Job Discussion Forums

housecat · Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 104 Location: usa

The offer is at a private school and they've told me the current teacher is leaving because she feels isolated. She's young and alone, and lives on campus.

I'm less young and have a family member traveling with. We'd be okay with weekend trips into a larger city or to HK once a month maybe.

We'd still live on campus where I'd teach only 40 students.

Housing, insurance and flights provided, of course. 10 month contract.

Could we save? From what I've read, I think we could save a nice little stash, but would like to be sure. We do have some fairly tight dietary restrictions, so I do most of my own cooking and I'd hope to be able to find good, fresh, food and ingredients for actual cooking--not microwaving for from-a-box cooking.

Thanks!

Simon in Suzhou · Joined: 09 Aug 2011 Posts: 404 Location: GZ

Zhaoqing is a very nice small city and it's not far from Guangzhou at all. It would be very easy to run into the big city to make purchases on the weekend. I'd be very happy to live there.

There is an abundance of fresh, cheap fruits and veggies everywhere as well as pork and chicken in the local markets. I'm not sure of what other dietary restrictions you have. But as said before, anything else you wanted you could get in Guangzhou. Zhaoqing is not expensive and you should be able to easily save 75% of your salary if you're cooking at home and not drinking away your salary in bars. I spend about 4000 a month living in the middle of Guangzhou, which is more expensive.

HeidiHector · Joined: 10 May 2017 Posts: 36 Location: China

Were you able to get in touch with the teacher who's departing? If the offer checks out and she doesn't mention anything (too) negative about the admin, I say go for it. The money is good and as SiS says it's a great city to bank some dough. (I don't know why people are concerned about the variety of food they are going to get. It's China. Everyone eats fresh. I'd be more concerned about food safety in terms of pesticide and fake foodstuffs, but if you only shop at reputable places, you should be fine.) And the students would probably be pretty hardworking since they all want to get out of there.

Also, ZQ is a regional hub, so you can go north to Jiangxi pretty easily for the "real China" experience or south to GZ/SZ/HK for the more modern feel.

Congrats and Cheers!

housecat · Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 104 Location: usa

Thank you! I was only hoping to save about 33%, so this is very good news for savings.

I really am not a drinker, so that's not a problem.

Dietary: we can't eat fish/seafood/shellfish at all. Extremely allergic. We lived in Taiwan for a time and it was quite difficult to avoid it unless I did all my own cooking because people would say there was no fish, but there would be oyster sauce, or fish sauce, or fish floss, or seaweed, or things had been friend in the same oil with fish . . . . I realize that Taiwan's an island, but it was more an ignorance about what constituted "fish" in a dish, and not understanding the severity of the allergy or taking it seriously.

We're hoping to be able to make it HK at least one weekend a month. It's not that far, but not something I'd want to try to do on a bus. Could we fly out of Guangzhaou fairly cheaply? Is there a better way?

Jmbf · Joined: 29 Jun 2014 Posts: 663

lionheartuk · Joined: 03 Jun 2005 Posts: 173 Location: Guangdong

I have been teaching here in Zhaoqing for 9 years. It is a lovely and friendly city and not expensive to live in compared to many other places.
I spend around 800 to 1000 a month on supplies but then I am a bit frugal and am saving for retirement in China
There are , to my knowledge, no bad schools and other foreigners who have worked here have enjoyed their stay.

There is a Walmart, K-mart and Chain-mart as well as a couple of other big stores. Decent sized shopping centre and they are renovating the sports centre. In fact there has been a lot of cash spent on the city over the years to make it look and feel better.

Easy to get to Hong Kong, 4 hours by bus only 220 rmb return or you can go by high speed rail to Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Can't figure out which educational establishment pays 26k a month unless of course it is for two of you. I have a friend at one school which pays 14k a month and the uni only pays around 6500 a month.

housecat · Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 104 Location: usa

Thanks again for the replies.

When people post that, as above, they spend 800-1000 per month, is that RMB or "home" currency like dollars or pounds?

How's the weather? Do I need a winter wardrobe? Can I buy American sizes in those American stores? (Wal-Mart and K-Mart?! How will I know I've left?! Wink

)

About the salary, I was told I was/we were being offered a very good package. It's not much at "home" but it seems like it will be quite comfortable there. I do have excellent qualifications. I'm not sure about the market there or what's usual.

Alien abductee · Joined: 08 Jun 2014 Posts: 527 Location: Kuala Lumpur

Jmbf · Joined: 29 Jun 2014 Posts: 663

roadwalker · Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 1750 Location: Ch

When you're told a school is in a particular city, it could mean that the school is close to the center in the urban area. It could also mean that it is an hour or two away in a rural area not well served by public transportation. The provinces aren't divided by counties, they are divided by major cities, and counties are what they usually call in English the rural districts of those cities. Check wikipedia on "Zhaoqing" or "Guangdong." So the convenience of travel depends on the location of the school within "Zhaoqing".

As for monthly costs, yes, it's possible to spend very little. It's also easy these days to blow your budget, especially if you drink, travel a lot, have expensive tastes in food, or like shopping, among others. So I can believe that a teacher spends less than 1000 yuan (RMB) per month. On the other hand I'm sure many teachers spend much more. That's the good news: there are things that could tempt you to spend money in more and more places these days, especially with online shopping.

If you hire on, the school will probably ask a teacher or a student to help you navigate your way to getting a sim card for your phone, a bank account to receive your salary and a few other things that would be hard to figure out on your own.

As for your food allergies, I wouldn't stop cooking for yourself just yet. Guangdong also is a seafood-loving province. With a Chinese helper, I think you could possibly find a couple of restaurants or campus cafeteria workers that could be trusted to not use any fish or seafood products for flavoring, but if it's that serious I'd take it slow even for meat dishes.

housecat · Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 104 Location: usa

RiverMystic · Joined: 13 Jan 2009 Posts: 1986

Sounds like a good deal to me. Salary is v good, although it is effectively 21600/month, as it is a ten month deal. I'd be surprised if you spend more than 5000 a month in a place like that, between the two of you, given your lifestyles.

housecat · Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 104 Location: usa

The bear · Joined: 16 Aug 2015 Posts: 483

LarssonCrew · Joined: 06 Jun 2009 Posts: 1308

So that 26000 goes down to 20500 after tax. 17000 if it's only ten months.

This is the thing with China, once you start reaching into 20000+ you end up paying 30% or so in tax, and you see nothing for it. 30% tax and no free healthcare, no access to any social benefits if you get fired or anything like that.

Far better to get paid 20,000 or so for less hours and make 250 an hour privately cash in hand [or Alipay!]