Teaching English in China with Kid Castle

Safety of the school was terrible. Flooding from above karaoke bar, sparks flying from water hitting live wires in teachers room. Umbrellas over computers. Toilets overflowing was a common occurrence. Outside in Xining city was safe. A lot of police around. The management was very tricky. Changing pay date before leaving so I could get my last months pay. Accused of stealing when the school overpaid. This kind of stupid childish behaviour. School materials old and dirty. Not enough text books to go around. Anyway it goes on and on. Just be careful of private school especially when they are NOT associated with the HEAD OFFICE of whichever cram school you have chosen. Otherwise they can behave in anyway they want. There is nobody to rein them in.

Otherwise Xining during summer was beautiful the locals very friendly. Winter can be grim going down to minus 18 and hardly any snow as it is an arid area.

Best of luck.

I taught 2 years here and it felt like 20. The apartment they gave me was truly awful. I had to move out and find my own. I complained which did not go down well. Told I was not allowed to leave the city and they kept my passport. Always paid late every month. The foreign manager micro managed and had you followed you outside school hours to make sure we’re not teaching privately. Finally they asked will I carry on after 2 yrs I couldn’t stand the place of course so said no. The day before I left the British foreign guy verbally threatened me. Also sent me WeChat message threatening me saying he would make my life difficult. I see now why he did this. Was to stop me going back to Xining so I would not teach at another school and be competition for them. Terrible experience. Be very careful and check to see if the cram school is under the Head Office control otherwise they do what they like and that means abusing teachers.