Program Reviews

I've always liked spending time with kids and teaching and thought that the best way to truly get to know a country is by living with a family there, so being an au pair seemed perfect for me. I think that it has definitely lived up to my expectations so far! Becoming part of a Chinese family is pretty much just what I'd hoped for. For my family in particular, I've really enjoyed regularly visiting the grandparents apartment and eating altogether with them. I don't have grandparents, so seeing and being part of that family dynamic is really interesting and fun for me - even if I don't understand most of what's being said.
China is becoming increasingly more important in world affairs today, so I thought it would be good to see firsthand what China is like and how Chinese people think and act in everyday life. Also, Chinese culture is very interesting as it combines thousands of years of civilization with very abrupt changes from modern history. In the news, I've heard many negative things about China relating to political topics, and while I still think these are mostly true and disagree with many policies, I think it's important to see the Chinese perspective and that the system seems to work quite well for most people here.
I settled on Wanderlust as my agency of choice because based on online reviews I found them to be the most trustworthy agency. I read quite a few horror stories about other agencies and was kind of scared about doing this, but all the reviews about Wanderlust gave me the impression that they truly cared about the continual well-being of the families and au pairs that they matched. The fact that they ensure that each family has a member that can at least speak some English is extremely important. They also check in with both au pair and family regularly just in case there are communication issues. The main draw for me was probably the Mandarin lessons. Wanderlust helps you every step of the way in video chatting with potential host families beforehand, assisting with visas, helping with logistics for Mandrin lessons, and even organizing events for the au pairs to help you make new friends while here! Aside from this, I haven't needed much assistance from them, but I'll mention that another au pair I know had trouble with her family and they were very quick in helping her find and move to a new family.
My first impression was that Shanghai is a very busy and fast paced city. If you take the subway during rush hour, you will understand exactly what I mean. There are also countless events happening at any one time and people are here from all over the world. If you're into history I'd recommend checking out the Shanghai Museum. It's definitely worth the wait and it's free! Another nice place is Century Park, which has a small entry fee. There are also plenty of concerts and other performances to go to.
There are definitely a lot of cultural differences in China, but I think with an open mind you can find a lot in common with life at home. Some things I can think of off the top of my head: if you get sick, expect to be forbidden from drinking cold water and perhaps given a bunch of random traditional Chinese medicines or strange dietary restrictions (no meat until your fever is gone!); while you should try to be polite to everyone, be especially polite to elders cause they may judge you hard otherwise; while it's fine not to answer, you may be asked personal questions that make you uncomfortable as there is much less privacy than I'm accustomed to. I think that especially for the first few days, it's worth making it clear to your family that if you do anything offensive they should let you know right away so you can learn social norms here.
I'll quickly introduce my host family, but it's important to emphasize that every family is different. I hope this can give an idea though of what a family might be like. My host family has its quirks, but I quickly grew to like them a lot. Both parents are self-employed (fyi, this generally means fairly well off), and I'm still not 100% sure how their whole income situation works, but I'm not the type to ask for details. The mom speaks decent English and is super chill, the 11 year old boy knows some English and is a lot of fun, and the dad doesn't speak any English but from my interactions with him seems pretty cool and obviously loves his kid. My responsibilities are usually doing the dishes, talking as much as I can in English with the boy, reading with him, exercising with him (his parents want him to lose weight), and accompanying him to a few activities. Since it's his summer vacation right now, my schedule is pretty variable and I have to be flexible about when I spend time with him. A typical day might go something like this: wake up at 6:30 and talk to the boy for a bit, eat breakfast all together, do the dishes, talk some more, go to Mandarin class, come back to find that he's in class and study or relax for the next few hours, when he gets back talk some more and maybe read an English book with him, exercise with him a bit, shower and sleep. If he doesn't have class, we might prepare some food together since he likes cooking, watch a TV show with mom, go play basketball, or just study side by side. For me it's like having a sibling that you always have to be nice to, which honestly I'm enjoying a lot. When I ask if I can go meet friends or disappear for a day, my host mom is super accommodating. During the school year, I bet my schedule would be a lot more fixed with free time clustered more around the school day whereas right now, freetime is unpredictable but plentiful.
The first two days were definitely the hardest. When I first met the kid, I could barely get him to talk which is totally understandable given that he didn't know me and hadn't spoken much English to a native speaker before. I'd ask him questions and talk at him, but for all I could tell he was ignoring me. I honestly felt kind of hurt and I was worried that he would continue to act that way. Eventually, though, with enough smiling and talking, he got the message that I was friendly and started talking. Since then, we've become pretty close and have a lot of fun together!

