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| For love of a country | ||
| May people who come to China can't bear the place and take o
before their contract ends or ASAP thereafter. I personally find myself drawn straight back to the place
every time I leave. After declining to finish high school I was offered a few jobs on the TESOL certificate I had. I was looking mainly at Heilongjiang, being a cold weather person, and had no trouble finding a nice little school in Heihe, a trade town swept by Siberian winds along the Black dragon river border with Russia. I spent 1 semester
working for a private boarding school there, teaching all ages from 2 up, being leased out to a couple of public high schools as well as conducting adult lessons. The pay was low at 2500rmb per month for 5.5 days work a week. However, the standard return airfare, free flat, and help with the smallest problems made it well worthwhile.
Nearly every night someone, either a local judge or professor, would invite me out to an elaborate meal with light
Chinese beer and harsh white liquor, ad sometimes an after dire stroll along the river would provoke a second attack of such hospitality. Summer came, the school's tuition funds dried up, and I was sent on my way. I spent some time in Taiwan, which I didn't like as much, finished high school by correspondence then set about looking for another job in the mainland. I had decided that the Northeast was a bit too isolated and thought I should choose somewhere more in the middle, specifically Chengdu or Xi'an. I think Chengdu is the most north American of China's cities, with broad avenues and shiny new shopping complexes. Within a couple weeks I received a few hundred offers from both cities and many others. In the end I took one offering 7500rmb/month for 20hours/week, return flight, flat, utilities, internet, medical, 2200rmb travel allowance, 3 day weekends all year, and 10 weeks of holiday. This was at the Xi'an University of Science and Technology. As the semester was nearing and they didn't have all the teachers they needed, they allowed me to write my own contract. At the end of August I was in Xi'an. Formerly the Imperial capital of Chang'an, The Emperor Qin (from whose name we get the word China) consolidated China into one for the first time nearby, and the great dynasties of the Han and Tang, among others were ruled from here. Lying in the Wei River valley, a tributary of the Yellow River, agriculture has been practiced here longer than anywhere else on earth. Xi'an is near the exact centre of China and has always been well connected to everywhere else; It is an ideal place to explore the country from. To the North are the desert hills where the peasants live in arched caves, to the south the Qin mountains where pandas maybe found, Tibet and the Gobi are to the west, and all the cultural legacy of central China to the East. They say that ancient relics are uncovered ever day in Xi'an's drive for development. The changes to the city in one year, as everywhere in China, were astounding. I did no have any valid complaints about my employers, but at the end of my term the contract changed to more hours, and relocation to Lintong where I had been bused 2 days a week and where the Terracotta Army can be seen. I declined to renew. I feel more free in China than in the west. I like not being expected to conform to society, being inextricably foreign. My earning power against the cost of living renders me far more economically free than at home. The Chinese are generally respectful, friendly, hospitable and curious people. As long as you deal with Chinese in accordance to their culture (it's their country!) and keep your expectations in check you should have a wonderful time. China has some of the best and most diverse cuisine to be found anywhere in the world, great cultural and ecological diversity, and an enchanting sense of the ancient. You can find some of the most modern cities in the world and some of the most quaint, old villages. Tropical or Siberian forests, deserts and Himalayan. China is never boring, often challenging, and infinitely interesting. For me, there's no where I'd rather live. |