Dave Daily

Well, it's great being back in Harbin. I have been very lucky in that I landed a great job teaching in the Heilongjiang University (HeiDa). A friend worked here previously and recommended the uni to me and me to the uni. Hopefully it is working out well for both of us.

Teaching at a university is a new experience for me. I've done pretty much every other kind of teaching - primary school, high school, private training centers and business English training in companies. The uni is very different, but still interesting and challenging. More on the classes later...

Follow up:

Getting a new job here in China is always fraught with danger and no little risk. Everything can look great in the emails, sound right on the phone, read well in the contract - but still be wrong when you get there. Thankfully, Heilongjiang University is not like that!

Everything I was told before I arrived has been spot-on.

The one hitch in the plans was that I was expecting university provided housing. They have some reasonable, clean apartments on campus - but they are a bit on the small side and with a wife and baby I don't fit the expected FT stereotype and it was decided that I would be more comfortable living off campus.

We eventually found a nice, comfortable and good sized apartment just across the road from the campus. We're settled in now and everything is great.

My teaching schedule is a bit busier than I was expecting, but as the extra classes are from a different department than I work in I will be making a nice bit of extra cash each month - and I had the choice of whether to accept these classes or not.

As you would expect with a major uni everything has been taken care of in terms of residency permit and FE certificate. One thing I did notice is that because my first job in China was legit and I entered the country on a Z Visa - even though I changed employers after 1 year and I am now onto my fifth residency permit renewal - I was able to get a new Residency Permit here without having to leave the country. It seems that here in Heilongjiang, at least, the days of changing from tourist or business visas to residency permits is gone.

There's a great group of other foreign teachers and as much or little socializing and support as I want.

Happy days!