About The Guide

This is a free comprehensive online guide written by career educators and experienced foreign experts in China for prospective and current foreign teachers that contains volumes of well-documented information about living and teaching English in China. It covers more than 50 topics and addresses what every foreign teacher should know before accepting a job offer. If you are thinking about living and teaching English in China, then you owe it to yourself to read this guide.

Either before or after reviewing the guide, you should take our China English Teacher Self-Assessment test. This 20-item questionnaire will give you an excellent idea about how competitive you will be as an English teacher in China, as well as how easy or difficult your adjustment to life in China will be.

After you've had a chance to read the guide, we ask that you take just a couple of minutes to complete our reader survey so that we can be more responsive to your needs in the future. In addition, if you are or were a foreign teacher in China, we invite you to take our China Foreign Teacher Satisfaction Survey.

Using The Guide

This guide consists of 50 topics or chapters and each chapter is written to be read independently. The chapters are organized across two broad categories: teaching English in China and living in China. Although the chapters about various aspects of living in China are oriented to prospective foreign teachers, they can be read and enjoyed by anyone who is thinking about moving to China for any reason.

A good place to start is simply to browse the main menu to your left or, for a visual layout of the entire guide, you can take a look at guide’s site map and topic index. If you are primarily interested in obtaining a good idea about how competitive you would be in the English teaching job market, as well as gauging how easy or difficult your psychosocial adjustment to China will be, we encourage you to take our China English Teacher Self-Assessment test. If you are pressed for time and want a brief overview and discussion of the most salient issues you need to be aware of, then the Comprehensive Summary Checklist is an excellent place to start. If you are completely unfamiliar with China's educational system and Chinese students, it is highly recommended you first read our overview titled China's Education System, Chinese Students, and the Foreign English Teacher. For a detailed description of the vocational, sociodemographic and personal aspects of teaching English in China, see the unit on Is Teaching English in China for Me?

Finally, don't hesitate to use our highly robust search engine if you can't find what you are looking for (accessible just under the main menu bar on your left). Almost all of the requests we receive for additional topics are for subjects that are already included in our nearly 600-page Guide. Although we've done our very best to label and organize our main topic headings as clearly as possible, there is a plethora of related information included under hundreds of subheadings that won't be apparent to you if you simply browse the Guide's main headings from the menu bar.

Most Popular Pages

• Is teaching English in China really for me?
• How much can I expect to earn?
• What is the housing really like?
• Do I really need a degree to teach in China?
• Chinese social etiquette and customs.
• What are Chinese girls really looking for?
• Understanding Chinese women
• Narcissistic types among Chinese women
• Is your partner a narcissist? Take our 25-item questionnaire and find out.
• How to apply for a job that gets results

Newest Chapters and Features

• What To Expect Your First Week or Two After Arriving in China
• PDF and softcover editions of the Guide are now available.
• Readers forum for questions, feedback, and comments.
• Resource Directory (Listing of websites, blogs, and forums devoted to living and teaching English in China.)
• City Guides (Currently includes guides to living and teaching English in Guiyang, Guizhou province; Haikou, Hainan province; Nanchang, Jiangxi province, and; Tangshan, Hebei province)
• How To Create a Successful Website (A five-step guide for learning the best practices for building a successful website as a foreign teacher)
• China EFL Activities Resource Book (a 96-page collection of EFL activities, games, and songs for teaching English in China)
• Housing Market and Buying an Apartment in China
• China TEFL Primer: A brief guide to orient inexperienced foreign English teachers about the field of English language teaching and educational issues specific to Chinese students.
• China's Educational System, Student Life, and the Foreign English Teacher
• China English Teacher Self-Assessment Test
• Reader Survey (Let Us Know What You Think About the Guide)
• China Foreign Teacher Satisfaction Questionnaire (For those who are or were foreign teachers in China)
• Need a Good Job? (You Won't Get Hurt At These Schools: We guarantee it!)

Community Response

• Listed in the Open Directory Project, the most authoritative and respected human-edited directory on the Internet, under Education in China and Teacher Resources: Teaching Abroad.
• Received GoGuides.org's highest rating for Internet guides based on "overall look and feel of the website, total/unique content, and ease of navigation" under Education and Research: Teaching.
• "Excellent overview recommended to me by one who said it was of great use to them. I will be linking to it from our very popular article and resource site on teaching English overseas..." Gregory Hubbs of TransitionsAbroad.com
• "This is the best and most comprehensive site I’ve seen so far on teaching English in China. ... (it) is a gold mine of information for anybody who wants to be an English teacher in China." Matt from An English Teacher in China.
• "This website is awesome. I loved the objective, researched, academic approach to a potentially delicate subject (re: Chinese women and foreign men). I lived in China for 5 years, but I learned so much reading this website." James MacLachlan, May 5, 2009.
• "This is quite simply the best thing I have found online to guide people in my situation. I am a 28 yr old, thinking very seriously about teaching for a year in Shenzhen, and have found this entire guide helpful. I read it start to finish, from the initial reactions, through psychology of the women, to buying a house. Great info, and all in 1 place. This is an incredible resource to glean practical information that answers exactly the sort of questions that I want to ask. Thanks again." (Comment submitted in the Guide Reader's Survey, March 14, 2009.)
• "I just discovered this website this morning, through an email from a google group member. It is a godsend. I finally feel as if I can find some information to rely on, and a source of good ideas from professional people with experience in China. I will read it often." (Comment submitted in the Teacher's Satisfaction Survey, May 17, 2009.)