Sounds like a glamorous place to work -- but think again. The uni is located a few miles outside Sanya -- down a dusty, dirt road that is frequently closed to traffic during the rainy season, when it becomes impassable (thus no way in or out of town). The only way to get from the campus into town is to take the #3 public bus (which mean usually waiting about 45 minutes for it to show up) or taking a 3 wheel taxi into the nearby village of Lizhigou, and then catching bus 7 or 20 into Sanya (it can take up to an hour and a half to get to downtown Sanya).

The biggest issue is personal safety. This new university campus was built immediately adjacent to a village of the Li ethnic minority -- and this particular village is renowned in the area for being the home of cut-throat bandits. You would think that in light of this the school would have a strong security force, both inside the campus, as well as outside the school gates, to ensure the safety of students and teachers getting on and off the bus just outside the gate, or arriving by 3 wheel taxi. You would think that in light of both safety issues and transportation woes that the school would provide a shuttle bus for students and teachers to get into town, as nearby Sanya College does. But, no, for some unfathomable reason, the school has elected NOT to post any sort of guard at the front gate -- they say they are only responsible for the safety of the inside of the campus, and if someone is attacked one foot outside the gate, that is not their responsibility!!! And there is no shuttle bus.

Well, in fact, 3 of the foreign teachers have been attacked -- just outside the gate -- in broad daylight, in the afternoon! 2 were injured badly enough to be sent to the hospital. And that's not to mention the countless students who have been attacked, robbed, beaten up, and raped. In March 2010, a man living nearby came to the rescue of a woman being attacked, and got his own arm hacked off. In the past 2 months, a music major was beaten so badly -- her hands and fingers are now so badly broken that she'll never play the piano again. A lovely young coed made the fatal mistake of taking the 3 wheel taxi back to the uni from Lizhigou (the #3 bus stops running early in the evening). She was raped by the driver and just committed suicide. Tragic. And, does the school take action? Do they post warnings to students to always travel in pairs, to avoid the 3 wheel taxis? No, in fact, the teachers have been warned not to discuss this with the students or they will lose their jobs!!

Bear in mind that there is no housing available on campus for FTs, as this is a new uni that is still finishing construction. So, there is the choice of living in the factory next to the campus, and putting one's life on the line with the violent bandits, walking down the dirt road to campus each day (not to mention being either covered with dust during the dry season, or splattered with mud by passing trucks and busses during the rainy season). Or, one can opt to live in Sanya, and face the one hour (or more) commute to work and back. Sanya is now probably the most expensive city in China for housing -- a decent apartment starts at about 2000 or up, but the school only provides 500 in housing allowance -- that's if they decide to pay.

And, speaking of pay, that's another issue. The school went through 4 FAO's in the past year -- and the most recent one has arranged to have the FT salaries and housing allowance deposited directly into her personal account -- yes, you did read that correctly, from which she disburses the money to the teachers. In January, she withheld a chunk of my pay. Still waiting on that to appear -- have provided copies of my bank account going back to Sept to show that the school in in arrears - but she refuses to admit that she had kept a portion of my salary . In March, we moved into an apt. in town, she said that because we moved on March 2 (and thus no there there entire month), she was only giving us 2/3 of the March housing allowance. Of course, the rest of that money is now sitting sweetly in her personal account. The school also has this little habit of asking the FTs to pay for everything that the school is supposed to cover and then the school will reimburse. But then months go by without any reimbursement -- in the Fall, the school racked up 1500 RMB with us, until we absolutely refused to buy anything more.

The school also has this little habit of squeezing extra hours out of the FTs. For instance, the standard contract is 16 hours a week. But they give you double classes -- so you walk in to a class that's supposed to have 45 students or so, and discover that there's 90 in there -- and it's a writing class to boot -- with all the essays and such that need to be graded!!

The admin is the most disorganized I've ever encountered -- and I've worked in China for 10 years. This is just the tip of the iceberg with this school -- I could go on and on for hours! Run the other way!