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[nanchang]

I am writing a review of Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (aka Jiangxi Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jiangxi U of TCM, etc.). Its Chinese name is 江西中医学院，abbreviated 江中。I have taught elsewhere in China before, so I am not evaluating this school without perspective. I have taught in other countries as well.

I have worked here for the fall 2005 semester and now, as per my contract, for the Spring 2006 semester. I will then be happy to leave. I would be happy to answer any specific questions about the place that you have. Below is a brief outline of the good and bad of the place.

Good
New, spacious apartments. Fresh air, for China, as the new campus is outside of the city. A foreign affairs office filled with people who speak English from pretty good to very fluently. Sixteen 40 minute classes per week. This year all teachers have one weekday off, so they teach only four days per week. The students are nice and respectful.


Bad
1) Heat/AC only in your bedroom. Elsewhere in China I had heat in both my bedroom and living room and heat lamps in the bathroom. It goes below freezing sometimes here.
2) You are very isolated from the city. It is a lie to say, as they will, that you are 40 minutes from the city. Because of the reality of the transportation situation and location of your apartment, it will take you TWO HOURS to get from your door to the downtown area. That will include a 20-30 minute walk and two buses, plus waiting time. This is not so for the Chinese staff because they have buses to bring them here in the morning and take them home after work. You literally live in the middle of pig farms. There is nothing here.
3) Sometimes when I ask for things to be fixed they are fixed. Other things simply don�t get fixed no how many times I ask.
4) Your phone cannot dial out at all without a phone card. You can�t even dial your neighbor without one. To dial another province you �need� two phone cards.
5) The English department treats you like yesterday�s leftovers. The Chinese teachers all know when class will be canceled because of chemistry labs, but you, dumb foreigner, will show up to an empty room. You can ask your classes when their lab is and your students will ask you why you don�t know. You can ask both the FAO and the English department to be notified of such things, but you won�t be. Other examples exist. This has improved some for the Spring semester only after vociferous and repeated complaining.
6) You live in a fenced compound with guards at the gate. They want everyone to sign in. We got clear agreement from the FAO on more than five separate occasions that this would be changed, but it hasn�t truly. They are even more devious liars than my last school. The guards have been mean to the students; this has improved slightly as we have complained numerous times.
7) On average, once a month you will be without power and water for 12 or more hours, sometimes for up to four days in a row like this. Sometimes you will be told in advance, sometimes you will not; sometimes your students will be told and you will not be!
8 The Internet is very slow. You are on the uni LAN. Take note P2P people: this means you are behind a NAT router. The computers the school provides are ^@%$ quality. You cannot write to a CD and you have CRT monitors. No printer is provided. My last school had one and LCDs. Fine, don�t expect me to print anything for class.
9) Next year you will see no improvement and much backsliding as the teacher who has been responsible for 98% of the changes here is leaving. He rallied the teachers together to stand up for their rights, and some important changes were made (or agreed to and not yet made as of this writin). No one else wanted to do this and they won�t next year. There are three FTs that will likely renew due to their own issues. One other may renew for legitimate personal reasons outside of the university. If you�re happy merely taking what you can get, you might love this place.
10) The school has entered teachers apartments without permission or telling them in the past. Teachers have proof of this. The school denies it.
11) Mail can be up to a month and half late here. That�s both domestic and foreign. That�s going by the arrival stamp made by the post office just ten minutes away by car. That�s not one item that was a month and half late. Two weeks late seems to be average. After talking with the university president recently � because the FAO told me she didn�t think 2 weeks to 1 and 1/2 months late was all that late � this has improved slightly. Again, I am saying late, not total time. Where I was last time in China was ten days for international airmail, as it has been to other countries I�ve lived in. Here it is 20 days at the quickest. Domestic mail is also delayed and it makes no difference whether the address is written in Chinese or English.
12) Foreign teachers cannot borrow books from the library. When I wrote (and sent) a letter in Chinese to the two head librarians asking them why, it simply went unanswered. I brought this up in a letter to the uni pres and received no reply.
13) Lots of unruly foreign medical students. More next year and currently 24/7 construction immediately adjacent to the where teachers live.
14) I�ve certainly forgotten other things I should add, but at this point I think you get the basic idea.


