Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Living in Beijing
Foreigners are allowed to reside anywhere in the city, though most live in
expat housing
,
often in
Chaoyang
in the east of the city. Rent in these districts is expensive, usually at least
£1000/€1200/US$1600/
￥
10,000 a month, which gets you a rough imitation of a Western
apartment. Living in ordinary neighbourhoods is much cheaper: a furnished two-bedroom
apartment can cost around £450/€550/US$700/
￥
4500 a month.
The easiest way to find an apartment is through a
real estate agent
, who will usually take
a month's rent as a fee. There are lots of agents, and many advertise in the expat magazines
- an example is
Wo Ai Wo Jia
(44 Chengfu Lu; 010 62557602,
5i5j.com
).
Homestays
can be cheap, but you won't get much privacy; check
chinahomestay.org
.
As you move in,
you and the landlord are supposed to register with the local PSB office - in reality, it's quite
possible to let it slide, at least for a while.
Working in Beijing
There are plenty of jobs available for foreigners in mainland China, with a whole section of
expat society surviving as actors, cocktail barmen, models and so on. Many foreign workers
are employed as
English-language teachers
- most universities and many private colleges
now have a few foreign teachers. There are schemes to place foreign teachers in
Chinese
educational institutions
- contact your
Chinese embassy
for details. Teaching at a uni-
versity, you'll earn
￥
6000-11,000 a month: far more than your Chinese counterparts do, and
usually bolstered by free on-campus accommodation. Contracts are generally for one year.
You'll earn up to
￥
250 per hour in a
private school
, though be aware of the risk of being
ripped off: the most common complaints are being given more classes to teach than you'd
signed up for, and being placed in substandard housing.
Studying in Beijing
There are plenty of opportunities to
study
in Beijing but note that most courses are in
Chinese.
Beijing Daxue
(usually referred to as Beida;
english.pku.edu.cn
) and
Tsinghua
Daxue
(
www.tsinghua.edu.cn
)
, both in Haidian in the northwest of the city, are the most
famous universities in China.
You can do
shortcourses
(from two weeks to two months) in Mandarin Chinese at
Beijing
Foreign Studies University
, 2 Xierhuan Lu ( 010 68468167,
www.bfsu.edu.cn
)
; at
Berlitz
, 6 Ritan Lu ( 010 65930478,
berlitz.com
); at the
Bridge School
's various
branches ( 010 84517605,
bridgeschoolchina.com
), which offer evening classes; or at
the
BLCC
at 7 Beixiao Jie, Sanlitun ( 010 65323005,
chinesestudy-lcc.com
)
, where
most students are diplomats. For
longer courses
in Chinese, lasting six months to a year,
apply to the
Beijing International School
at Anzhenxili, Chaoyang ( 010 64433151,
biss.com.cn
)
,
Beida
in Haidian, or
Beijing Normal University
(
english.bnu.edu.cn
).