In 2016 I graduated from university and decided to leave my comfort zone and do something abnormal that I had never done before. I signed up with wanderlust and used au pairing in China as a base camp for my travels. However , the 6 months I was in Shanghai proved to be an incredible experience where I made some great friends, had some amazing experiences and fell in love with this fantastic city to the point where it remains one of my favourite cities in the world. After my time in China , I got a train and then a bus into Vietnam where I started my three months of backpacking. 2017 was a good year. Would recommend to anyone, the programme offers security, for example me and my first family had a falling out (wasn’t my fault) but wanderlust helped me move to another family who I got on amazingly with, they offer monthly activities to allow you to experience the Chinese culture, and they also put you in mandarin school with other au pairs which is such a rare opportunity to have.

I m Simon and I m 19. I went to China for to month and it was an amazing experience ! And it was an excellent way to discover China without being a simple tourist. Thanks to this program I could meet a lot a person, and learn how Chinese people lives. In addition, I had some Mandarin lessons , and now I can speak and understand a little bit that language ! I had some free times so I visited a bit the country during weekend, all was incredible ! I also want to add that the person who works for Wanderlust are always with you and can help you, I mean that I could call them whenever I wanted and they helped me a lot when I had to change my host family. So to be brief, thanks to this program I could make a dream come real and I recommend it to each person ! And maybe I will do it again in a few year. 😊

First and foremost I would like to thank the organization Wanderlust and especially my host family for the wonderful time I had respectively I still have.
After graduation, I decided to spend a year abroad before I will go to University in Germany.
On the internet, I came across the organization Wanderlust by chance and finally decided to join their program for 12 months.
All in all I've been positively surprised.
Wanderlust supported me with the preparation and the Visa very well and was always helpful during my stay abroad.
The host family is incredibly nice, and they really tried to make this year as comfortable as possible for me.
I am glad, that I have decided to go to this family, and I am delighted to have won them as friends.
I have been in Beijing for almost nine months now.
The Chinese lessons that I visit once a week are very helpful, as nearly nobody speaks English in Beijing.
I support a child in learning English, play games with him and accompany him on excursions. During the year abroad I received the opportunity to discover Beijing and to get to know the daily life of the inhabitants.
Because I have never been to China before, there was of course the one or the other culture shock for me. Wanderlust organizes a cultural activity (like a kung fu or calligraphy class) every month and enables thereby to learn even more about the Chinese culture.
During my time in China I also traveled to Macao and Hong Kong, because I had to extend my visa there.
This trip was unfortunately quite poorly organized.
I was told only one and a half weeks before that I have to fly there.
The airfare and also a part of the costs of the accommodation which I had to book were paid by the organization.
Once there, I had the feeling that I am the first from the Wanderlust program who flies to Macao to extend his visa respectively apply for a new one.
The address I should have contacted according to the organization was not the right authority.
I received there a new address which turned out to be wrong too. In the end, I was in three different places before I finally arrived at the right one.
With the visa there were no more problems and I enjoyed my trip there a lot.
By coincidence, however, I noticed there in time that the organization had booked a wrong flight to Shanghai instead of Beijing.
With the help of wanderlust I took then the high-speed train to get back to Beijing.
Apart from this incident, Wanderlust was very good and I am more than satisfied with the organization.
I recommend this program to anyone who wants to get to know a completely new culture and wants to get an insight into the lives of the people in Beijing (or other parts of China)

I have been an Au Pair for almost 4 years. It is an amazing experience that I recommend. You will have good and bad days but you will always learn about new cultures and especially about yourself. Things that will shock you and don't like? A lot! But the magic is appreciated the differences, see the bad and learn from the good.
It was a great year for me when I traveled to the USA it wasn't a big change because I knew everything about it but moving to China was an open-minded experience. New language, new culture, new people, new house, new work, new school, etc.
I don't know what else to write, just come and test it for yourself and make sure you like the Chinese language, meat, and spicy food because you will have a lot of them. By the way if you are vegetarian you can also enjoy good food, I am one of them.

