Lager
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Posts: 1,081
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Post by Lager on Apr 16, 2005 14:21:45 GMT 7
Anyone love or hate this place? I looked up old threads on the spoon and it gets wildly mixed reviews.
Looks at least to have some good travel options and a good climate ---in summer at least. We'll see---it's not even a solid offer yet...
Maybe I should just go and rent in Shanghai and worry about the job later.
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woza17
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Post by woza17 on Apr 16, 2005 15:26:16 GMT 7
Hi Lager Let me ask you when you are looking at other jobs in China what are your priorities, money climate level of students, social activities, good snooker tables. What? The reason I am asking because once I finish the summer camp in Dongguan in August I need to think where I want to teach after that. I really like Dalian though and I am not sure I can earn the type of money here that I have got used to once this job has ended. It may be possible that I can renew the English teaching contract once the Aussie teacher has finished teaching the modules. Tell me Lager what drives you when you are looking fjor a job.
Changchun, never heard of it. Cheers
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Post by Raoul Duke on Apr 16, 2005 16:43:20 GMT 7
Lag,
I lived in Changchun about a year. Came to love it, but it took a long time to get there. I was moved there in December and was pretty sure I had taken an assignment in Hell.
Not sure what you mean by travel options. It's not close to much...Harbin and some tatty ski resorts and a forest or two. Changchun only really has one "tourist attraction"...the "Puppet Palace" that was home to Pu Yi in the Manchukuo days. It will fill part of an afternoon with mild interest. Jilin city, the next wide spot up the railroad track, has a nice lake and is famous for its hoarfrost on the trees, if you are willing to brave the -40 conditions in which it occurs.
The city can be pleasant enough...nice quiet tree-lined neighborhoods and some very nice parks. Food is great and the girls are pretty and alcohol is dirt-cheap. People are friendly. There is more than you might think for foreigners thanks to the long-term presence of Volkswagen and other companies, but it's going to be pretty dull and spartan compared to the Shanghai area. The city is gradually revitalizing and renovating. It still has a lot of that grimy brick Northeastern depressing ambience. The city was an industrial giant back in the heyday of the State Owned Enterprise, but the reforms of the last few decades have closed almost all of them. The economy was devastated and unemployment rates exceeded 25%. It's only just beginning to recover.
They burn a lot of soft coal there, leading to my one contribution to the Chinese language: Changchunde (adj): covered with 3cm of oily black filth.
Weather is a major issue here. On the up side, summers are indeed great and the really hot part is about 2 weeks long. Fall is nice but rather short. Spring is rather long- hence the city's name- but marred by unbelievable dust storms a la last week's Picture of the Week. The correct answer to "How's the weather?" at such times is "Orange". Winters are looooong, dude, and brutally cold. There's nothing between you and Siberia but barbed-wire fences. I experienced a few nights of -50. The city seems eternally covered with a layer of hard snow and ice, blackened by coal smoke and peppered with garbage of all kinds. Having a good winter wardrobe is absolutely essential for survival here...this is definitely frostbite country.
Changchun is starved for water...if you move there make damn sure you are lodged in the few blocks of the city that get 24 hour water. Otherwise you get 2 short bursts a day- one at the crack of dawn and one about the time evening classes start.
It may seem strange after this review, but I rather enjoyed my time in Changchun. I'd consider going back for a really good job, which are hard to come by up there.
Beware of the AES Aston School. A den of weasels. Columbia is, if possible, even worse. In fact Changchun, much like Dalian, seems to have a disproportionate number of ripoff schools for a city its size. Jilin University and Northeast Normal University seem to be good gigs although salaries are low. Might try a school called "Perfect English"...I didn't work there but I liked Jack, the American owner.
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Lager
SuperBarfly!
Posts: 1,081
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Post by Lager on Apr 16, 2005 23:20:36 GMT 7
Jayzuz Raoul: I knew you passed through---didn't know you spent a year. I thought the air was reasonably clean.
Anyway it's at the Teachers College but is not even a solid offer at this point.
Woza: In China I suppose I want the laid back--no pressure not much money sort of deal. No kids is my big demand. (Although I know what adults can be like.) Not the money---I would just stay here.
Climate is not an issue nor is the size of the city In fact I just got an e-mail from Zhonshan near Macau. Know anything about that place? Sounds interesting but I'm leery about the tropical heat!
And yes the prevalence of snooker tables is important a facror as any. ;D
Dalian I went on a visit. My impression was not great but it looked like it might be good when you learn your way around.
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Post by Mr Nobody on Apr 17, 2005 0:48:55 GMT 7
do you mean zhonghshan?
I have liked the few days i have spent there. Know nothing else.
except for some reason it seems to be famous for something i didn't understand. every man and his dog who finds mysterious characters naturally in stone has a zhongshan in his kit. But it only means middle mountain and there is one in every province, nay, every district.
I will remember why i liked it when i sober up. I think it has a bruce lee museum or something funny like that. Funny because bruce lee never went to any part of the mainland ever.
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Post by Raoul Duke on Apr 17, 2005 2:02:54 GMT 7
The Zhongshan in Guangdong (ironically on an utterly flat coastal plain) is the birthplace of Sun Yat-Sen, who is commonly known in China as Sun Zhongshan. All those Zhongshan Roads, Zhongshan Parks, Zhongshan Squares, and so on are named for him.
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Post by Mr Nobody on Apr 17, 2005 2:15:05 GMT 7
Fark. I knew that. Thanks Raoul. I got told that again last time in china and the time before. No embarrassment smiley, fortunately.
Sun Yat Sen is one my great chinese heroes along with Sun Tze and Leung Jan. Couple of others which varies with my blood temperature. I have so many heroes i forget who the are half the time.
errr. I am drunk again. Hand me a Lager pill someone?
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Post by Raoul Duke on Apr 17, 2005 2:34:01 GMT 7
I think my main Chinese hero of the modern era is Lin Yu Tang. An amazing mind and an amazing man. Read My Country and My People if you get the chance- usually easy to find in Xinhua and Foreign Languages Bookstores. I'd like to see Dr. Lin turned loose on Chinese society today- especially the alleged educators. He'd take his cane to the lot of them. Embarrassed smiley: Although it isn't needed...
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Post by Mr Nobody on Apr 17, 2005 2:38:32 GMT 7
xiexie ni, my friend. I will look down this path.
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woza17
SuperDuperBarfly!
Posts: 2,203
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Post by woza17 on Apr 17, 2005 20:37:24 GMT 7
I read that book a good read, not too academic
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Post by Raoul Duke on Apr 17, 2005 23:55:25 GMT 7
And one of the best parts is the biography of the author. This was quite a guy! He valued the traditions of China, but didn't see them as an excuse for behavior that would continue to keep China behind the rest of the world...an opinion I wholeheartedly agree with. He also did a lot of work to try and standardize the language with respect to English, pioneered a more practical Chinese typewriter, and more.
Would that he were here today...
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