Going to Guangzhou, Part 2

Well, it makes a pleasant change to get a letter from a teacher who is hoping to go the Middle Kingdom, rather than the Middle East.


Dear Anne,
Yes, my real name is “Simon”. My username at the TES is “the hippo” and this is an old nickname from when I was at school, more years ago than I care to remember!
Okay, what do you need to do? Well, first you have to read my blog! There are heaps and heaps of posts from when we were in China. Lots of things in GZ will be very similar to SZ. In fact, I remember when I was wandering around Guangzhou, I thought to myself, “I could easily be in Shenzhen!” However, GZ is quite a bit older, so there are some ancient bits that might be of interest. GZ also has the famous (or infamous) snake restaurant, the one where Michael Palin had dinner in Around the World in Eighty Days.
At the top of the Canton Tower
Secondly, once you have actually signed the contract and it is all going to actually happen, then you need to get beavering with your Z visas. This is going to be pretty horrible. The red-tape, officialdom and the general frustration can be fairly ghastly. When I was teaching at Green Oasis School in Shenzhen, we had some wonderful ladies in our HR department. They hardly ever opened their wings indoors and rarely wore their halos because they did not want to dazzle us, mere mortals. They were amazing! And you only have to jump through all of the silly Chinese government hoops once. When you have done it, the following year is pretty much a formality.
Generally speaking, China is amazing, weird, exciting, crazy, frustrating and fun. You might pull out your hair sometimes and yes, you will probably use some words that you shouldn’t. But we had an incredible five years and so many happy memories.
Lunch in GZ
Now you probably have loads (and loads) of questions that you want to ask me. Yes, of course I will do my best to answer all of them, if I can! 
Simon Hill
(aka the hippo)

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