Zero Stress: Teaching & Living in China

My wonderful students at Xueyuanlu, Beijing

Many people who come to China find it a very hard place to leave. Maybe it’s the thought of returning a home country filled with stress and bill payments that makes getting back on the plane so difficult. Most likely it’s that they are in an enormous country with an utterly refreshing culture which is quite the opposite to how we do things back home.

By the way, there are some very good reasons for being an ex-pat over here:

1. Chinese folk are normally the friendliest bunch you will ever meet.
2. Generally China is a hundred times safer than anywhere else, especially the UK. Of course nowhere is going to be completely watertight, and it’s easy to pull horror stories from a country of 1.3 billion. Relatively though, the contrast is massive. Drug use is minimal therefore there is no related crime. Beijing is, without a shadow, one of the safest cities on the map (though someone stole my bicycle seat, the bastards!) They don’t even look at your bank card at the check-out when you’re buying something!
3. There aren’t any bills! You have to pay for your water, gas and electricity meters using a card and it’s really cheap. I pay the equivalent of 20 quid for gas and electricity every three months and about four or five for my water. The phone line costs about 15 quid a month and that’s as pricey as it comes. Admittedly I don’t have a car in China and that saga will soon be upon me. Should be interesting!
4. There is no stress! As a Westerner, life’s pretty comfortable. The space left to fill in your life when you have no stress is vast.
5. There is absolutely no problem getting a job here, it’s just normally English teaching. It doesn’t matter at all about your teaching ability or experience so don’t be at all put off if you’ve never been in a classroom before. There are no behavioural problems with students apart from keeping them off of their phones in class. There is always someone willing to take you on in China. Don’t forget it’s also really easy to find work in any Asian country.
6. Full-time is considered 80 hours….a month! Because there aren’t any bills you actually start saving money adding to your feeling of contentment.
7. You can sleep in the office during the day (no, really!) This is perfectly acceptable in any establishment and it’s normal to see people sound asleep, using their arms as pillows across their desk. If there are sofas or any comfy chairs this will of course be first choice, lunch times and mid-afternoon being good times to crash out. People will continue working as per normal around sleeping people.
8. You learn a new language whether you like it or not, (kinda!)
9. China is amazing! In terms of preparing for the next part of the trip, you are in a truly fascinating country with some wild and fantastic places to visit. China is huge and borders with more countries than any other. To say adventure awaits you at your doorstep couldn’t be more correct. Living in Beijing and using it as a base means you’re already half way there. Leaving your home country is always the hardest part of planning any adventure. Take that factor out of the equation and you’re sorted mate!

If you fancy bailing out of your country and heading over to the PRC and enjoy the zero stress levels then drop by my other blog site for useful tips and info about relocating and teaching in China at

LINK HERE: ANDY SMART > TEFL CHINA – WORDPRESS

or checking out my series of text books for spoken English classes in China here:

LINK HERE: On Amazon: TEFL Lesson Plans for Spoken English in China