There are worse schools out there I imagine, but there are better ones, too. The school has little understanding of how isolated the teachers are living out in the middle of pig farms. We�ve tried to tell them. They just don�t give a poop. They have no interest in improving and next year you will be among returnee refugees who are too scared to rock the leaking boat, though even that number is dwindling as folks who originally planned on staying here are now making other plans.

Yes, there is a nice review of the place by a former teacher. He left for medical reasons but he told me he wouldn�t likely renew anyway due to things going downhill.

You�re welcome to email me at [email protected]
I will check this only periodically, so my reply may not be quick but I will reply to you.

[nanchang]

If you work at this school you are a loser who deserves everything you get. Things got worse at the end and I was actually threatened with a shoe a couple of weeks before I left by one of the FAO's security guards!

This is one of the worst schools going!

Feel free to contact me at the address above

[Malsol]

Nanchang has numerous universities and they are all similar to what has been posted, except that East Jiaotong lacks the modern housing.

Once you get into town it is very charming with many tree lined shopping streets. Wal-Mart, METRO, KFC, Pizza Hut, McDo, bowling, western cowboy bars, and a very large wholesale market.


It is the remoteness of the universities that makes it a bad gig.

[nanchang]

No, Malsol, you are incorrect.

First, teachers at other schools in Nanchang I've talked with have not had the Guantanimo housing situation we had (those staying still have). This is an extremely serious issue. You have no idea what bassturds they are. I just received an email from a person who decided to stay and supposedly they are getting a guard dog! I bet this is because of the incident the guards had with me.

Second, there are some schools in the city, including with teachers living in the city.

Third, Nanchang ain't that nice a city. Sure, it's got some 'stuff' as I myself mentioned on another thread, but it is a 'typically' dreary Chinese city. Most of the other Chinese cities I have been to are nicer.

Fourth, I agree with my out-of-province students: Nanchangers/Jiangxiites ain't a friendly bunch.

Fifth, simple remoteness is not the issue. Other unis, in China and even within The Chang, provide regular buses that are convenient for people to get from here to there. JUTCM does not. It only has busses for the Chinese faculty and staff, who of course live blissfully downtown away from our corrupting influence, to come in the morning and go back in the afternoon.

A foreign married couple in their 30s had to persistently negotiate with the school to move downtown at their own expense! The school initially told them they weren't allowed to move! In the end, after many meetings, they can move, but can only bring the school's computer to their new apartment which means they have to pay more in order to rent a fully furnished apartment.

You are correct that Nanchang has numerous universities

[nanchang]

I forgot to note that the English department improved considerably in the Spring semester. They got a DVD player for us to use in class, put up lights for English corner (in the late Fall, actually), and told us ahead of time about lab weeks, though the schedule was not entirerly accurate.

Same nonsense with May week, however, telling us a couple of days ahead of time which days were actually days off.

THE POWER OUTAGES CONTINUE as do INTERNET OUTAGES.

[7969]

not to belittle your complaints, some of which might be legitimate, but many of them will occur no matter where you are in china.

1. heat in one room is common.
2. i lived in the city while my school was located 30-60 minutes outside the city by school us. six of one half a dozen of the other.
3. repairs in china often take long and are often done poorly.
4. normal.
5. rely on your students to keep you informed. worked for me after i gave up on fellow teachers.
6. who has to sign in? you who live there or your guests? if its guests i think thats fair enough.
7. no power for hours on end. common everywhere i've been in china.
8. i hate slow internet as well, and i had no computer at my last school. i had my own laptop tho. they do say they'll provide a computer usually but as to its quality, thats anyones guess.
9. if noone renews or if they cant hire anyone maybe they'll get the hint, but who knows?
10. happened to me too. not right but these people are often nosy. hide behind the door with a stick if they do it when you're home.
11. mail, the problem could be anywhere in the chain. but i dont think many foreign teachers get much snail mail these days. i get one or two packages a year but never have them sent to my school.
12. i get my books from amazon or some other online source. or else buy them on a trip to beijing or hong kong. the schools usually have a crap selection in english.
13. i watched 5 apartment towers go from foundation to their current level of construction right outside my balcony over the past year. i bought earplugs.

