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Leon Purvis

In an unexpected move, the Foreign Languages Department in my school sponsored a three-day trip out of town during the holiday by campus bus. Chinese teachers and FTs are invited. I signed up as soon as I heard about it.

I expected there to be some cost involved. Nothing is free. Then I learned that the cost for transportation will be 100RMB plus 100RMB per night hotel plus another fifty per day for food. (No, we're not going to Beijing or Shanghai, so the hotel expense is in line with where we're going).

That's about what I'd expect to spend if I went on my own, perhaps a little less, so it seems like a good deal. The four FTs signed up and paid up-front for the trip.

Then we find out that the Chinese teachers will pay nothing for the trip. (I don't think anyone is joking. One source is reliable and somewhat sympathetic).

None of us will complain about it, but we think the whole affair is a bit dodgy as if maybe we're subsidizing the Chinese teachers' trip.

Has anyone else experienced something like this?

7969 · Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 5782 Location: Coastal Guangdong

i've been on this kind of trip in the past. a weekend outing with chinese and foreign teachers. i showed up at the meeting beforehand and from there we had to get on the bus to leave (we didnt know we were leaving so quickly so didnt even have a toothbrush with us).

overall the trip was good, but you should expect to visit several scenic spots and a school or two during your time out. its quite rush rush as far as my experience was. the best part was an all night party at the home of some other FTs who lived in the area where we travelled.

we didnt pay anything on our trip.

7969

Steppenwolf · Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 1769

My employer organises a weekend outing every term; the invitation is extended to all of us FTs plus a few trusted Chinese (though the FAO is none too eager to join because for him this represents nothing but extra work!).
Those trips are always free and include an overnight stay at a tourist hotel and some entries to places of interest.
One time I watched as the money changed hands; the cost was very low (and didn't excdeed 200 kui per person even though the published room rates of the hotel we stayed at was 300, i.e. 150 kuai per person if they shared a room. Tickets to attractions had cost some 50 kuai and then there was the trifle of a chartered tourist bus complete with tour guide and driver.

Another trip I made in a different school was by plane, then 5 days of bus travelling and staying at select hotels en route; the school paid the lion's share of the costs but we all had to contribute 500 kuai - which I felt was reasonable.

But recently I heard of a school in SW China that organises excursions for their Chinese teachers every term for free; some Chinese teacher asked whether their FTs could join them; the Principal answered her that they were welcome to join - but they must pay the costs in full...

Yes, sometimes foreigners are discriminated against.

OGFT · Joined: 24 Jun 2006 Posts: 432

it would seem that you would embrace this form of double standard as you have often championed the Chinese teachers plight as to lower pay for the same job done by an FT...

maybe this is just an "evening out" based on your communicating to the Chinese staff that you understand the inadequacy and the unfairness of the two tiered scale system...and they, knowing that you understood decided to make it more fair by charging the high wage earner and by subsidising the low wage earner...see your mouth may have got you into this double standard..your sympathy for these matters may have come back to haunt you...have a good time...but maybe you should remember the first rule of the FT..what is Chinese should stay Chinese and what is foreign stays foreign...

BlakeS · Joined: 07 Aug 2006 Posts: 87 Location: Xian

cj750 · Joined: 27 Apr 2004 Posts: 3081 Location: Beijing

While I may not agree in the method that OGFT said what he did. I do understand the necessity of keeping cultures separate...and racism is just a perception when it comes to cultural division...after all it implies a position of power and the FT has little..

I to prefer to keep cultures separate...and this doesn�t mean to not involve yourself with Chinese. I do have a lot of Chinese biker friends. What this implies is that benefits offered to Chinese will not be forthcoming to the FT and the Ft should not expect them as they have other advantages separate and far from the normal Chinese person...

China.Pete · Joined: 27 Apr 2006 Posts: 547

In my expeience at universities, the FTs are in for at least one complementary team-building type lunch per semester. Depending on the location, I've also been invited to an annual buffet dinner, complete with professional-level entertainment, at a fairly swank hotel, organized by the Foreign Experts Bureau. Except under special circumstances - as in, you've got to sit with and entertain (meaning, speak English with) the FTs - CTs were never invited to these functions.

