Job Discussion Forums

BigGuy · Joined: 17 Sep 2007 Posts: 34

Hi. I'm looking into a teaching position in Changsha and wondered if anybody can give me some general or specific impressions of Changsha as a place to live, specifically the area around Hunan University.

Areas that I'd be interested in hearing your insights on include weather, level of air pollution, cultural life of the city, access to nature, forests and rivers, and anything else you can add.

I've lived in China for nine years so I already have a pretty good grasp of things Chinese, but I've never been to Changsha, hence my inquiry.

Thanks.

johnchina · Joined: 24 Apr 2006 Posts: 816

The little info I can pass on ...

Pollution - as bad as everywhere else. Traffic - same. There are couple of nice-ish parks.

There are some good bars and there are plenty of very good restaurants serving dishes from all over. Western restaurants are very thin on the ground and it's not easy to find Western products, apart from those commonly used by Chinese people.

I found Changsha locals fairly easy going. Very low level of English, but having been here so long, you'll be able to deal with that.

danswayne · Joined: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 237

Going on 5 years in Changsha now, PM me your contact info if you want to talk more about Changsha. Skype or Yahoo are both easy for me.

randyj · Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 11:43 pm Post subject:

I like Changsha. I visit regularly to see friends there. The city is fairly progressive. Hunan University is located on the west side of the river, where the air pollution level is much lower. The industrial activity lies mostly on the east side. The climate does stink, with basically no spring or fall, and the summers are unbearable.

patsy · Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 179 Location: china

I lived there last year. It was a huge change for me as I'd only lived in Qinghai previously. I had a very difficult teaching and living situation. By the end of my year though, I'd met some nice people in Changsha. The climate is awful, freezing cold inside during the winter cause they have no heat, and unbearably hot in the summer, actually if you have air conditioning , the summer is better than the winter though.

Pollution bad. I didn't like the dog beatings I saw. They have a lot of dogs there. Being a pet lover, i hated to see the strays and how they're treated.

They have McDonalds and Walmart. That's great.

Good luck!

HunanForeignGuy · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Posts: 989 Location: Shanghai, PRC

First the area around Hunan University is strikingly beautiful. It is a very nicely-manicured campus with plenty of reproduction historical Chinese structures. There is of course the mandatory statue to a now-deceased great leader, which is quite visible as it is so tall, and frankly the campus always felt very Western to me in many regards.

The climate is as all have indicated but I do take issue -- I think that there is a very pleasant autumn -- it lingers on until about the end of November and then winter arrives with a roar -- but it is not generally a snow-filled winter but a Charlotte-and-Emily-Bronte type rainy, brooding, gloomy, dreary kind of a winter -- it can rain every day and it actually has in some years from the end of December to the beginning of March. There is a spring of some sort but the transition from winter-to-spring-to-summer last about one week at the most. I remember the banana trees being frozen solid and then beginning to turn green and develop new branches within the same 10-day period.

If you are going to work at Hunan University, you absolutely need to determine what kind of housing you will be given before you arrive. If you are going to work for one of the specialized colleges within the University, then you will offered very decent housing. If you are going to work for the generalized ESL program, the English Department, the Training Center, etc., etc., then be forewarned because the housing could be shared, it could be without a kitchen, it could be nothing more than a dorm room, etc., etc. I cannot stress enough that this is an issue that you will need to address if you wish to live happily.

If, however, you are going to work for Hunan Teachers College or Hunan Normal, which are both located in the immediate surrounding area, then your housing situation will be quite different.

ChangSha is livable and is often given short-shrift by many ESLers. It is actually metamorphasizing quite rapidly and government, both provincial and federal, moneys are being poured into redevelopment of the municipality at a stunning rate.

The locals are indeed laid-back, frankly they can be stunningly provincial at times, but it is the provinces in any case, and yet chances are quite good that you will be hosted to dinners and invited out and generally have a better social life with your Chinese colleagues and neighbors than you would in other cities in China.

I personally think it is a very underrated city by the FT's. I agree with danswayne -- give it a try, I think that you will most likely enjoy it.

All the best,

HFG

Brian Caulfield · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Posts: 1247 Location: China

Having been in and out of the city many times, I feel the city is a little Beijing. Its roads are on a grid system like Beijing . Easy to get around in, but you spend your time in transit. The buildings are all new and the money is there because of Mao and his cronies are still looking after favored ones.