Childrens Park Panorama 5
Originally uploaded by clarkalastair

Teaching here hasn't been all that bad and I can imagine that the conditions are not nearly as good in other areas. In more central China and poorer areas in South East Asia, the standard of housing and pay can't be as nice. Compare this situation with Africa and India and the slums / infrastructure there, then Dalian must come out a lot more favourably.

I think it's a mistake to judge the life here too harshly, when one considers similarly developing countries (and I don't necessarily mean Africa and India here). Certainly I have felt that as if I make some difference to the student's life here, even not considering the teaching time, but the interactions I have with them around campus, English corner, and on social networking sites such as Twitter, Fanfou, Facebook, XiaoNei, Youtube and Flickr etc. But I doubt it could be the same feeling as teaching in Africa.

China feels very modern in an obvious way, just looking at the architecture, shops and electronics, but there are lots of things in society that will take time to change. I feel that there are things which simply are not fair and just, and although life isn't fair and just, at the level of personal relationships, business etc, I feel this should be much better. Part of this is being a foreigner here, in that you get treated differently, as if you are special/rich. The pay structure is not the same as the locals, people tend to remember you more clearly and offer you better places / faster service than others. I guess there must always be positives and negatives, but I'd rather leave both behind to be honest.