Footprints Recruiting

China is an amazing place to teach English and explore a culture that is really just opening its' doors to the world. Teaching English in China is a rewarding experience but it requires one to be patient and open-minded.

Teaching jobs in China are plentiful but finding a professional, organized situation can be challenging. That's where Footprints can help. We screen the schools and make sure you are going to a safe, reputable, professional school.

The time you spend in this culturally and visually stimulating country will result in a truly unique experience.

Teaching opportunities in China do not necessarily offer a great deal of money, but they are some of the most unique destinations that we are currently offering. As China opens it's doors to commerce, trade and the West, it will experience a great many changes and challenges. Those wishing to catch a glimpse of this emerging superpower should waste no time.

As China flexes it's muscles in international markets there is a tremendous amount of focus on internationalism and learning English.

Descriptions of Teaching Destinations in China

China is an immense country and from top to bottom the people, the culture, the food, the climate, literally almost everything differs.  Find out more about cities in China. Click on one of the cities and find out what it's like before you get there.

We encourage you to tell us about your experience in that city when you get there so that the information can always be as current as possible. If there's a city not listed here that you want to know about please feel free to contact us for more information.

If you are in a club or if you know about a club that English teachers in China might be interested in please let us know and we'll add their information here for all English teachers in China.
 

Terms and Benefits and Requirements of Contracts in China

China may not be the best paying country to work in but it can be one of the most gratifying. If you're looking for an adventure you need not look much farther that teaching English in China!

General Teaching Contracts in China

• Salary: 4,000-20,000 RMB/month (depends on hours/housing/vacations)
• Airfare: Round-trip airfare is always included with 1 year contracts.
  • Typically the employer will reimburse you for a one-way ticket to China and then they will pay for a one-way return ticket at the end of your contract
• Housing: Free furnished shared or single apartment provided often on campus
• Hours/Week: 16 to 24 teaching hours/week - some contracts require more teaching hours
• Overtime: this ranges from 60-250RMB/hour
• Medical: typically some form of reimbursement package ranging from 400-200,000 RMB - contingent on the school. Footprints HIGHLY recommends getting expat medical coverage while teaching in China
• Holidays: generally the Chinese national holidays which amount to about 3 weeks. Often higher paying jobs will not include vacation times and will increase teaching/contact hours dramatically during busy student vacation periods

We all heard how all our textiles are coming from China and how cheap things are in China, and it's true.  For the most part. 

With all the money coming into China to buy these mass produced goods, there are some people in China who are beyond filthy rich.  As a result, there are some very expensive places and things in China... we recommend you stay away from these places when considering restaurants.

Hear what other teachers in China have to say about the cost of living in China.

China is home to the richest and oldest heritage of art & literature in the world. Some famous works have been translated into foreign languages but most of them are not translated or non-translatable. Thus they are unknown to the outside world.

What should also immediately be known and understood, is that Chinese people are intensely competitive and in most situations (unless you are friends with this person), they could care less about you. One teacher puts it like this, "Public behavior of people is disgusting and the lack of politeness and respect against each other is the worst I have ever seen in Asia. One on one or in personal interactions in individual circumstances it's ok, put yourself in a market or on a sidewalk with a bunch of strangers and it's like you're invisible."

That said, Chinese culture is absolutely amazing and some of the ceremony and traditions are marvels.

Footprints Recruiting proudly offers teaching jobs in the Chinese public school system, in international schools, in private schools, universities and colleges and in private language schools in China.

Basic education in China includes pre-school education, primary education and regular secondary education. Education in China is a decentralized process where the state (being the central government) sets plans and each administrative division (province) is responsible for ensuring their region meets or exceeds these requirements.

There are incredible differences in the quality of education from area to area. As is often the case with fast-growing economies, there are marked regional disparities with respect to education. As such, the most economically developed places correspondingly have the highest demand for English, the most exposure to English and consequently, the highest level of English.

Oddly, English language training is still considered "non-core education services". These services are tightly controlled by the government.

This is a quick reference for emergency phone numbers you might need in China.  If you're looking for your Embassy or Consulate phone number in China please refer to our web links section for Embassies and Consulates.

• Police: 110
• Ambulance: 120
• Fire: 119
• Local directory: 114
• International operator: 115
• Weather: 121
• Direct Dial Operator: 108
• Foreigner Complaints

For a list of hospitals or medical facilties near you please check out Medical in China.

Forget the fortune cookie but get ready to tempt your taste buds! The tastes of China vary greatly from region to region but the one commonality is that it is GOOD! Greasy, but good.