Of course, the CTs do have outings on occassion. Maybe there was a sense that the FTs felt left out. Heck, maybe they were just thinking about you. So, they figured they'd invite you along. Now, money's awfully tight in most schools' travel budgets, so the FTs are asked to pay for what seems to everyone - including, apparently, the FTs - "like a good deal." My advice: be glad for the chance of an interesting cultural experience, and if it's not your cup of tea, don't go next time.

kev7161 · Joined: 06 Feb 2004 Posts: 5880 Location: Suzhou, China

If I were invited to an outing such as the one described, then accepted, THEN told that I have to pay money . . . I would kindly (or maybe rudely) decline. Make an offer for a low-cost, subsidized holiday trip, then I can decide one way or the other if I want to participate.

Songbird · Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 1:33 am Post subject:

Just wondering (in case we're suddenly invited in the upcoming National holiday to go on a trip), is it rude to decline? Regardless of whether you need to 'contribute' to the cost or not?

Call me a geek or whatever, but I still have work a really need to do over the break, marking papers, finishing the semester lesson plans etc! Would they mind?

poopsicola · Joined: 18 Jan 2006 Posts: 111 Location: World travelling

Songbird, if the trip is organized for the Chinese staff, whether you go or not will not matter to them one bit. If you don't go, it will save them money. They won't weep because of your absence. If, on the other hand, they organize a trip especially for the ft's, then I'd go regardless of the work to be done. A refusal to attend such an outing would probably cause some offence.

clomper · Joined: 07 Oct 2003 Posts: 251 Location: Beijing

Hmm.. in my first school, they organized a trip to Hangzhou and Huangshan. The FTs pay in full while the Chinese teachers didn't pay anything as it's a bonus for being the top student recruiters.

Second school, they arranged tours outside town, picking oranges, lychees or other fruits. Both Chinese and FTs go for free. Cost is shouldered by the parents who invited us.

I also get to travel free to Shanghai, Nanjing and Suzhou. Drawback is I was with numerous students. I'm not required to take care of the students but the Chinese teachers were.

Calories · Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 361 Location: Chinese Food Hell

I went on a trip with my school and I paid. It was okay. It was too rushed, noisy and naturally the food was no good for my foriegn tummy. I ended up sick for 2 days after that vomitting all the food I ate on that trip. At the end of the trip when they told us we'd be going back they kept tacking on crappy tourist spots (really just business looking to sell us crap). It was really frustrating by the end. It took 7 hours on the bus to get back from a place that took 3 and a half hours to get there and 7 hours on a bus on Chinese roads with an already upset stomach and no gravol is no fun. (Can I get motion sickness medication in China?? I tried once but they tried selling me antibiotics.)

Oddly though, I did enjoy it in that strange sort of way. It was an interesting experience but, I'd never ever do it again paid or not.

Leon Purvis · Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 3:23 am Post subject:

cj750 · Joined: 27 Apr 2004 Posts: 3081 Location: Beijing

Actually it sounds more like a half black islander....with a French passport..

Kurochan · Joined: 01 Mar 2003 Posts: 944 Location: China

At the primary school where I first worked, and now the university where I am, we get a trip. With the primary school, it was to a city a few hours away, where we were taken to all the sort of weird scenic spots that Chinese people like so much and stayed in a local hotel overnight. I was the only foreigner, and it was sort of stressful and noisy for me. It WAS a free trip, though, and a real cultural experience.

The school where I am now organized a free trip to Hainan a couple of years ago, which was excellent, except for the constant bitching and moaning of one of the teachers who went with us. Last year the school went to Jiuzaigou, although I didn't, not being a nature buff. This year, if we go, we forfeit our 3000 RMB travel allowance that we would have gotten at the end of the year. That may be partly because people complained that the travel money came too late for people leaving China immediately at the end of their contract, and that they weren't able to convert the money into $.