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[roadwalker]

Any kudos or horror stories regarding the university? Do they treat the fts well? Good environment? Good students?

Does anyone have any experience with the city? Positive, negative? Are there many westerners? Western food, products, etc? Friendly?

I appreciate any honest response. PM me if necessary. Thanks

[smutbagdisco]

not many westerners.... the odd gaggle of tourists

Nice little city... the PSB has been moved out of the city. Police really in-experienced with foreigners.

There is KFC, MacDonald's, some good cheap restaurants around, a few Japanese restaurants have sprung up, too. Ok shopping in the 'Manhattan' area of the city.

5 kuai taxi trips almost anywhere in the city,

RT mart has a pretty small foreign food section, corn flakes, frosties if you are into cereals

livable

the universitys new campus is in the south of the city, maybe 15 minute bus ride from the centre (island area / train station).

[roadwalker]

Thanks for the lowdown.

[Amaguq]

My wife's family is from Shaoguan. It's got a fair sized population (compared to many American cities), but it comes across as very small town. The one shopping street isn't too bad for getting necessities, but for just "shopping", there's little there of interest.

There's a famous mountain not too far from there where people like to go see the sunrise over a rock that's shaped like a certain part of a man (a nearby cave is the woman's equivalent). We also did a raft ride down the river, but I wouldn't try it again... it was a lot dirtier than I expected.

The town comes across to me as very uninteresting and grungy, even for a Chinese city. It's also a 3 hour train ride (on good days, there are lots of delays) from Guangzhou. It's not the most pleasant train to be on either, as it has even more of the families that have everything they own wrapped in plastic bags that invariably break... people sharing seats and trying to slyly nudge you off of yours...

I visited there three times and that was two times too many.

My wife tells me though that the university is a "very nice" university... that of course comes with the caveat that 1) a Chinese (including my wife) will rarely, if ever, say anything in their hometown isn't "very nice"... and 2) it may very well be a perfectly nice university for her major (music), but English departments are always a different animal.

If I had to compare Shaoguan to an American city, I'd say that it resembles / feels like Wheeling, West Virginia.

Here's a couple pictures from the area around Shaoguan. I don't have any from the city itself... I guess it just didn't occur to me to take any there because it wasn't even remotely interesting. Zhaoqing was a much more interesting non-Guangzhou city in Guangdong...

[smutbagdisco]

[7969]