Job Discussion Forums

JasonT · Joined: 15 May 2009 Posts: 14

I have a choice between a number of different places and I wanted to know from people's experiences or of what they have heard as being a good/bad place to go to teach. These are the cities. This is with Aston English school. So any info about them would be much appreciated.

Baoji, Shaanxi
Hanzhong, Shaanxi
Xingping, Shaanxi
Xianyang, Shaanxi
Yulin, Shaanxi

Mianyang, Sichuan

Taiyuan, Shanxi

Zhengzhou, Henan

Weifang, Shandong

Yantai, Shandong
Jining, Shandong
Xuzhou, Jiangsu
Wuhan, Hubei

Songbird · Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:40 pm Post subject:

SEARCH- I already posted about my experience in Baoji here before, not wasting my time typing again.

Wouldn't work for Aston for the money they pay and SHARED apartments Rolling Eyes

DHAPhotography · Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 1:57 am Post subject:

I worked in Wuhan in 2007-2008 and found the City, especially Hankou, very modern and trendy. I lived in Wuchang and loved the people and food, and especially the cost of living. I was making a good wage of 6,000 rmb for 18 hours of work and had plenty of money for travel and even took home 4,000 u.s. after my stint there. One drawback with Wuhan is that the air quality if very poor. If you can live without seeing the sun from November thru April, then give Wuhan a try.

Laurence · Joined: 26 Apr 2005 Posts: 401

Wuhan has good urban infrastructure

Yantai has nice landscape and air

thefuzz · Joined: 10 Aug 2009 Posts: 271

Yantai.

Great city, clean, tidy and with fresh air due to the fact that most of the industry consists of agriculture. Yantai is home to the country's largest grape winery. This is the only place I would choose from your list.

cardboardbird · Joined: 15 Nov 2007 Posts: 30 Location: On the road

Xuzhou, JS is an uninteresting, dirty city with few redeeming features other than the people who are quite pleasant.

Sorry about the negative, but its the only one in the list of which I have any knowledge.

Cairnsman · Joined: 22 Jun 2009 Posts: 203

Absolutely, definitely, 100% certainty - Mianyang, Sichuan. Not too big, not too small, 2 hours or so from Chengdu, has won several awards for being a clean, green city . . . .

esl_jimi · Joined: 06 Feb 2009 Posts: 35

Cross ZhengZhou off your list... dirty and polluted beyond belief. Boring. Nothing there except "Baby Body Club". And the Shaolin Temples nearby.

dyant · Joined: 26 May 2009 Posts: 2

I'm living in Hanzhong right now and I'm pretty good friends with most of the Aston teachers. I'm also considering working with Aston in Hanzhong next semester.

For being a small (200k) city, it is suprisingly developed. That being said, not many people know English, so knowing Chinese is a huge plus.

There's really not much to do. There's a few bars, a billiards hall, a dance club, and of course, a KFC.

The Aston group in Hanzhong is very well organized, though. The teachers have had great things to say about it.

Moon Over Parma · Joined: 20 May 2007 Posts: 819

janeal · Joined: 15 Jun 2008 Posts: 29 Location: Philippines

I worked shengda uni, about 30 miles south of Zhengzhou for a year and loved it. Yeah, the town wasn't great but I'm not the night life type. Students were great & I was never lacking something to do. Uni FAO could not be better but admin was so so.

Dinah606 · Joined: 24 Apr 2008 Posts: 23 Location: China

I agree with what the previous poster said about Wuhan. The cost of living here is very low -- you can get a decent meal for 2.5 yuan. I got very sick from all of the pollution here during my first year, and I still have a cough pretty much year round, but my body seems to have adjusted. Their are some cultural sites, and the city is well connected to the rest of China. Transportation is ridiculously cheap around the city, even if you want to take taxis all the time. The weather is unpleasant almost year round (too cold in the winter, too hot in the summer, nice for maybe a couple of days in May and October.). The people here are very nice, overall.

DHAPhotography · Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 2:18 pm Post subject:

Yes, you are so correct about Wuhan. The one endearing quality of that city is that the best rhu gan mien in all of China could be had for 2.5 kuai on most any street corner. How I loved their dry spicy noodles. Otherwise, the City is without any redeeming features, too cold in winter, too humid in summer, and too polluted for any long term habitation.