Be aware and be patient and be open-minded. It make take several goes to find the right dishes for you and when you go out with Chinese hosts they somehow often want you to try the strangest thing on the menu, perhaps just to see if you have the courage, or maybe in truth because it's a delicacy. I have overcome my reluctance to try things. Did you know that it's ok to spit things on the table that you don't like. Imagine doing that at home... ok when your 4 years old but go home and have Thanksgiving dinner with mom and dad and spit your brussel sprout out and see what happens. I smile just thinking about the loving smack I would get. In China, no worries. Same with food eating sounds. Anyway, if you try something you don't like you can put it on the table after trying it or after at least making it look like you tried it, you can then spit it out or push it off your plate.

My best practises guide leads me to believe that you should try a little corner of whatever it is and then simple nod your head in an understanding way and calmly say with a non-commital face that, "it's not for me." Once you do this it won't be pushed your way again and if it is you can calmly say , "no thank you".

Standard contracts offer one to two weeks of paid vacation per year. This time is usually between semesters, thus you can expect to have a week of vacation in the summer and a week of vacation in the winter. In addition there are about 17 Chinese national holidays per year.

Please note that all the special days listed below are NOT necessarily a day off from work. Read the meaning of each to find out if you'll be in class or not. Also, plan lessons around these special days. Get your students to teach you about their special meanings and what they are doing to perpetuate their culture...

The majority of English schools in China provide their teachers with free housing. Some schools that offer higher starting salaries may exclude housing, be sure to read your contract completely. We highly recommend contracts that include housing for your first job.

Teacher apartments in China are usually either on campus or very close. These apartments will be furnished with basic necessities- a western style bed, some chairs, a table, a bureau, a TV, a fridge, a washing machine and perhaps a VCR and or a computer and a western style toilet. The only places where you will experience traditional ‘squat’ style toilets- basically a porcelain covered hole in the floor- is in the countryside and in some public restrooms (but these are becoming less and less common). I repeat - you will NOT have a squat toilet in your apartment- you will have a normal, western style flush toilet.

Internet cafes do a booming business in Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Hong Kong, Xian and most other tourist spots. Even smaller and more remote cities usually have some kind of internet cafe for those who need to get their regular email fix. Prices vary of course, from RMB10 per hour to RMB50 per hour in parts of Hong Kong and Shanghai. There are also a few internet bars popping up around Shanghai and Beijing, where internet access is provided free for those buying a drink or something to eat.

The big questions about internet in China is reliability, speed and most importantly, censorship. Do you get all the mail you are meant to? Can you search all the sites you want to? Does your mail get read before it goes out...

All good questions, as the world's largest user of the internet one does wonder. Wikipedia has some interesting comments on censorship in China.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_People's_Republic_of_China

They also comment on the 30,000 person strong Internet Police Task Force... Wikipedia wasn't even accessible until the International Olympic Committee requested this become available... this was in March 2008.

Those of you who like BBC or the New York Times... also not likely. CNN is often blacked out too.

Internet cafes can be found nearby most of the colleges, however, you will not want to use them to access secure email or banking information, etc. because of security issues. Using an internet café usually only costs around 3 RMB per hour.

The national language is Putonghua (the common speech) or Mandarin, which is one of the five working languages at the United Nations. Most of the 55 minority nationalities have their own languages. Cantonese is one of the local dialects of southern China. As a written language, Chinese has been used for 6,000 years.

The Han people have their own spoken and written language. Chinese belongs to the Han-Tibetan language family. It is the most commonly used language in China, and one of the most commonly used languages in the world.

Written Chinese emerged in its embryonic form of carved symbols approximately 6,000 years ago. The Chinese characters used today evolved from those used in bone and tortoise shell inscriptions more than 3,000 years ago and the bronze inscriptions produced soon after.

Drawn figures were gradually reduced to patterned stroke, pictographs were reduced to symbols, and the complicated graphs became simpler. Early pictographs and ideographs were joined by pictophonetic characters.

In fact, there are six categories of Chinese characters: pictographs, self-explanatory characters, associative compounds, pictophonetic characters, phonetic loan characters, and mutually explanatory characters.

Chinese words are monosyllabic. A large proportion of Chinese characters are composed of an ideogramatic element combined with a phonetic element.

Many non-Chinese sometimes get the feeling that there are an unlimited number of Chinese characters. There are about 56,000 characters, of which only about 3,000 are in common use. In addition to their functional value as symbols for records and communication, Chinese characters have an aesthetic value as calligraphy.

All of China's 55 minority people have their own languages, except the Hui and Manchu, who use Chinese; 23 of these have a written form. Nowadays, classes in schools in predominantly national minority areas are taught in the local language, using local language textbooks. 

