Job Discussion Forums

[stevesayskanpai1]

Ok I�m fairly new to this, but I�m considering moving to China and have a few questions. First, the destinations I�m considering are Suzhou or Nanjing in the east, or Dalian or Qingdao in the north. Can anyone offer an informed comparison between these? Weather, air quality, expat scene, friendliness of locals, culture, greenery, etc? Has anyone lived in more than one of these and have a preference for one over the other?

Second, can anyone outline what a person with my experience can aim for in terms of teaching jobs? I have no formal teaching qualification but a good undergraduate degree, and 2 years teaching experience on the JET programme in Japan. Would I find it hard to get a university job with this? Are university jobs even the best jobs available? Sorry if these questions seen stupid but like I said I�m new to the Chinese system and job market.

Finally, it seems like the best approach may be to move out to China first, scout out options, and then pick and choose the ones that suit best. How have people gone about this? By living in a hostel for the first few weeks? And is it easy to then get the required visa, or can you get the visa in your home country without having a job in place?

Cheers!

[Surfdude18]

Dalian has about as good air quality as you're likely to find in China (at least in a major city) but freezing winters. Also not great local cuisine. On the upside, the locals are (IMO) pretty friendly and suchlike. And it has beaches, some good parks, some nice mountain scenery which is very easily accessible. If it was warm all year round it would be a world-class destination IMO.

[lou_la]

Lots of people have said nice things about Quingdao here:

http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=61711