City: Liangyungang

Accommodation

Accommodation at Xinhai is now on the school campus in new, ground floor, compact but comfortable individual apartments, under a female students' dormitory. The apartment has a medium-sized lounge, a large bedroom with a queen-sized bed, a much appreciated western-type bathroom with plenty of hot water and a well 'cupboarded' kitchen. A microwave, hot-plate and fridge/freezer are supplied, but not kitchen utentials, crockery or towels, but then none of us have asked for them. A very reasonable supply of lounge and bedroom furniture. Lovely soft sofa and chairs but no dining table. Two heat pumps. A modern TV with CCTV9 access. And internet access. Own washing machine in the covered-in balcony. Sheets can be washed fortnightly through the school system. Bikes can be kept in a small storage room. Utilities paid for by the school.

Five minute walk to classrooms, on the 5th floors (no lifts).

The school gates close during lunchtime from 12.40pm to 1.30pm, then at 11pm and the dormitory doors close at 10.30pm but arrangements for lateness can be made through phone calls to security guards and the concierge (however, frequent lateness is not encouraged by the school!). As with many high schools with teacher accommodation in the same building as students, the visiting and staying of guests overnight is sensitive and approval is needed.

Additional alternative accommodation can be taken off-campus, but at the foreign teacher's own responsibility and expense.

Food is available at the 4 nearby school cafeterias and a small school supermarket.

Shops, post office, a bank and restaurants are about a 15 minutes walk away. The city centre is about a 15 minutes, 1 yuan, bus ride away. Taxis are usually waiting outside a university, opposite the school gates.


City Facilities

Easy access to banks throughout the city for the red/blue/green diagonal stripe membership cards: Bank of China, Bank of Communications, etc. Lots of popular restaurants to choose from and there are some western-styled ones catering for steak, lamb chops, pizza, Brazilian BBQ as well as Macdonalds and KFC. Of course, Lianyungang is well known for its wonderful, though sometimes strange, seafood. There are a couple of night clubs, and a particular bar where westerners frequent. A specific western food shop but the ever-increasing large supermarkets stock some western food. The usual range of department and clothing stores. For English bookstores - go to Shanghai or Nanjing. One of the teachers got a new pair of excellent progressive spectacles made up (sent to Shanghai) but the lens cost slightly more than quoted in New Zealand.

Local Expat Community

The idea of socializing in Lianyungang (commonly referred to as LYG due to difficulty in pronunciation) is rather limited. Restaurants and one western style bar are home to a fairly tight-knit foreign community, made up of a handful of Americans, Kiwis, Aussies, French, Germans, Canadians and British. The nearby seaside town of Xugou is home to a nuclear power plant serviced and maintained by a large contingent of expatriate Russians.
The Dragon Bar (Long Jo Bar) is an outlet where the foreigners can let loose and is the closest thing to nightlife we have. The other options are going to private karaoke rooms or staying at home to watch a dodgy pirate copy of the latest movie releases.