Download Chinese Language Wallet Cards:

• useful expressions in Chinese

Useful sites for studying Chinese:

• Conversational Mandarin Chinese Online: http://www.csulb.edu/~txie/ccol/content.htm
• Learn Chinese: http://www.minmm.com/
• Audio Chinese of Survival Chinese: http://www.wku.edu/~yuanh/AudioChinese/

China is an amazing country to experience. There are a great many changes that have taken place as China embraces the 21st century which are bringing semblances of Western culture to the major cities.

First things first though, have we mentioned you need to be patient?

Have we mentioned that life here can be a struggle at times?

Learn, explore, smile. Be patient, be open, be nice!

Your experience in China will largely depend on where you are and who you are. Consider the regional differences in your home country, now consider the differences in China, one of the largest countries by land mass in the world with over a billion people... starting to get the idea... the Texas accent to the New Yorker? Brisbane to Adelaide?  Vancouver to Halifax? Mandarin to Cantonese and about 100 other dialects... life in China is diverse.

Who you are will make a difference because those people who are able to to let their frustrations go and open themselves to the culture by getting in amongst it are going to have an absolutely fascinating time.

"HOSPITAL" - 医院 - "Yi-Yuan". Say it as if it's one word - pronounced "yiyen".

If you don't have access to the internet and you're in a bind and need to find a doctor, best bet is to go to the nicest hotel around and ask them. Generally speaking the nicer hotels usually have staff that can speak English and dollars to donuts they know where you should go.

Most major cities have a good number of hospitals and now that foreign doctors can practise in China there many new international clinics and even hospitals with English speaking doctors who are practising western medicine.

Chinese state hospitals can be scary places - they are best described as developing rather than developed. If you need a blood transfusion or if you are giving blood do your best to get to an international clinic. The biggest fear in China now is in regard to contaminated blood stock.

***NOTE: if you've been reading through our site this will not be the first time you have read this. Footprints Recruiting STRONGLY recommends getting expat medical coverage when teaching in China. Be prepared. An accident overseas can cost you or your parents EVERYTHING.

For at least the first year or two in China, it is often true that you get sick more often than in your home country. Diarrhea can be a problem in getting used to the food and water.

Local Chinese people tend to use traditional Chinese medicines for minor ailments, but many western medicines are now available “over the counter” at local drug stores including a variety of antibiotic and antiviral drugs, steroid creams, anti-inflammatory creams, asthma medicine, and gastrointestinal drugs for diarrhoea and heartburn. Drugs for pain, fever, colds and allergies are also available.

The local currency in China is the Yuan or the Renminbi.  Renminbi is the name of the Chinese currency, it literally means "the people's currency".  Yuan is the name of a unit of the renminbi.

Jiao is a unit of the Yuan.  Like saying 4 dollars and 10 cents.  the Jiao is becoming far less used in China today.  There is even a smaller unit still, the Fen.  The Fen is a unit of the Jiao.  1 Jiao=10 Fen.

So how does it work and what is the currency like. Good question. There is a lot to get used to and I highly recommend that you learn to be frugal with your money. The Chinese highly respect good negotiators.

Currency demoniations are: ¥0.1 (1 Jiao), ¥0.2 (2 Jiao), ¥0.5 (5 Jiao), ¥1 (1 Yuan), ¥2, ¥5, ¥10, ¥50 and ¥100.

As mentioned in the Chinese teaching contracts section, you are going to be earning a very decent salary in China. It may not seem like a fortune to you, it might even be considerably less than what you were earning before. You might even have made more as a petroleum transfer engineer (gas jockey) when you were 14 years old. So what. You're in a different country - you're in China where a BigMac costs around $1.60 (not that I am recommending eating one)... A teacher's salary will leave you lots of room to have fun in China as long as you are smart with your money.

A great reason to go to China is to save money (which you actually can do if you live like a Chinese person) but that shouldn’t be your principle focus. If you want to save for a house back home you might consider teaching in Korea.

One of the most common questions we get asked is how foreigners can conduct their banking while living in China, particularly with an eye towards sending money back home to pay off student loans or the house mortgage. Don't expect to pay these off immediately.

The pay in China is lower than Korea, Taiwan or Hong Kong but the cost of living is a fraction what you would pay elsewhere and typically you are working less hours.

Once you arrive in China with your Z visa, you will be taken by the school to the local immigration office to register for your alien residency card, which usually takes a week or two to process. Once you have this card, you are a legal resident of China for the duration of your contract and can legally open a bank account with a Chinese bank for the duration of your stay in China.

