I have been teaching at Shane English School in Lanzhou for about 8 months now.

While I was in the process of applying for ESL positions, I posted a message on this forum, asking for information about a school in Hohhot.

Since then I regularly received emails from people who had read that post, asking for information about that school. I tried my best to share all the information I’ve got. But I never set foot in the school in Hohhot, so it’s slightly funny to answer questions about a school I don’t know very well, while never getting any about a school I actually do know well by now. So I thought I'd share my impressions of Shane Lanzhou and the city of Lanzhou;-)

First of all, let me say that overall I'm very positive about my experiences at this school so far.

I’m more than halfway through my contract period and seriously considering staying for a second year.

Whether or not you will like it here probably mainly depends on the type of school and the type of city you are after.

First let me give you my opinion about the school.

Things I like are:

• Most importantly, the team is great. Actually, I think the strongest point of this school is the people working there. They are all really helpful and friendly and the atmosphere in the teacher's room is usually pretty informal. It's a small team and I guess that's something some people like more than others. I feel it's good, because I know everyone personally and get along well with both foreign and Chinese colleagues. We normally work with 3 full-time and a few part-time foreign teachers. Although to be fair, recently we have only had 2 full-time teachers for quite some time (the school is trying hard to get more teachers though). Besides that, there are around 6 Chinese teachers (they help in your class as a Teaching Assistant and also teach the students for one hour on their own). There’s no high turnover of Chinese team members (during my time at the school, only 1 of them quit).
• Class sizes are quite reasonable: maximum of 12 students for kindergarten age, max 14 for students aged 7 and above. Most classes are actually smaller, around 8-10 students in a class. It’s one of the reasons why to me private training schools seem more appealing than public schools. Moreover, with a few exceptions the students are all quite nice!
• The management keeps its promises. I have never taught more hours than what's on the contract and have always been paid on time.
• The school does arrange a proper Z-visa for their teachers.
• There's a lot of teaching material available: Shane Schools use their own books. As with all books, there are things that I like and don't like about them. But in general I think they are quite good. There's lots of extra materials, such as flashcards (that go with the units in the book), plastic fruit, balls, dice, toys, story books etc. etc.
• I am free to design my own lessons, but the school does provide some structure (a course guide telling you what language to teach and teacher's guides with ideas on how to arrange your lesson. You're free to use those ideas or come up with your own though).
• The school's boss is the "fair but strict when necessary" type. I feel I can trust her and she has always shown confidence in me, which I appreciate.
• No office hours (seems quite a few other training centres require their teachers to stay at school for several hours during the week, even if there is no work to be done).
• Decent salary, especially since life in Lanzhou is not expensive.
• Unlike other schools, the school does not put you in some apartment at a campus on the outskirts of the town. They help you to find an apartment yourself. I love it that this way I can live in the middle of town in an apartment building where I'm the only foreigner. The school does pay a reasonable allowance for the apartment (2000 RMB, my apartment costs 2400 RMB per month).

Things I like less (I consider all of these minor details, but I don't think my review would be very credible if I'd only sing the school's praise):

• We have two days off per week, but they are usually not consecutive. While Thursday is always off, the second day off varies from week to week.
• Almost all teaching hours are during the weekend, which can feel a bit rushed (teach 1 class, have a 5 or 10 minute break, then teach the next class etc.). We have a reasonable lunch break though (around 1,5 hours). This type of schedule probably applies to all language training centres though (as opposed to secondary schools, but there you may have classes of 50 or 60 students which would not be my preference). I teach 6 one-hour classes both on Saturday and on Sunday. However, weekdays are not so busy. This week I work only a few hours on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Monday and Thursday are my days off. Of course, writing the lesson plans takes time too. But I can do that at home whenever it suits me.
• Most of our students are young kids (the majority still in kindergarten, so aged 4 or 5). They are great fun, but sometimes I wish I'd had more older teenagers or adults (I do have 1 adults class and 2 classes with students around 10-12 years old though, plus some in the 7-9 age range).
• You can always wish for more... Interactive whiteboards or even beamers are currently not available in the classrooms.

The second thing to consider would be if you think you'd like living in the city of Lanzhou. Let's not beat around the bush: Lanzhou doesn't have a great reputation, mostly when it comes to air pollution. However, that's mostly due to the situation here 15 years ago. Moreover, people who have actually lived in Lanzhou are a lot more positive about the place than people who have never visited here and just heard about it. 15 years ago air quality in Lanzhou was so bad it was considered one of the most polluted cities in China. Nowadays, things have improved a great deal. It's still China, so probably the air will be more polluted than what you are used to at home (which sadly seems true for this country as a whole). But usually it's actually a lot cleaner here than it is in the big cities like Beijing. If you are concerned about this, check the facts. For example by having a look at www.aqicn.org or doing a Google search for "aqi" (air quality index). For some more information on Lanzhou (air quality and other aspects), for example see http://lanzhou.weebly.com

I grew quite fond of this city and its inhabitants. But if you come here expecting a very picturesque traditional-looking city, I'd advise you to check some pictures online first... Actually most Chinese cities look a bit the same in my opinion: a lot of concrete, some nice parks or other natural spots and some cultural places (temples etc.) hidden among the concrete. Lanzhou is no exception to this rule (in my opinion not worse and not better than most cities in this country).

Things I like about Lanzhou and living in this city:

• Lanzhou is not too big and not too small. It is the capital of its province Gansu though, which means there are good transportation facilities (airport, big train station etc.).
• Lanzhou is not overrun by foreigners. I like that, because it makes most people here genuinely interested in who you are and what you are doing here. Moreover, I feel I am living in the "real" China, not in some expat community.
• Most people here seem friendly and helpful. I've never had the impression I was being overcharged because of being a foreigner. In fact, people have been offering me things for free, helped me drag a heavy purchase across the road etc etc.
• Lanzhou is situated along a river and in between 2 mountains/hills with some sights (parks, temples, pagodas etc.) on them. I especially like going for a walk along the river when the weather is nice.
• Life in Lanzhou is relatively cheap, not only compared to Europe but also compared to the cities in Eastern China. You definitely can save part of your salary here.

Things that I like less or that are complicated:

• On some days there is some air pollution. Nothing as dramatic as the pictures I saw last winter of Beijing in a haze of pollution, but you do notice it here as well.
• There are not many tourist sights in Lanzhou. There are some temples, pagodas and museums. But they are not among China's highlights and you have seen them quickly. On the other hand, the province of Gansu (of which Lanzhou is the capital) does have some good sights. And domestic flights are cheap so you can visit some other regions if you want.
• Almost nobody speaks English here. In a way, I love that because I want to learn more Chinese and here my limited Chinese is almost always better than the other person's English. But sometimes it makes it a challenge to arrange things. Colleagues at school are willing to help out if necessary though!
• I consider it a good thing that there aren't many foreigners living here. But of course that also means it's a bit harder to make friends. I suppose it's not impossible to find other foreigners (we are not the only school employing foreign teachers and there are definitely foreign students at Lanzhou university) and of course you can make local friends as well. For me this has never been a big issue (if it had been, I would probably have tried harder to track down more foreigners), but I do think it's fair to mention it.
• We have restaurants serving Western food, but not as many (and not all of such high quality) as in the Eastern Chinese cities. The ones in Lanzhou tend to be a lot cheaper than in other parts of the country though.

Sorry, my review got a bit long... I hope it can be of use to people considering working here.

I hope that the overall impression is that I like life and work here. If you would feel the same depends on what you're looking for.

If you have any questions I didn't answer, feel free to contact me and ask me.

Best regards, Jorden