Job Discussion Forums

[rogerwilco]

Maybe the OP does not understand that the lack of central heat means that there might be no heat in his school, classrooms, the stores, restaurants, everywhere.

My school, near Shanghai, has heat in every room, but that seems to be rare.

My last school did not have heat anywhere. Classrooms, offices, dormitories were all lacking any form of heat.
The only heated place for me was my apartment.

First time visitors to China just may not understand the possible heating situations here.

ETA, even with heat, Chinese do have that interesting habit of leaving the windows open for "fresh air".

[Big Poppa Pump]

The heating situation in China can be a bit of a shock to say the least. I remember being in the Qinghai province and being told that the central heating would come on in November and it did come on in November, the very last day of November.

Dear god that month was wretched..

I bought myself a portable heater and kept on trucking.

[Mister Al]

The winters in CQ are miserable. Really really miserable. Cold and damp climate that gets right into your bones.l

[xiao51]

[louis.p]

I lived in Chongqing in 1998-99. The winters are cold, but just bundle up and you'll be fine. If you will have a decent place to live there, then you're laughing. I highly recommend the place, despite the pollution.

[quidgimo]

I am a Peace Corps volunteer and I have been living in CQ for 2 months now (I previously lived and taught in S.Korea). I did training in Chengdu for a few months, and compared to Chengdu it is a little more pricey, but if you bargain and shop around, it's not bad. If you don't mind eating with construction workers and having noodles or jiaozi for most meals you can eat for under 10 kuai (sometimes as little as 3 kuai). A local beer is usually about 4 kuai. You will be spending more like 20-50 kuai per meal at nicer Chinese places and up to 100 kuai including drinks at the few expat-oriented restaurants and bars around. I get my housing and utilities covered by my college, but otherwise for food and incidentals, I live on less than 1,400 kuai per month comfortably. If you do cooking at home, vegetables are very good and cheap, but if you want to cook with cheese or butter you will spend some time and money running around town to find it (butter is usally 20 kuai per stick and a small block of cheese runs about 30 kuai and up).

Hope that helps give you a general frame of reference about pricing in CQ.

[chinesearmy]