Job Discussion Forums

Golf02 · Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 3 Location: Wuxi

We have received job offers from what appear to be two reputable institutions in Wuxi: one from the Southern Yangtze University through Lambton College and the other one from the Wuxi Institute of Technology.
Since we are new to this business of teaching English in China I would be interested to hear from anybody who has worked for one of the above. Is anybody out there that can help us? We are a married couple in our 50's.
Years ago I have taught Business Admin in the post secondary education system in Canada and my wife currently works in the high school system in Canada (BC).
I understand Wuxi is not a choice city but it is close to Shanghai and this proximity makes it attractive to us. The monetary and usual contract items are about the same for each place but Wuxi Institute has less teaching hours in their contract.
Any comments or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
C & R

Babala · Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 1303 Location: Henan

Golf02,
I lived in Wuxi for 3 years. I think it's a great city to live in. About the schools. I knew some of the teachers at Lambton and I never heard of any problems any of them had. It seems to a good place to work. The other school you mentioned, might it also go by the name Wuxi Occupational College? Who is the contact name on the job ad? Let me know and then I can provide more info for you.
I

brsmith15 · Joined: 12 May 2003 Posts: 1142 Location: New Hampshire USA

Wuxi is indeed a great city if a tad industrialized. The local lake, Taihu, is lovely and there are many spots for either visiting or picnicking.

Canuck, eh? Me too.

hippocampus · Joined: 27 Feb 2012 Posts: 126 Location: Bikini Bottom

I visited Wuxi years ago, and the tourism literature said that its name means 'without tin' and that a thousand years ago or something, the original name of the city was 'Yuxi' which means 'with tin'. Pretty cute! Does anyone know if this is correct? Besides the meaning of the names, when did the tin run out in Without Tin City? Laughing

lemak · Joined: 19 Nov 2011 Posts: 368

Ditto the previous posters. As far as 6+ million population cities go in China, Wuxi is definitely one of the better ones. For the most part it's clean, the local government has invested a lot of $ in the infrastructure and getting the place looking nice. The area around the lake is beautiful. Location wise also it's brilliant. Suzhou by train in 10 minutes, Shanghai in 40, Nanjing in around an hour.
Not sure about Lambton, but Wuxi Institute of Technology is about a 30~40 minute bus ride from downtown. $5 or so by taxi. It's around a 10 minute walk from the lake where there are dozens of paths and trails you can explore.
Still close to supermarkets and civilisation though.