Job Discussion Forums

[Moon Over Parma]

I was inspired by a tangent in this thread:

http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=64237&start=30&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

For the benefit of prospective foreign teachers, I was thinking we could maintain a list of universities and colleges that are far removed from urban centers. Anything over 15 minutes by bus from the urban center, with bus service cut offs before 9pm, devoid of any social outlets and basic, modern shopping within a ten minute's drive, and incredibly isolated qualifies.

This is not necessarily a thread to talk trash about a school. Save that for threads particular to the university. This is not a thread of condemnation, but a thread that exists for reference should any FTs want information on how remote a location is. If you like living in the middle of nowhere and roughing it, then it can be used to help you scout future locations. If you value your sanity and connection to the first world, then it will help you avoid a semester or year living in misery.

I'll start things off with a handful of schools.

Zhejiang Province:


Wenzhou University, Oujiang College, City College of Wenzhou University - all have transitioned out of Wenzhou city proper to a wasteland known as Chashan. It is a 30-40 minute bus ride from the city center, with little to offer between the Chashan "Wenzhou University Town," and the city. The city itself is pretty boring, but it's a haven of civilization and a hub of activity juxtaposed to the deliberate isolation of Chashan. There are two supermarkets in town and neither stock much by way of fresh fruits, vegetables and meats. Their refrigeration capabilities are limited to ice cream and dumplings. They charge well above the actual supermarkets in the city center (where shops generally charge more than the national average. Wenzhou is as expensive as Shanghai and Guangzhou but without the variety and quality on offer - sometimes more so). Buses cut off at 8:45pm, with the earliest and most convenient shutting down runs after 6:30pm. Hailing a taxi out of Chashan is near impossible, but not totally impossible. You will be charged double what a metro taxi would charge you from the City Center back into the university town (which is 30RMB, one way on average. 50-60RMB for one of the rare Chashan taxis). There is a KFC and a Dicos in the town. The KFC has the worst service I've experienced in China.

The main drag connecting the university town to the main road gets pretty nasty after 10pm. Most shops close by 11pm, but since there is little to do there cops cruise the dusty drag and regularly break up small groups of hooligans mucking about. Students are in by 11pm. There are no options for DVDs or music shops in Chashan. All of that is in the city, and they charge on average double to triple the national prices for pirated and legal DVDs and CDs. Because the schools are out in the sticks you will face pollution far worse than the city center. Visibly so.

Winters are cold and wet. Summers hot and unbearably humid. Options to cool off outside of campus supplied apartments are the KFC and Dicos. Really. There's nothing there. One pool hall, dodgy KTVs that are fronts for triads, and that's it. All three schools house their foreign teachers on campus, exclusively. While Wenzhou University and the City College have campuses in the city proper, foreign teachers are not housed there, nor will they ever be housed there. I imagine those campuses are on their way to being transitioned out. Opportunities for making friends with locals who aren't students is minimal to nil. Odds are slightly better in the city, proper.

Wenzhou Medical College - Same as the other Wenzhou universities and colleges. The caveat here is that they are smart enough to know how horrible Chashan is and they provide off campus apartments to their teachers. The apartments are located in the city proper, and they provide free busing to work. So, you are working in a wasteland, making 30-40 minute daily commutes, but you are housed in the infinitely more hospitable city of Wenzhou, which, while boring and bland, is far better than Chashan.
*****************************************
Jiangsu Province:

Changzhou Institute of Mechatronic Technology - Located well outside of the urban center in some no man's land where the buses stopped at 7:30pm and taxis were hard to flag down. Average taxi trip was between 20-30 minutes. It has two campuses, both well outside of the urban area. The developed campus was far away and the foreign teachers and the English programs are on the old campus. Pollution at the old campus can be bad. It's located near chemical factories.

Again, the purpose of this thread is not about condemning the schools featured on this thread. Save that for individual threads about the particular school. It helps when folks use the search function. This is just about schools located way outside of civilization.

[un]

M.O.P.
Thnx for the valuable contribution.
No time for me to write in depth now...just a mention...

40 minutes outside of Hangzhou is the "university town" of ShaXia...or is it XiaSha. Over a dozen schools there...newly built modernism abounding...
New road...is bumpy...

[kev7161]

Not a university but a K-12 school:

Zhejiang province - Hangzhou
Song Cheng Hua Mei school

Now it's been three years since I've taught there so the area could have developed and I'd hope someone better in the know would correct me if I'm wrong. There are 3 or 4 major bus routes that go out to this school area (west of the city) but most stopped around 10PM. Going to Carrefour or Trust Mart or into the city would take you a good 30+ minutes each way by bus depending on traffic. There's a little town just to the north of the school I called "dirty town" because it was, but at least you could go there for basics like milk and bread, produce, DVDs and what-not. You could get your hair cut there and find massage places as well. A couple little "quick" shops nearby as well for your chips and sodas and smokes (if you like to).

