Job Discussion Forums

[jamescharnwood]

lf_aristotle69 i sent you a pm, thanks!

p.s. im just a canadian teacher looking for some help!


Ryan

[expatben]

Changchun is very dirty and the winters are horrible. Like Voldermort Changchun holds some bad memories for me too but I really disliked it there and I am glad to be away.

[sttwo]

There is central heating so you don't freeze to death in Changchun. In Shanghai, supposedly the "New York City of the Orient" there is no heat and everything is damp and cold. It feels though one were existing in a catacomb.

I would HAPPILY return to northeastern China, just for the dry air and the radiators. You buy electric heaters here and have monthly electric bills of RMB 300-500, too.

The winters are no worse than they are in Iowa in Changchun. Shanghai is filthy as well. They have the same filth and arrogance here now as they did when they were the center of the opium trade.

[moderntime]

I'm a little late to the party but I thought I'd toss in my two cents since I'm living in Changchun now. The winters here are yes, killer. (But I'm from warmer climates.) But we're in the midst of the "long spring" here, and it has been wonderful. The cherry blossoms all around the city in bloom, the sudden summer rains that clear the air, and

In addition to all of the Chinese restaurants here (Dongbei, Cantonese, and don't forget the Mao restaurants). Changchun has a surprising amount of international cuisine. At least three Brazilian barbecue places, two Thai restaurants, a fantastic Indian restaurant, several Japanese restaurants, German restaurants, and because of the Korean influence/population, you can find Korean food every where. There are also loads of restaurants that serve your usual Western food. As others have mentioned, you can definitely buy Western food. In fact, the other day I scored those Australian classics Tim Tams at one of the three Wal-Marts here.

The other great thing about Changchun is that there are a LOT of coffee houses. Hong Kong style cafes, Taiwanese style cafes, and just plain old coffee houses. This weekend my friend and I took a coffee house tour. We only managed four before we had to call it quits from all the caffeine.

It IS windy (and you will really feel that in the winter). It IS polluted, but the skies are relatively clear.

In terms of what there is to do, it really depends on you. For certain, you will likely be well acquainted with the DVD shops here that everyone else goes to. The cinemas do not show first-run Hollywood films in English and sometimes even without Chinese subtitles, so it can make it doubly hard to understand.

In the winter, all I did was eat, sleep, shop and huddle in my apartment. Trust me, with central heating you don't want to leave your apartment, ever.

However, there are quite a few people who are hoping to change the nightlife around here. Last weekend there was a Shanghai jazz night with a costume contest (I won ), and this weekend there is both a World Cup night and a Chinese rock festival. There's another bar here with a super cute two girl house band.

There are also lots of really nice parks, including Sculpture Park which has a collection of about three hundred sculptures around the world. It is one of the nicest places I've been to, ever.

For practicing your Mandarin, Changchun is great because the accent is so clear.

It's funny because even though I do find myself bored, I'm always busy...going out or finding things to do. While writing this post, I was orginally going to say that I didn't like this city and there is absolutely nothing to do here in Changchun, but I realized that that wasn't true at all. I think a lot of it is just falling in with the right people.

[naturegirl321]

I ws there between Sept 2003 and Aug 2004 and loved it. Though like every city has its ups and downs.