Hi. I'm currently living in Yangshuo, teaching English part time.

I'm looking into other Chinese cities to check out, and Kunming looks nice.

The norm here, is you get around 80-100RMB per class and your apartment thrown in.

Is there many similar teaching opportunities in Kunming?

How much does a decent apartment cost per month, in the city centre?

Cheers.

80 to 100 RMB is on the low side, but it's plenty to live on if you're not a party animal. It's more than plenty to live on if you don't eat out.

A nice 3 to 4 bedroom apartment was around 2,000 to 3,000 RMB a month. Last I checked smaller ones were around 800 to 2,000 depending on how new it was. That was around a year ago though. Inflation is crazy.

Don't teach large classes unless you have no choice. By large I mean more than 15 students. Once you get to know people it's fairly easy to be tutoring 4 or 5 students in small classes on your own and making more money, and most importantly stress free.

I'd say 80% of public schools and private language schools treat their teachers like robots, and it will burn you out.

Thanks for the reply. Is it true you need to pay up to 6 months rent in advance?

Yes, for the most part. 1 year in advance is not rare either.

Yes seems 80 to a 100 is average here but Kunming is not as wild as Beijing or Shanghai in the cost of living area. I still blow money eating out, but we are talking about a pizza now and then, or burger. I don't drink and that saves a lot of cash.

I would like more info on what Ouyang is talking about. I have been at a private college for a few years and will change to another school eventually. Seems now there can be an issue with how many years you are at a school here. Can become a "political" problem? Since the issue cropped up with em I have heard other stories in China, with some colleges only wanting foreigners to work there 2 years at the most. Not all schools I guess but it seems to be an issue. China is not really becoming more and more international and welcoming in that regard it seems.

I would like to have smaller, stress free classes and more money too :)

I knew people in BJ who worked tutoring and there were agencies (they paid some fee I guess but it was reasonable) that sit them up with suitable clients in regards level and time and location. Anything liek that in KM? Or do you just post fliers here at the French Cafe?

To Parerclip, I think KM is a nice place t live and work and there seems to be jobs here at various type schools. May be hard to just arrive here and begin private tutoring nd so need to get the real gig going first and that be the type of work you prefer anyway. Sometimes the jobs section here as things. Lot of,or all of, the big public and semi-public schools are moving out of downtown to the south to Chenggong. My impression is that those school are really going to be wanting foreigners who want to live and work there but it is a ways from KM really. There will be a subway, but lots of waijiao are saying no to jobs there as they want to live in KM itself. I checked into some jobs there and mostly they want to pay like 3500 with an apartment but some seemed to offer more. I guess what will be left soon in KM will be private colleges and then the lower school levels,or private language training centers, which usually pay more and focus on having the students prepare for various "critical" exams. But these students are usually younger and more eager to just learn for the sake of learning too.

Good luck with things.