View previous topic :: View next topic |
Author |
Message |
LHanks
Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 25
|
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2003 7:15 am Post subject: Has anyone taught in Xian? |
|
|
I am looking at different areas in China to teach. If anyone has taught in Xian or if you know any general info about this area please share it. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
joe Mod Team
Joined: 18 Jan 2003 Posts: 50 Location: Elsewhere
|
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2003 9:25 pm Post subject: Xi'an |
|
|
My only experience with Xi'an has been passing through for only a few days. Although I didn't get the opportunity to work there, I can say that it is a simply beautiful city that is very westernized. I think it would be an ideal place for many foreigners. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
Roger
Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138
|
Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2003 3:10 am Post subject: |
|
|
I was there many years ago, first in my capacity as a traveller, then as an employee, sort of!
The good thing about Xi'an is that it is one of the few towns in CHina with a relatively intact historic downtown area and a city wall and moat. I liked the climate too - hot and dry in summer, but a bit cold in winter.
The downside is its location. You will be relatively far away from consulates, things Western, and the local populace is not so well-to-do. SOme enjoy living among China's poor though!
I enjoyed the variety in foods as Xi'an boasts a large number of Muslims.
If I were to rate XI'an on a scale from 1 to 10, it would score about 7. Shanghai might get 9. Lanzhou: 1.
In my memory are a few leftovers of some unfriendly encounters with authorities. Not that I had any run-in. But a local girl had - because she had been known to have travelled with a Westerner. When the police learnt of this, they put her in detention for a couple of months! OUt of some paranoia, I suppose.
Such things can happen more easily in remoter parts of China. They may by now be a thing of the past, hopefully! |
|
Back to top |
|
|
fang
Joined: 05 Feb 2003 Posts: 2
|
Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 1:55 am Post subject: taught there for 6 weeks |
|
|
I agree with many of the things in Roger's posting, especially the stuff related to food, history &c. I lived out in the sticks, as it were - about a 20 minute bus ride to the city centre - and it wasn't much to write home about. There was a certian 'small town', 'backward', revolution paranoia feel about the place. The college I taught in bolted and locked the doors/gates at a given time for ... Well they do these sorts of things! So much for the clamp down on unsafe net bars after so many young people were burnt to death because of unsafe conditions! I had the choice of times when I could have my water turned on for a couple of hours a day. The college didn't want me doing my own washing and i was supposed to give it to a girl to do ... when I could find her. Did it myself anyway! I was there in Winter and it was cold, dry an' dusty! The buses to the outskirts stopped running around 6 and ... Well, I didn't really enjoy my time there much. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
|