7969

[no_exit]

Like 7969 said, a lot of those complaints are fairly commonplace.

You knew that the school was in a suburb when you signed the contract, and you knew that getting to the city would be an ordeal. Forty minutes might be the time it takes directly by car, without all the walking and busses. Are they stretching the truth? Maybe a bit, but lying maliciously? Anyhow, it has been my experience that, if pressed, most schools will cave and let you live on campus. It doesn't have to be at your own expense, either. Ask for a housing stipend in addition to the salary -- this is becoming fairly commonplace in Kunming, as many employers don't want to deal with FTs trashing apartments, running up phone bills, coming in at all hours, and constantly complaining. Lots of schools don't even provide housing anymore, they just include cash for housing in the contract. In any case, You'd be out of their hair and half your problems would become non-issues, as you'd be in direct control of issues like phone, internet, who enters your apartment, and gated compounds.

Your FAO has no control over power outages. They happen all over the country, on and off campus.

Lots of apartments don't have a phone, and many landlords won't let renters install one, or want a hefty deposit if they do. Imagine if a teacher racked up a huge phone bill and then just ran out? Maybe the school has been burned by a FT in the past. Anyhow cell phones can make international calls with phone cards, and are usually cheaper than ground lines anyhow.

Most people live in gated compounds of some kind or another, with guards. The personalities of these guards vary. I've had some who are outright hostile, but I try not to let it affect me. They're a very small part of your daily life.

Slow internet is a minor complaint. Did you expect not to be on the uni LAN, but for them to provide a seperate service just for the FTs so they could have faster internet? This is the connection the entire staff and all the students have to live with. As for the computer, at least it is functional. They should provide you with a printer in the office for making class print-outs, what was their response when you asked them about this?

Entering your apartment without your knowledge is unacceptable, but it does happen. My current landlady did this, and got offended that I didn't trust her with a key to the house! Can you change the locks? That's what I did. Locksmiths aren't expensive, and you could do it yourself if you're even remotely handy. Don't give them a key to the new lock, no matter how many excuses they come up with.

I'm not saying I know your situation, or defending the school. The experience as a whole could have been a lot more frustrating than it seems when you list these items. I do think, however, that a person working in China has to have realistic expectations. Siting power outages and slow internet connections as reasons why a school deserves the blacklist, when these problems are often just part of living in China, is kind of harsh.

[TEAM_PAPUA]

[nanchang]

Commonplace is not universal. If you wish to put up with degrading treatment that Chinese will not stand for in your country, that's your business. I just hope I don't work with someone like you as I dislike people without a strong sense of self-worth.



There are schools that fix things on time, don't bother their teachers' guests, or even have their teachers in off campus apartments without the wiff of a guard of any kind.

There are schools that have regular buses from the school to the city.

My last school had only one power outage of more than ten minutes.

No exit: you apparently need to reread my post as you are mixing apples and oranges, replying to things I didn't say.

7969: You sound just like my foreign colleagues: no self-respect. No Chinese will put up with this sort of treatment. Their guests aren't signing in.

China is a crap country to live in. I only came because I have a decade plus long interest in the ancient culture. I speak and read the language. I loved my time in Taiwan.


TEAM_PAPUA: You are right on the money.

[Henry_Cowell]

[Malsol]

Nanchang your Nanchang uni is NOT unique and your experience was not so extra-ordinary.

