A fantastic 6 months teaching with Buckland in Tongzi.

I have recently returned from Tongzi in Guizhou, China where I completed 6 months teaching with Buckland. I was initially drawn to Buckland as it was it was the only company I could find that could offer me a placement in a rural location as well as a 6 month contract. The induction week is held in a town called Yangshuo which is about a 2 hour drive from Guilin. It is a truly stunning location with amazing scenery, good nightlife and plenty of activities to keep you busy in your free time during the week. I found this induction week highly informative as I had never done any form of teaching before and was straight out of university. It also was a great chance to meet and get to know the other new teachers joining with you (many of who I am still friends with).

After the induction week myself and 2 others were sent to Tongzi in Guizhou province. It is a small town by China's standards and we were the only foreigners in the entire place! It has plenty of nice restaurants, bars, a few night clubs, coffee shops and is surrounded by mountains. I was amazed with just how welcoming and friendly all of the locals were. I was teaching around 1400 high school students (70 per class). This was a little overwhelming to start with but you soon get used to it. I thoroughly enjoyed the teaching and the hours I worked enabled me to have a great social life. The students were brilliant for the most part and were very appreciative of anything I did with them outside of school (football or hiking for example).

I would happily recommend Buckland and teaching English as a foreign language to anyone! I actually intend on returning to China for teaching with Buckland again at some point next year.