Established on March 15 1905, Gaozhou Middle School has become one f the most successful  schools in Guangdong Province. Although Gaozhou is only a small city the school has a big reputation, having produced some exceptional scholars over its 103 year history.

The school was originally situated down-town. That location is now the Junior Campus of Gaozhou Middle School and the senior school occupies a beautiful new campus, opened in 2002, on the southern outskirts of the city. The two campuses combined have an enrollment of more than 13,000 students and more than 600 teachers. As with all government schools in China this one is run by the local government, the Education Bureau, and a group of Deans under the Principal. They do quite a good job at our school. The Dean of English, Mr Liang, is our boss. The school is licensed to hire Foreign Teachers (the first Government school in this area to be so) and of course will provide you with the necessary legal documents to get your visa.

The school environment is friendly and happy. Most of the teachers are friendly and outgoing, even those who speak little or no English. There are some Chinese English teachers who speak good English and will readily make friends with you. (There are other FTs in Maoming so a weekend or night there will meet your need for Western company).

Housing is a comfortable apartment in a good location close to school, friendly neighbours, often cool breezes, bathroom, 2 bedrooms , equipped kitchen, local phone free, ADSL connection (bring your laptop if you have one but you will have to pay for Internet time – it's very cheap) The school will also provide a computer. If you come directly to Gaozhou from outside China a generous reimbursement towards your visa costs will bw paid when you get here. Airfares are not paid but there is a substantial bonus paid after a 2-term contract. That and the competitive salary easily compensates. Statutory holidays are of course taken and paid. Summer holidays are not paid but we will try to help you find summer camp work if you want it and a travel allowance is paid. A few schools (not many!) pay part salary in the Summer but this is rar<img src=" border="0" height="166">e, especially as most 2-term contracts run from September to June/July thereby missing the summer holidays. Besides, the salaries we earn allow for a very comfortable lifestyle and travel to other parts of this fascinating country in the summer. We teach 26 to 30 classes per week, which sounds like a lot, but it's still only a maximum of 20 hours a week and all one grade, so only one lesson plan for the week. And no, it doesn't get boring because every class is different – some kids are better with English, some classes have many kids whose English is OK, some only a few. Usually work is from Monday to Friday and plenty of free time, although some Saturday morning classes may occasionally be scheduled. I've worked up to 30 class periods weekly, had Tuesday and Thursday afternoons free, and free weekends. Wonderful! An easy life.

The school supplies us with the text book and teacher's book but as we are teaching Oral English almost exclusively we have a lot of liberty for creative lesson planning. A few of the teachers like us to work with them on the speaking parts of the book but that's up to us. There are computers and OHP equipment in many classrooms. Photocopying is available and bigger quantities of materials can be printed at the school. They watch the cost but I have used this facility several times and it's very useful. There's a huge amount of good material available free from the Internet too. If you teach Senior Grade 1 the age group is around 15 to16 and Senior Grade 2 is 16 to 17.  (Primary School is Years 1 to 6, Junior Middle School is Junior Grade 1 to Junior Grade 3 (Years 7 to 9), and Senior Middle School is Senior Grade 1 to 3 (Years 10 to 12)). Classes are BIG, average being around 70. I had one Senior Grade 3 English Major class once with 99! Obviously with such big classes we cannot deal with all the students but that's normal life in this country of 1.3 billion people. I must say here that the majority of the kids are wonderful – friendly, diligent, polite, light-hearted, helpful...... Some who were my first students 4 years ago and now are at University are still my good friends. It really is a great school and a good place to work. I wouldn't have stayed so long if it wasn't.        

Being an FT here is pretty exciting – you will be a celebrity. I was at the school for three years and actually living in the city more than two and we get invited to lots of things, dinners, TV, etc. We're a real novelty to many people. If you are friendly and light- hearted the students will love you, the teachers will befriend you, and you'll have a great time. Get over the culture shock, accept that most things are not “good” or “bad” but just different and teaching and living here will be a wonderful experience for you.

