Discovered an Incredibly Livable City and Some Lovely People

I have a degree in Linguistics, and so teaching language felt natural to me both in ability, as well as a natural pursuit of my field of study. Teaching in China has felt so much more rewarding than any job I've had before, and China truly does feel like "the place to be" right now. Chengdu is a brilliant city and the staff at my school are incredibly supportive, even if I feel overly left to my own devices at time.

The whole process from the UK to China was seamless, The Fewer Things (TFT) handle functionally the entire job search for you, and you just need to provide the requisite materials i.e. a China-specific CV (which they provide a template for), an introduction video (they also provide instruction for this), and a TEFL Cert (which comes as part of the agency cost. On my first day the staff from my school picked me up as soon as I arrived at the airport, and we went for lunch on the first day to (naturally, in Sichuan) hot pot. The staff at the school have been absolutely lovely ever since I arrived, making sure I'm engaged with staff activities and helping me with anything regarding the students, and you really get the impression you're part of a greater whole, especially with the language exchange of assisting the Chinese English teachers, and improving my Chinese with them as well.

Chengdu is a massive city, and so from a numbers perspective it can seem daunting and isolating at first, but a new support network is always readily available: WeChat (China's all-purpose WhatsApp) has great features for finding foreigner-specific groups and people to help you find whatever your niche is in Chengdu. You'll even be able to celebrate Western holidays here, with a huge contingent out for Halloween, and now in early December there're Christmas trees and festive decorations springing up in shopping malls and public places, even where I live, which is a more remote district.

This experience is really what you make of it, and I can't recommend it more.