There is a uni in South Nanchang where all of the FTs must be in their rooms by 10:00 p.m. and then the building is locked tighter than a drum, no one in and no one out till 7:00 a.m. There is even a locked door between the women's rooms and the men's rooms.

A uni in North Nanchang has a new FT village. Gated with security. Log book etc.

So what? This is there backwards Country and they get to run it the way they want. We are guests and on their terms.

Please do not tell me I am wrong again. I know Nanchang far better than you ever will.

[no_exit]

[7969]

[Malsol]

Nanchang is a typical medium sized Chinese mainland City.

Lakeside Hotel is where the expats meet for Sunday brunch. There is a modern bowling alley at this hotel.

The temple area has fascinating shopping.

For 10 rmb you can ride the world's tallest ferris wheel.

METRO, Wal-Mart, McDo , KFC, Pizza Hut, plus many beautiful shopping streets.

Shanghai has nothing on Nanchang, just a lot more of it.

I like Nanchang. I found the people friendly and helpful.

Working for a uni in Jiangxi Province is no better and no worse than working for a Chinese uni anywhere in China.

I really do not understand why anyone would badmouth Nanchang.

[nanchang]

Yes, I left China. I left because I don't like it and don't respect it, not because I can't deal with it. I dealt with it. I'm done with it.

Malsol, you are VERY WRONG. NU and JXNU have no such living issues. I've talked to their FTs. Same for some others. You know Nanchang better than anyone, I know, you're the mayor.

7969,
> 10. happened to me too. not right but these people are often nosy. hide behind the door with a stick if they do it when you're home.
* Clearly no self-respect if you stand for what is illegal even in China. None of your Chinese colleagues have to put up with this.
> 11. mail, the problem could be anywhere in the chain. but i dont think many foreign teachers get much snail mail these days. i get one or two packages a year but never have them sent to my school.
WRONG! I eventually met with the uni pres and he knew it was the school's problem and fixed it 90%. But that was well after my post. ALSO, I get A LOT of snail mail, especially domestic packages.
> 12. i get my books from amazon or some other online source. or else buy them on a trip to beijing or hong kong. the schools usually have a crap selection in english.
*I read CHINESE you ass-u-me-r! I want to be able to use a library to have access to a large number of books. You order from Amazon? For those who don't get checks from mommy and who do live on our Chinese salary, Amazon is not a reasonable option.

No Exit,
> You knew that the school was in a suburb when you signed the contract, and you knew that getting to the city would be an ordeal.
* No, other schools I was familiar with elsewhere in China before I went there were outside the city AND had convenient, regular transportation to the city.

> Your FAO has no control over power outages. They happen all over the country, on and off campus.
* Never said the FAO had control.

>Lots of apartments don't have a phone, and many landlords won't let renters install one, or want a hefty deposit if they do.
* I live on campus. All FTs I know have a phone and can at least make local calls without a calling card.

> Most people live in gated compounds of some kind or another, with guards. The personalities of these guards vary. I've had some who are outright hostile, but I try not to let it affect me. They're a very small part of your daily life.
* No, someone bothering me and my guest where I live is a major problem.

> Slow internet is a minor complaint. Did you expect not to be on the uni LAN, but for them to provide a seperate service just for the FTs so they could have faster internet?
* Yes, at my last school I was on a private ISP.

> Can you change the locks? That's what I did. Locksmiths aren't expensive, and you could do it yourself if you're even remotely handy. Don't give them a key to the new lock, no matter how many excuses they come up with.
* They question everyone who wants to come in and take their ID. While I didn't try your suggestion, I can guarantee you it wouldn't have flown.

> I'm not saying I know your situation, or defending the school.
* Good to hear.



I invite you all to go to this wonderful school. PLEASE, sign up for two years

I am done with China until they get a real government. I am going to free and independent TAIWAN.


PS jutcm2006 is an email address I took out just for the school review, which you would have figured out had you bothered to READ.