"Rural" China

I spent four months in rural Sichuan, in a town called Yibin, teaching at a university. For a 21 year old, this was extremely challenging; which is where its strength lay. I taught conversational English classes and also had a fair amount of free time so was able to learn some Chinese and some martial arts, as well as travel. The accomodation and living allowance provided was highly adequate, and the working environment was friendly and fun. Overall my experience was very unique and since then I have returned to China four times for various reasons, and can recognise that my original experience was one I would be very unable to organise myself yet was absolutely life-enriching and, to be cliched, changed my life and opinion on the world.