Be aware that this school is located directly beside a theme park and you'll hear strange and exotic music and other noises every night until about 9PM. Your apartments on the east side will overlook the park and that's cool for about 3 days, then you get over it.

[Anda]

Um, I inspired Moon Over Parma for this thread so I'll add that there is a new University / college complex probably finished by now for sixty thousand students in Yancheng. Yancheng is a coastal city in Jiangsu. This new complex is 10 K from the downtown area right on the outer edge of Yancheng. There is also a new college being built a further 4 K past this as well but it will be another year of two before it opens. So if you are looking at a job for Yancheng then find out where in Yancheng it is located.

[eddy-cool]

Virtually all Guangzhou-based universitieshave amajor campus in theUniversityMegatwon halfwaybetween Guangzhoucity and Panyu, by publicbus a one-hour ride from the downtown area. The following universities maintain a campus there:
- GuangzhouUnivesity
- South China Normal University
- South China Agricultural University
- South China University of Technology
- Guangdong University of Technology


The many international primary and secondaryschools are all located way out in the burbs: Utahloy, the British School, the American School, the various Country Garden estate schools, etc.

In SHENZHEN, theonly university is way out of town, in Nanshan District;the Polytechnic is at Yinhu, ca. 45 minutes from Luohu by bus.

[Songbird]

The 2 I've taught at so far-

-Longdong Xueyuan- Xifeng, Gansu Province- this is about as far flung as you wanna get. 8-12 hr bus ride from the nearest city (Xian), bugger all to do, but okay in terms of students, treatment of FT's, cheap as to live. Everyone says I survived 1 year here, so I can survive anywhere !

-Baoji Uni of Arts & Sciences- 3 hrs west of Xian, Shaanxi Prov. Worked here 2 years and LOVED it. Only reason I left is that they didn't want to give me a raise even for another 2 year contract . Great students, very basic western food downtown...but right on the earthquake faultline as I discovered in May!

Am about to start a new job at Gannan Normal Uni, Jiangxi Prov. Again, this is far from any city. I don't want to work in a city, but I want to be paid well, treated well and left to do my job. That's all I ask.

[jwbhomer]

[Moon Over Parma]

bump. Anyone have universities to add?

[k3o3r9n0]

I'll volunteer that Wuxi South Ocean College is a 40 minute cramped bus ride outside the city center and only one route runs from the college, so there aren't other options.

[Laoshi1950]

In Wuhan, be aware that the Central China Normal University, Hankou Branch campus is not located in the Hankou area of north Wuhan. Rather, it is located in a rather bleak developing area called Jiangxia - a 45-minute college bus ride from the old CCNU campus in Wuchang District. I worked at that Hankou Branch campus for 1 year, but I was fortunate to live in an apartment off-campus in downtown Wuchang. The Wuhan University has its private college - DongHu College - also located at Jiangxia. Taxis to, or from, Wuhan city and Jiangxia were difficult to get. Public transport for Jiangxia was rudimentary at best. There were few restaurants, and no large supermarkets. Other urban facilities were non-existent. I worked at Jiangxia 3 years ago, so things may have improved since then.

[gregmcd101]

Anhui science and technology university, in some of its job ads, claims to be in the 'eastern suburb' of Bengbu. Its not. its in a much smaller town 25 km away called Fengyang. But i loved it there.

Many Ningbo Institutions including Ningbo institute of technology and Notthingham Ningbo are in an education park 30 mins by bus (15 by taxi) from downtown, but have a nice plaza and other shops nearby. Also just ten mins to the airport which is sweet. so not problematic as Fengyang, for those with Western amenity cravings.

[SnoopBot]

For the Beijing area:

ChangPing is located about an hour away from Beijing. ChangPing is a much more boring and isolated place to teach at as it is spread out and lacks a good cheap transportation system. It also lacks the Western conveniences of Beijing.

Many go bored there after a few months and it seems many of the Beijing universities are moving to Changping campuses or have contracts in Changping for teaching hours.

I am sure there are worst place than this, but Changping seems to be the current isolated area for the Beijing based teachers.

[ralph wiggim]

Yang En In Quanzhou, Fujian.

Touted as being in Quanzhou, a mid sized developing city.

This school is located so far from Quanzhou it takes a good hour on a bus to get there. For those considering working there, don't fall for the WE ARE IN QUANZHOU statement.

They are not even remotely close to the city.

[cj750nomad]

[billwynne]

Guangzhou International Economics College. A mile in the shuttlevan to the main road. Then an hour on the city bus. I've said much more in another thread.