beijing&from1=Linyi