Job Discussion Forums

[The_Prodiigy]

Hello people,

I am now teaching at Bohai Uni in Jinzhou.
During the Labour Week took a trip to Qindao and was so impressed with the place am planning on relocating there later this year/early next year.

Does anyone have info on the salaries/working conditions of the unis, colleges and others schools. Especially further education places as I prefer the freedom and lower contact hours.

Do they provide one or two-bedroom apartments for the FTs? Here the accommodation is one of the poorer working conditions. At the moment FTs are housed in on campus dorms. Convenient but not large.

Is there a solid ex-pat community in Qindao ?
Are there opportunities to expand teaching hours and pay one settled in ?

Really would appreciate any information people can provide.

Cheers .....

[KWhitehead]

www.myredstar.com

[Roger]

QinGdao, as in Qing Dynasty.
Working conditions certainly won't vary greatly to Jinzhou.

[Brian Caulfield]

I just left Qingdao . I think if you are well heeled it is a good place for you . It is not China , but more like the Riviera or Lajolla california . It is funny because there are no bikes in Qingdao and I asked people and they said it is because of the hills . But there are signs everywhere telling you that bikes are prohibited . People are rich in Qingdao the money is made in other places . The salaries are the same as the rest of China but the cost of living is three times higher . It is not the clean city everyone talks about . There is so much construction going on that everything is constantly getting coated in cement dust , including your lungs . Germans and Koreans are the majority of immigrants . The biggest problem these people were complaining about was the rise in green fees at the golf course. It now cost them 1,500 per game .
Qingdao is not China .

[KWhitehead]

yeah, i'd agree with most of what brian said. i spent two years in dusty, crappy beijing, though, and i'd have to say that qingdao is 100x better. the pollution isn't near as bad in Shi Nan Qu as the rest of the city. there's a lot of construction, but i don't get lung cramps the way i did in good ole Beijing. the level of English is actually better. the seafood's good, too. but it's also a resort town. apartment complexes are largely empty-- either because of speculation or because they're part-time houses for rich people from HK, BJ, etc. my quality of life is much higher here, all-around, but my current school should be slapped silly for lack of concern about its teachers. i get more stares here, which is a bother. their dialect is close to putonghua, which is convenient. i don't regret moving here.

hope this disorganized post helps.

[The_Prodiigy]

Hi again.

Thanks for the postings fellow teachers.

Jinzhou is also a dusty lil town. Black sediment hangs around everywhere and seeps in through the nettings to settle on home furnishings, electrical equipment and floors.

Although the people are rock solid here the city is quite poor and disorganised, although Bohai is rapidly expanding.

This place is a decent entry point to China and this uni appears to have a high teacher turnover - more than two years here and you are a veteran. I am in my first semester.

From what I saw of the place it appears to have nearly all one needs for comfortable living. The eastern business district rocked - nice to have access to some of the simple things one is used to - Frosties, cheese, Starbucks, McD ...

Couple of incidents near to Number 6 beach indicated you have to be careful of rip-off merchants in the cafe's near the sea front.

Not China ? Everyone appeared to speak the lingo and local customs were in abundance. Qindao seemed to be getting rich from tourists, investments and Olympic promotion which is to be celebrated and I hope other parts of the country benefit similarily.

It's been growing faster than any economy over the past decade or so.