After travelling the world for 16 months, we weren’t ready to go home and clear up down, but we needed a bit of a break from backpacking. Making the decision to step to Yangzhou, China and sign a 1 year contract teaching English was a no-brainer for us. After backpacking through this enormous country for about a month, we realized this is somewhere we could live. We love the local people, the food is impressive and it has a best blend of western comforts and exotic feel.
Teaching English is ideal. Since we would be in a foreign country, the language, culture, food and way of life would be different, which would make us feel like we were still travelling; even though we would be putting down some momentary roots. each day there would be somewhere new to explore, different customs and celebrations to take part in and new people to meet, which would keep our lives exciting!
Pretty sick of this tiny room after 10 nights! Kowloon new Hostel, Hong Kong
We flew from Vancouver back to Hong Kong at the end of June, 2012. We ended up spending longer there arranging our working visas than we would have liked. Even though we had a lot of help from our new employers at the English school in Yangzhou, we still ran into a few bumps along the way. Long story short: we spent 10 days in Hong Kong and accomplished nothing! We did take pleasure in some nights out on the town, doing a lot of walking, eating amazing Indian food (which we had been craving) and just hanging out. We celebrated my birthday in style at Rocco’s, a delicious Italian restaurant with a long “happy hour” and scrumptious food.
Happy birthday Dariece! getting ready for a night out on the town. Hong Kong
After realizing that we were getting nowhere fast, we made a decision to enter China on a ‘tourist visa’ first and sort out the working visa when we arrived in Yangzhou. We took a 26 hour, overnight train from Shenzhen (border city with Hong Kong & China) to Yangzhou. Once we arrived, everything fell into place and our lives changed, in a good way.
Waiting for the train in Shenzhen…we had SO much luggage for our step to China.
The overnight train from Shenzhen to Yangzhou, China
We checked into the Yangzhou Ge garden international youth Hostel in the old town and considering that we are curious backpackers, we right away wandered around exploring our area. We weren’t sure where our English school was, but we knew we wanted to stay in the old part of town until we found our permanent residence. After enjoying the day, we contacted our employers and set up to meet up with them the next afternoon.
Double room at Ge garden international youth Hostel, Yangzhou, China
The first step was to find somewhere to live. Somewhere we could call “home” for a year or more. Yes, we’re backpackers and we’ve lived in huts, guesthouses, hostels, hotels, ashrams and done some camping, but we were trying to find something a little a lot more comfortable. What we were shown was horrendous. Bachelor suites about 35 square meters (350 square feet), with no couch, no stove, no laundry machine, the lowest ceilings we’ve seen, one tiny window, a fridge the size of an end table and the worst musty, damp smells ever! We looked at each other and thought “what have we gotten ourselves into”. We looked at 5 places that were just nowhere near habitable and were told to choose one. We finally said “I don’t think you’re understanding what we’re looking for. There are 2 of us, we want an actual bedroom, living room, dining room, shower room and kitchen. We want windows, something to cook food on and a ceiling that we won’t hit with our heads. Is that too much to ask?!” After searching for 3 days, our complaints were answered.
View from our apartment. Yangzhou, China
We have ended up with a beautiful, fully furnished, new, clean, 88 square meter (947 square foot) apartment. We have a bedroom with a door, a kitchen with a gas stove, 3 meter (9.8 foot) high ceilings, a laundry maker and tiled floors. The best part is that we are a corner suite so we have lots of windows and tons of light floods in. Needless to say, all of our complaining and patience paid off.
Our apartment or condo in Yangzhou, China. just moving in!View of our apartment or condo from the door. Yangzhou, China
The bedroom in our new apartment. It looks a lot different now! Yangzhou, ChinaThe toilet/shower/laundry room in our new apartment. Yangzhou, China
The very green kitchen in our new apartment. Yangzhou, China
We were given so much help when we first arrived, it was such a pleasurable surprise. We had heard first hand and read online about the horror stories of teaching English abroad. People who had ended up with the worst contracts imaginable, working 40 hours a week, having no help from the school when it pertained to paying bills, finding an apartment or condo and setting up all of the needed working visa documents. We have been given help with finding an apartment, doing the needed medical checks, sorting out the papers for the working visa, hooking up Internet and phone, paying utility bills and obtaining medical insurance. We couldn’t be happier with all of the support we received, and continue to receive.
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