Major credit cards are accepted in China, however Chinese society is largely a cash based society- personal checks are largely unheard of- and don’t expect your debit card from your local bank in Omaha or Moose Jaw to work in China.

Like most countries, there are a few banks to choose from in China.  The following five are the largest. 

• Agricultural Bank of China - www.abchina.com
• Bank of China - www.boc.cn
• China Bank - www.chinabank.com.ph
• China Construction Bank - www.ccb.com
• Industrial and Commercial Bank of China - www.icbc.com.cn

Telephones, Cell Phones, Pagers, PDA's - Made in China

China's telephone system has been completely modernized in recent times, and both international and domestic calls can be made with little fuss.

Local calls are frequently free of charge.

Long distance calls within China are fairly cheap.

International calls cost approximately RMB15 per minute.

Local or long distance domestic calls can also call from private run phone booth, usually charged by minutes. These phone "booths" are found on most streets, inside small shops or tucked down alley ways. A phone sign usually indicates where one can be found. They are very easy to use and cheap. Simply make your call and the assistant or shopkeeper will tell you the cost afterwards. Often they will sit an stare at you while you make your call. It's kind of strange but one of those things.

For direct domestic long distance calls (DDD), dial the domestic prefix '0' plus area code and the number. Rates are different according to the distance.

For direct international calls (IDD), dial the international access code 00 plus country code plus area code and the number.

You can also make your call from the Post Office. Generally, you pay a RMB200 deposit and are told to go to a particular phone booth. When you are finished, a receipt will be issued and you pay at the desk. To make a reverse charge call you can dial the home country direct dial number (108), which puts you straight through to a local operator in your destination country.

Phone cards can be found everywhere, especially in major cities and in Post Offices. Today, the IC and IP cards are the most common and widely used. IC cards are credit card sized with a golden chip at the end of one side, in units of RMB30, RMB50 and RMB100, and can be used throughout China. IC telephones can be recognized by their yellow colors, the card slot, and the absence of a coin slot. There is a button on the IC telephone that can switch the machine to English language.

IP Cards for Calling Long Distance Overseas From China

The IP card is the best value for overseas calls. These cards do have an expiry date. They can be bought on the street or at Post Offices across the country. For an international call, the cost is RMB4.80 per minute. To make a call, simply follow the instructions in English on the back of the card.

You dial an access number, punch in the card number and card PIN number (password), and then you can make quite cheap international phone calls and domestic long distance phone calls. However, not all cards can be used from all public phones!

**The going rate for these cards at the moment is 35RMB even though they say 100RMB on the card itself! This will buy you about 20 - 45 min of international phone time depending on where you are calling**

IC Cards to Make Regular Calls Around China.

You need an IC card to use the regular public telephone booths all over town. Many public phones are owned by China Telecom (Zhōngguó Diànxìn) and only accept China Telecom IC cards. Once again, not all cards can be used from all phones. Some can only be used within a specific province, or to call places within a given range.

Aside from the regular public phones however, there are numerous small shops that sell one thing or another and also offer the use of their telephone. Their telephones have a sort of meter that gauges how much you pay (usually a few Jiao for a short local call).

Here are several useful telephone numbers but most of the operators cannot speak English very well:

• Police: 110
• Ambulance: 120
• Fire: 119
• Local directory: 114
• International operator: 115
• Weather: 121
• Direct Dial Operator: 108

Getting around in China is a bit of a challenge. Whether it's poor signage or bad directions or special windows (and prices) for foreigners, invariably it is often a mission to get where you want to go. Each city or town presents it's own set of challenges but rest assured, once you become a bit more familiar with things it gets easier.

Whether you're looking to get around a city or get around the country, there is usually a pretty cheap option.

China boasts some of the world's most incredible places.  Here are just a couple things you might want to add to your list of things to see in China.  If you experience something in China that you think is worth sharing, please write a story about it to share with other teachers.

Top Ten Places to Visit in China

1. Great Wall
2. Beijing - Tiantin, Summer Palace, Tiananmen, Forbidden City, National Grand Theater
3. Shanghai - the Bund, Pudong, People's Park
4. Terracota Soldiers and Xi'an
5. Gulin - Li River cruise, Solitary Beauty Peak and Reed Flute Cave
6. Suzhou - the venice of China
7. Dali - the old walled city

Help us finish the top ten places to visit in China.  Submit your vote by email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - please be specific about the name and briefly describe your experience to tell us why you think that place or city merits the top ten.

