Welcome to the city of Zengcheng. This is where I will be living and teaching at a place called Phoenix City International School.

When I first interviewed for the job, the school made it sound like I would be in Guangzhou. It wasn’t until after I read the contract that I saw the city listed as Zengcheng. While the area that I am in is technically part of the city, it’s still a 40-minute bus ride from Guangzhou. Guangzhou currently has a population of over 14 million, while Zengcheng has a mere 900,000+. I think I have been living in China for too long already since I consider a population of 900,000+ to be an insignificant number. I was recently driven around town to see if there was anything worth visiting, but unfortunately, this town doesn’t seem to have much entertainment other than a few KTV joints. The only other thing to see around town without having to go into Guangzhou is what is known as the traffic center (or shopping center), where we go to get our groceries or eat out.

I think there are about 30 or so other foreign teachers that work here, and we all live in the same building. The vast majority of the teachers work for the international school, which has kindergarten, primary, middle, and high schools. The other school here is a bilingual school that has a kindergarten and primary school, which is where I’ll be teaching. I was told at a recent foreign teacher dinner that the first priority when it comes to hiring incoming teachers is to fill up positions in the international school. I was told that last semester there were really only two foreign teachers in the bilingual school. When I asked how many there would be this coming semester, I was told that they don’t quite know yet (of course).

Anyway, I live on campus in a school-provided studio. At this school, our rent and utilities are free. We only pay for whatever amount we use that is over our monthly allotted amounts. We also get to eat at the school canteen for free as well. These are some images of my new digs. Some of these apartments (including mine) have been remodeled.

I really wanted to use my free time to go to Thailand, but my current financial situation won’t allow for it. However, I do plan on visiting a friend in Kunming for the Chinese New Year, so after I get back, I’ll post about that. In the meantime, I have decided to use some of my free time to get more familiar with the campus. As you can see, there are quite a number of tropical-looking trees and plants around the campus. The weather here has been mild and cool, though there have been a few days where it was sunny and quite warm. The temperature has hovered between 11 and 22 degrees C (which is 52 and 74 degrees F). I’m glad that I don’t have to deal with the pain of seeing snow-dusted palm trees like I did back in Hangzhou. I just hope I won’t feel like I’ll want to die when the summer comes and the humidity and mosquitoes are in full swing.

Since I arrived here, I have had a few meals out. This is the Taiwanese-style restaurant where we foreign teachers were taken for our celebratory dinner. I also ate here for lunch with someone I had met named Jimmy, who is from the neighboring city of Dongguan.

I will eventually take some class photos once I get used to my schedule. Until next time…