Job Discussion Forums

[boomerexpat]

Hi, how much would it cost to live in Zibo if apartment is provided? I don't need to live opulently but I also don't want to live like a student and count each penny/yuan.

Meals out 4 or 5 times a week in a decent inexpensive or mid-tier restaurant (not street stall), buy some foreign food provisions to cook, hang out with other people at non-fancy places, travel to a bigger city via train once a month, etc.

Also, how hard is it to get side work? I have a lot of training exp but this would be my first teaching gig. The hours are low so I should have plenty of time.

[smalls]

I visited a factory there last year - seemed pretty much in the boondocks, but was my first time, so maybe missed the action as I was in and out the same day. Had to take a two hour bus from Jinan (flew into Jinan) to get there, though I believe trains are readily available as well.

[therock]

There are G trains (bullet trains) that pass through Zibo going to Beijing and Shanghai. 3 hours to Beijing, 5 hours to Shanghai, 2 hours to Qingdao. So plenty of options to get away once a month.

[Denim-Maniac]

My last housemate worked there before we worked together .. he thought it was a dire place to live, very little to do, horrible air quality and pollution and he was quite ill most of the time he was there. Sounded like a horrid place to be ... granted he didnt have a great job either, but it didnt sound like a very desirable place to be IMO.

[boomerexpat]

[Non Sequitur]

If you want Shandong then look at Qingdao.

[boomerexpat]

[hells_kitchen]

[kungfuman]

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

Over 10,000 a month.

[Denim-Maniac]

[Non Sequitur]

[Opiate]

[Mr. English]

I worked a 4-month contract in Zibo from March to June 2007 at a high school, or senior middle school as they tend to call them. Air pollution can be bad, certainly significantly worse than here in Guangzhou, which is actually decent compared to U.S. cities, though it varies in Zibo and is not as bad as Beijing by a shot and more. A brief story to give some flavor: One day I went to lunch with a Chinese woman who also taught at the high school, which was on the outskirts of the city (which has more people than Jinan, over 5 million I believe, but you have to go to Jinan to catch a plane). We walked past a community garden at one point, and I said to her, "So, 10 years ago was this area mostly farming?" She answered, "5 years ago it was all farming". Small town (and the old town is certainly recognizable when you walk the city) gone to big city in 5 years. They planned well: On the outskirts the streets are gigantic 4-lane affairs to get ready for all the cars that are coming, or have come at this point (what they are doing about global warming is another matter).

Cheap place to live. Private students I guess will be tough to find, not enough wealth, but you could catch a few. Few English speakers amongst the Chinese, far far less than here in Guangzhou, though perhaps things have changed some since 2007. Small foreign community, both Caucasian and African. No good hiking anywhere close (I am a fanatic and Guangzhou is a good place for this).

[boomerexpat]