There are many different types of English teaching jobs available in China, each with it's own merit, requirements and benefits. We have tried to summarize ESL teaching opportunities in China in the following areas:

• Public Schools
• Private Language Schools
• Private Schools
• University and Colleges
• Businesses
   

Public School Teaching Jobs in China

The Chinese government has de-centralized public schools and has put forth general curriculum outcomes that all schools have to meet. How these schools get to that end point is entirely up to them which makes for differences in schools located in the same city.

The common thread here is that all schools want a Western English teacher. Some public schools will share teachers, some will have their own in-house programs where they directly employ their own foreign teachers, some will have programs that piggyback on their existing English programs and offer additional classes to students (that they have to pay for). There are many other options and ways public schools operate. The interesting thing here is that if every public school teacher in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand came to China to teach English they wouldn't even come close to having enough teachers for the English classes in China.

Check out our Education in China section to learn more about the incredible capacity of the Chinese Education system. Imagine over 110,000 KINDERGARTENS with enrollments of over 20,000,000 students (20 million!). If you said you wanted 40 students to 1 teacher that would still be 500,000 teachers. Remembering that this is for ONE AGE GROUP.

The national statistics agency for Canada reports that in Canada in 2007 we had a total of 1,078,856 in Employment, educational and related services.

With the need for teachers this great it should be a cake walk to find a job... One would think so and for the most part that is completely true. Finding a teaching job in a public school in China is simple. Finding one that pays you on time and provides medical and can talk to you about tax situations and implications and one that will pick you up at the airport and assist you with setting yourself up and all these important factors that contribute to your overall experience - now this can be a challenge. This is where Footprints comes in. All our schools will do all those things listed there and more.

Private Language School Teaching Jobs in China

As a middle class emerges in China, the demand for English in private language schools is literally exploding. Adults are enroling in business English classes to advance in their jobs or to keep them. Adults are getting retrained by companies and thus are being sent to private language schools or they are developing in-house training centers. Kids are also being sent to these private language schools literally in the millions. Everyone is competing. Everyone is trying to get into the better schools or provide the best opportunities for their children. It is a tough competitive world in China. All that considered, imagine for a minute how many private language schools catering to teaching English there are in China...

...simply astounding.

The difficult part here is finding a job that will pay you on time, one that understands that foreigners think differently and that we have different expectations, and one that will be professional to work in and for. This is where Footprints can excel for you. We only work with the best schools AND we stay with you and support you for your entire year.

Private School Teaching Jobs in China

All the major metropolitan centers in China have private schools. These are where the elite of society will send their kids. Generally these schools are looking for very experienced teachers and teachers always have to be certified to teach in a public school in his or her home country.

University and College Teaching Jobs in China

University jobs typically don't pay very well - 2500-4000 RMB but there are some perks.  There is local esteem attached to being a "lecturer" which can be influential and help you leverage yourself in other directions.  University jobs typically only require you to teach 10-16 contact hours.  In most cases housing is usually on campus and typically.  These jobs often hire in August.

Getting your visa to teach in China differs in terms of cost, process, jurisdiction and processing time. These differences could be because of the country where your are applying or even the city where you are applying. Strange but true.

In most cases you, or someone on behalf of you, has to take the official Chinese visa application in to the Chinese Consulate in-person and someone has to go and pick it up in-person. This explains partly why there are ALWAYS line ups.

Please review the instructions to get a Visa for China by following the link that associates with your nationality.

When you go to the Chinese Consulate that has jurisdiction over your particular area, bring a good book. Our experience tells us that the early bird is not necessarily the smartest. I have waited in lineups at 8am - hoping to be the first in line so that I can get it done first when the consulate opens at 9:00am... Even though I was an hour early, I was not first in line. The line up at the Chinese Consulate in Vancouver for example, goes down the hall around the corner down the stairs and then out a door into the alley. No joking. It is like this EVERY DAY. My advice, go around 11am. Most people are gone and you only have to wait about 10-30 minutes. You're welcome for that advice.

If you need same day processing that's a different story. This is not available for all nationalities, Australians for example can only "officially" get next day service in SOME Chinese consulates. Those of you who can get SAME DAY service, your application MUST be in before 11:00am in some Consulates or before 9:30am in others or they won't do same day. Unfortunately if you're looking for same day service, for safety sake I would recommend getting there very early or, better yet, try calling the Chinese Consulate and check in with them about an appropriate time to start queuing. If you're there around opening time expect at least a half hour or two or three of waiting.

As for the type of visa required to teach in China, there are two types currently being issued. The most common one is the Z-visa. This is the Chinese Employment or Work Visa. Some schools have elected to bring teachers in on F visas which are business visas. This could be as a result of their licensing in China. Be aware what you are applying for and be sure you know why you are applying for anything other than a Z-visa.