I taught at this school for a number of years, and, for the most part, it was a pleasant experience. Our housing was quite nice, the Chinese admin and fellow teachers were kind and considerate, the students were lovely - not highly motivated academically, but very friendly and ready to be of assistance. What I noticed is the foreign teachers that developed friendly relationships with the waiban and admin (for instance, going out to tea occasionally, visiting when encountering on campus, etc.) had a smooth experience. Some foreign teachers had more adversarial experiences, or only bothered the foreign affairs officer or admin when they needed something, and their experience was less satisfactory. The work load was reasonable and not heavy - compared to what is expected at other institutions (I taught for several years at 2 Chinese universities in addition to this school). For the most part we were paid on time, and the pay was comparable to other colleges in Hainan; a bit lower than some unis on the mainland, but not when you consider the light workload. For instance, you might have 16 hours to teach, but at least half of those would be the same class, same book, just with different students, so not much time in prep time each week. That being said, at the time that we left, there were some changes in administration that seemed a bit ominous to me, and, in fact, when coming back to visit, the former Dean told me we were correct to be concerned. However, since that time there's been another change in admin which I believe is for the positive (I still keep in touch with admin, Chinese teachers and former students).

Foreign teachers were mostly housed in new apartments that were suitable. It's important to understand that Wenchang is not a large city, so Western type food and restaurants are not as plentiful as might be found in the larger cities. The people of Wenchang are very sweet and polite (for instance, they don't stare at you as might be the case in other parts of Chinese). The city is safe -- I never heard of a foreign teacher meeting harm except one young fellow who got involved in some sort of pub fight. The favorite activities of the Chinese teachers and locals are afternoon tea and playing volleyball (or pretty much any sports). It is close to the sea -- about a 40 min. walk and bus ride. In my years of teaching there, it seemed that the best fit for this location were people in their 30's and older (ages 40 to 65 seemed to be best fit), and married couples and especially families with children (there were several families with children who were there for a long time). Young single people seemed to find the location too boring, as it has more of a leisurely pace and is somewhat remote in location.