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[Sam Smith]

OK, OK -- I am ready to make the "big plundge"....

Over the last couple of weeks, I started applying directly to several universities (no agents --- thank you very much!) in Xinjiang, Gansu and Heilongjiang.  I am looking for the "off the beaten path" experience with my sights set on Xinjiang.

So far, I have been offered 4 actual teaching positions: 2 in XJ and 2 in Gansu with another 1 in XJ [in Yining --- where I want to teach) "reviewing my application with the other leaders" of the university.

All 5 jobs basically offer the same package:

1.)  5,000 RMB/month (except 1 of 2 in Gansu only offering 3,800)
2.)  14 - 18 periods (45 or 50 minutes)
3.)  2,200 RMB travel money
4.)  5,000 - 7,000 flight reimbursement
5.)  free apartment
6.)  "Z" visa (funny --- one of them tried to pull the "we'll change your tourist visa" b.s. on me --- and, thanks to the Saloon, I knew better). 
7.)  etc., etc.

Like I said, I am hoping for an offer from the school in Yining (far west XJ) -- actually applied to a uni there as well as a high school (haven't heard from the h.s. yet).

Does anyone in the Saloon have any experience living in (or visiting) any of the 3 cities (Karamay, Urumqi, or Yining)?

I know the basics of each --- what I have pulled from Wikipedia, the schools' websites, travel websites, weather websites, www.farwestchina.com, Peace Corp ESL blogs, etc.

For what it's worth ---- thanks to everyone in the Saloon that have helped me with their posts.  I don't post too much but I read a lot of your musings and have learned a ton of shit (and I have stolen several of your jokes too!).

Thanks!


Sam

[NATO]

People on this forum have jokes 









Btw, when I came to China I arrived on an F-Visa (business visa) and my university sent us to Hong Kong as promised after a month, so changing visas does happen. However I think you're wise in trying to avoid it. I know nothing about Xinjiang.

[The Local Dialect]

I think Xinjiang would be a really interesting place to live. I'm planning a trip out there for August but we do have a member or two with experience living out there. I've been fascinated with Xinjiang since I first arrived in China, so much history, and a culture that is (for now anyhow) quite different from Han culture.

So it sounds like a great adventure. From what I understand Karamay and Urumqi are both pretty Han-ified places (Karamay has oil) so I don't know which one I'd choose. Yining and Karamay are about 500km apart, which is a lot, but they are in the same general region of Xinjiang, that sort of Northwest corner, so maybe that's a point in Karamay's favor.

Let us know what you end up choosing, and good luck!

[lindamao]

Urumqi is a great big urban center. It is heavily polluted in the winter and there is a reasonably large foreign population (3000+ would be my guess) so for the "off the beaten track" experience you probably want to give it a miss. Personally, I detest the place.

I have not been to Karamay, but as the previous post mentions it is an oil town (so quite morden and shiny) new (so not very big) and predominantly han (so not so exotic). Again, a miss.

Yining I have also not been to, though I have an invitation this summer and will go if I have the time after I come back from visiting the family in TO. I have heard great things about Yining and am looking forward to checking it out. Just a note of caution (or is that encouragement), Xinjiang is developing very quickly. So, some places can be very 'old Xinjiang', some places it has been wiped away and replaced with modern urbanity and some places it is a construction site. You might want to find someone who lives there and see some recent photos...  Good luck, and welcome to this wonderful place

[Raoul F. Duke]

6.)  "Z" visa (funny --- one of them tried to pull the "we'll change your tourist visa" b.s. on me --- and, thanks to the Saloon, I knew better).

Maybe read a little deeper?
Changing the visa once in China is actually fairly commonplace. It puts more risk on the teacher, but it generally works out OK and often comes with a subsidized trip to Hong Kong. Sure, some folks have been burned by this route, but they're very few, and hey, people have been burned by just about EVERY arrangement anyway.

There are those who strongly dislike this arrangement, but IMHO it's not a deal-breaker.

[Fozzwaldus]

not much to offer from what the others have said above, other than, in Kalamay and URQ, though there are plenty of Hans there, there are also plenty of Weegurs, if that's the sort of exoticism you're after. Also, big city weegurs can be just as cosmopolitan as any other type of people, they like hip-hop, go drinking in fancy clubs, y'know? I don't think that makes them any less 'real'.

URQ is dirty and drab and terribly polluted in the winter (in China's worst 3 cities!), but it is interestingly cosmopolitan.

Kalamay might be a nice place to live, fairly developed, good work oppurtunities, but I get the feeling you'll want to be living in a yurt or somesuch, so I can't really help you there.

Let us know what you decide.

[pydilyk]

I spent about a week in and around Yining a couple of summers ago and loved it. It's more a big town than a city (although who knows how much it's grown in 2 years). It definitely had an old-town, slow paced kind of feel to it. Being where it is (it was controlled by Imperial Russia at one point), there is a huge mix of different cultures and all the delicious foods that come with them. It gets cold in the winter, but summers are nice and dry. If you like doing stuff outdoors, it's a good place to be. Snow capped mountains, grasslands, rivers and alpine forests are all nearby.

One thing you may want to think about is that you may one of only a handful of foreigners living there. When I went, the police came to our hotel and moved us to a different one where they were making all the foreigners stay that week. There were only 2 others and the cops said there was one foreigner who taught for several years but had left, and at the moment the town had no expats living there.

Also, security is pretty heavy. There was some "unpleasantness" there in the 90's and it was clear they were not going to let it happen again. Things might have been especially tight as I was also there exactly a year after bad things happening in Urumqi, but the apcs on the town square and roving swat teams seemed totally out of place for such a quiet little town.

If you want any specifics I can try and help, I was only there a short while but it really was a cool place.

[Sam Smith]

Thanks for everyone's comments and suggestions!


Sam

[Con ate dog]

The terms sound pretty decent, given that we're talking about the poor part of the country.  But bear in mind the ticker reimbursement's not going to cover the cost of your plane ticket by a longshot, so you'll have to save some from your salary.

It sounds adventurous.  Good luck!

[tripsigg]

Karamay is awesome. I love it here. What school is on offer?

What do you want to know about Karamay? Karamay City right?

The people are friendly, the air is clean, city just works. It's not necessarily a cheap place, but it's hard to spend money. I love the biking here. The desert is only a hop skip and jump from the foreigner apartment building.

It truly is beautiful and modern here.

Any thing you want to know let me know....

Oh about Urumqi, stay away. I didn't like it.