PROS:

-- Exceptionally high salary. Almost $8000 to start, 10% raises every year.

-- Near Hong Kong. 4 or 5 hours by bus from the campus. Less than 2 hours by express train from downtown Guangzhou. For those not familiar with the difference the mainland and Hong Kong, its a whole different world down there. Pretty much anything you cant do or get here, you can do or get there.

-- 3 free buses going to large supermarkets and back, 20 or 30 minutes away, every 2 hours.

-- School provided foreign teachers shopping bus going into Guangzhou every 2 weeks. Last semester on Saturday, this semester on Sunday.

-- City bus to the nearest suburb, Huadu. Every 20 to 30 minutes. 20 or 25 minute trip. Drops you off near the New Century Hotel, the Vanguard Supermarket, and the computer market.

-- 1 hour from an international airport. Take the city bus to the New Century Hotel in Huadu. Take the shuttle from the New Century Hotel to the airport. Heres another bonus with the Guangzhou airport: its connected to the subway system. And I dont mean walking half a mile. Its right downstairs from one of the terminals.

-- Small train station in the nearest suburb, Huadu. 30 minutes from the campus. For major destinations, you dont have to go all the way into Guangzhou to get on or off.

-- Foreign supervisors as a cultural buffer between the foreign teachers and the Chinese management. I havent so much as been in the same room as the director of the Foreign Affairs Office or the director of the English Education Center except for the week I arrived.

-- Comparatively large foreign population. 80 foreign teachers. Most other colleges and universities in China have less than half a dozen.

-- Magick Caf. A western restaurant that serves authentic American food in a relaxed, community atmosphere. The owner is one of the Pei Zheng foreign teachers. The head cook owned a caf in New York. Large movie screen with movies every night. Open 7 nights a week and lunch on weekends. Frequent parties. A bit expensive, so dont plan to go there every night.

-- Low student-teacher ratio. 15-20 student per class for non-English majors, 12 for English majors.

-- No writing classes.

-- Minimal paperwork.

-- Hands off management.

-- Super efficient housing staff.

-- Longer summer and winter breaks. Almost 2 months each.

-- Beautiful, immaculate campus.

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CONS:

-- No summer pay.

-- February pay withheld til the end of the contract.

-- Larger lesson load. 20 lessons per week.

-- Evening classes. These evening classes mean split shifts. They also mean teaching art department students who have little English skill and even less interest.

-- No technology in the classroom.

-- No recreation room.

-- No English Corner room.

-- Harder to find translators than at other schools. Probably because youre competing with a much larger number of foreigners.

-- Smallish apartments. Some apartments are larger. And theres a couples compound. Im referring to the campus housing. Some foreign teachers live in school housing across from the gate. Ive never actually been in one of these apartments. Ive heard horror stories about buses coming and going and construction trucks roaring by.

-- -No restaurants on campus. Just dining halls. The gate is a 20 minute walk and back. The restaurant food isnt terrible, but the general consensus among foreign teachers is that it leaves plenty to be desired. There are a few exceptions, namely places that serve decent western food, and again, with higher prices. Theres a teachers dining hall with food a bit higher quality than the student dining halls.

-- High menu price considering this is a rural area. On my last campus, a restaurant meal was 4 yuan. Here, more like 16. So unless you like to cook, meals dig into that high salary.

-- 2 hours from urban life.

-- No nightlife, except for the Magick Caf.

-- Devastating humidity. This far south, the heat is severe too. But its mostly the humidity that gets to you.

[Edited by Administrator (admin) Sat, 14 May 2011, 06:21 AM]