Thanks to Wanderlust Exchange programme I could stay for 3 months in a Chinese family in Beijing.
I took Chinese courses every morning from Monday to Friday which allowed me to learn the basics of Chinese language. I played with the 2 children of the family after school and all the week-end. I could visit a little bit Beijing.
I was already in China when I contacted Wanderlust Organization to be an au pair. They find me a family in the city I wanted very quickly and stayed very available from the beginning to the end of my experience. Every month they organized a cultural activity wich allowed me to try Tai chi and pottery.
A learnt a lot from this experience ! It allowed me to discover Chinese culture, meet a lot of people and imprive my Chinese.

Au Paring in China with Wanderlust has been an amazing experience. I have been supported by Wanderlust incredibly well, from my visa application, coordinating my travel plans, organising excellent Chinese lessons, and of course putting me in touch with an awesome host family!

Wanderlust have been consistently helpful and flexible, and have communicated expectations and requirement very clearly from the first interview, all the way through to helping me finish up with my stay in China.

My host family has been awesome — both of the parents are super nice, and all 4 grandparents have been generous and kind as well. My young charge 柒柒 is super cute, and very sweet. So huge props to Wanderlust for managing everyone’s expectations so perfectly, and putting together such an amazing experience.

I would highly recommend slotting a stay with wanderlust into your Gap Year, or any other craving to spend a chunk of time abroad!

I decided to go abroad as an Au Pair with Wanderlust after I graduated from undergrad last year. I found out about Wanderlust through API, which is an American study abroad company, who I had worked with before when I studied in Cuba for a semester. Being an Au Pair with Wanderlust appealed to me, because it was one of the more affordable programs working abroad, and because I wanted to get the experience of living with a host family.

Wanderlust has been supportive throughout my entire six months here. About two months in, I had to change host families due to some communication difficulties, and Wanderlust were very quickly able to get me moved in with another family. After almost four months with the second family, I can say that I have had a great experience living and working with this family. The two boys, ages 7 and 4, make me smile every single day, and I have a great time whenever I am with them. We often go to amusement parks, the zoo, musicals, and more on the weekends, and we even traveled to the Yellow Mountain and went hiking.

I have made many great friends with the other Au Pairs here in Shanghai, and I know that we will continue to keep in contact after my time here has ended. I have made many great, lasting memories exploring Shanghai, spending time with the other Au Pairs, and spending time with my host family. My sister was even able to visit me in China, and we went to Beijing together for a couple of days. Living in Shanghai has truly been an unforgettable experience, and I am grateful to Wanderlust for having facilitated this incredible experience.

I found WAC through "Star Exchange". A great advantage was that the agency was nearby. So I could talk to the agents personally. When I entered the plane I knew that in this "whole new world" will wait great challenges. The language barrier and the cultural difference made it sometimes hard. The agency helped me to solve the problems asap. Remarkable in this program was that you are a part of a Chinese family. So you get an authentic experience of the food, culture and lifestyle. This program was also an amazing opportunity to get to know people who also travelled and experienced a lot and to learn from them. It helped me to become open minded. I learned chinese on a basic level. It was an unique experience which I can definetely recommend!

Working with wanderlust as an au pair has been a great experience, and I have loved living in this city - Shanghai. I have learnt so many things about Chinese culture and I also think it has helped me to become a more patient and caring person.
I was placed with a family with two girls, aged 10 and 3. Although there was and extreme language barrier between the family and I, the family tried to make sure I was happy. We even went on a family holiday together to Sanya in Hainan Province.
The biggest challenges I faced during this program were trying to find a balance between work and personal time. I found it to be a bit lonely in the beginning but once you get to know the other au pairs it is ok. The cultural activities offered are good, but would be better if there were more to give the au pairs more social interactions.
Overall, a great experience and a good opportunity to learn about Chinese culture.