Job Discussion Forums

[Steppenwolf]

Elaborating on An'kang and Hanzhong:
Both places hardly get mentioned in any guide books though when I happened to arrive in An'kang (to meet a rookie teacher there) I was pleasantly surprised by the old-town charm of the city with its intact walls (that apparently were built in response to a flood that occurred in the 1960s and killed a huge number of citizens); it also was full of mosques.
I would suppose the teachers' college does hire FTs - but I have no concrete evidence.

Hanzhong: Never been there but held some correspondence with an F.A.O. at a college there. The exchange of e-mails was really friendly. An Aussie colleague of mine actually put in a stint there and was happy throughout her time there. She then moved on to Xinjiang, which compared rather less favourably.

Noteworthy: both cities are along a railway line; a new route connects Xi'an to An'kang (previously you had to go by bus, which would take a whole day).

[jg]

Kaifeng. Its got great history, a nicely preserved downtown, and very few foreigners. The Chinese spoken there is standard, and there is a uni there that is fairly well respected. Or so I was told. I found the people there to be relaxed and less mocking than in other cities; indeed you might even call them "friendly". I was only there for a week but I would definitely recommend it for your purposes.

Keep in mind too that if you want to work at a uni, you won't often be able to find much information about it on the internet. Especially if you do your searching in English. You might have some luck turning up in the English dept, resume in hand and with a bit of charisma.