Gaozhou – Experience the REAL China (Contributed by current teacher)

Gaozhou is a small city (by Chinese standards) situated in the Maoming Prefecture of Western Guangdong  Province, China. The city population is around 280 000 while the area, Gaozhou and area, is home to around 500 000. Gaozhou is an ancient city with a proud history, although now developing rapidly. It's not a beautiful city but I like it. There are fascinating old areas of the city, interesting temples, great food, good shopping, and friendly people. The surrounding countryside has some nice hills and farms, good for a day's cycling or walking. Of course as foreigners we attract a great deal of interest, especially when we get out into the villages. There have only ever been nine or ten foreigners who have lived in Gaozhou.

This is the capital of the lychee industry. Most hillsides round about are covered with lychee  orchards and this wonderful fruit is king here. The story goes that  teams of riders on horseback in ancient times took lychees from  Gaozhou to the Emperor in Beijing. Fruit production is a big industry here with longans, bananas, pineapples, mangoes, oranges, watermelons, and strawberries all grown. And the variety of vegetables, fresh from the farms every day, is just wonderful.

Gaozhou is also known for its   production of leather gloves, mainly industrial gloves, and for its technical and trade training schools. There are more than one hundred technical schools in the area, ranging from very large and well established institutions to very small schools of lesser quality. People keep saying that Gaozhou is a poor city but there is a building boom with new apartment buildings and very nice houses all over the place, an increasing number of cars, and SO MANY  motorbike shops. Not as rich as Maoming perhaps but not so poor either, although there are poor people, as elsewhere.

There are several quite good supermarkets and department stores, a good variety of cheap clothing (although not always styles and sizes to suit us bigger westerners – I'm tall and very thin and can buy pants and short-sleeved shirts OK but long- sleeved shirts are another matter. But tailor-made is not expensive), and very good footwear. I recently bought a pair of very nice dress shoes, hand made, for 85 Yuan RMB. Electrical and electronic goods can be good quality and cheap.

Western food is in short supply, as it is in most places in China, but we come to a foreign country to try new things don't we – including new foods. If you're really adventurous you can try dog, frog, donkey, sand worms...

In Maoming there are McDonalds and KFC.  We also have a local KFC copy called MFC which is quite good.  But the variety of Chinese foods here is very good and so cheap. We particularly like the hand-made noodles from a Moslem family from Xinjiang Province up in the North-west. Eating out is the Number 1 social activity and usually is great fun.

If you're a TV fanatic you'll be disappointed in Gaozhou. As in most parts of China English language TV is almost non-existent. But there's a good range of western movies and TV shows on DVD for hire and a DVD player is really cheap.

Only 30 or 40 minutes away by bus or taxi is the modern city of Maoming and another 30 minutes travel takes you to the nice town of Shuidong and No.1 Sea Beach. It's a great place for a day out or an overnight stay. The hotels at the beach are quite good and cheap. Lots of fresh seafood too.
 
Many FT's (Foreign Teachers) want to go to Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou. It's great to travel to those places and experience the wide variety of cultures and customs in this huge country and we have plenty of vacation time and good pay to  do just that. But to really settle in a place for a year and experience the life, make friends, and get over the culture shock, there's nothing like a smaller city or town. I tell my students, “Gaozhou is great. I can ride my bicycle from one side of the city to the other in 20 minutes.” I've been to Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and Changsha, as well as some other smaller cities and towns, and I'm so glad I chose a smaller place to live and work. The people are friendlier, the air is cleaner, and the cost of living is MUCH lower. You can really save money in Gaozhou if you want to – a great idea if you want to see other parts of China in the holidays.

Deciding to move to another country presents some challenges. It can sometimes be lonely, sometimes boring, sometimes frustrating...... sounds like home really. Make up your mind to enjoy the experience and you'll have a good time in Gaozhou. Hope to see you here.




Contact information:
Will Pascoe
Gaozhou Middle School (Current Teacher)
huangpaula@gmail.com

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