Qingdao Hotel Management College

[gatsby]

Before you make a decision about working at this college consider the following. First, there is the insurance scam. You will be advised that an insurance policy is necessary for you to obtain your work permit. This will cost you about 2000 RMB. Naturally, it's all in Chinese, you can't understand it, and it is worthless. Check with other schools in China, it's unnecessary. It is simply a way to line their own pockets at your expense. Then there is the apartment scam. You will be dumped off in a dirty apartment without towels, sheets, or anything else useful for that matter. The foreign office representative then quickly disappears before you start asking questions. The reason that the apartment is virtually stripped is that the foreign office staff, L. and G., steals everything of use after the previous teacher leaves. You won't even find a cup, glass, dishes or a spoon. It will cost you approximately one months salary to get what you need, 4000 RMB. When you leave, the foreign office, will steal everything that you leave all over again. It's a nice little scam bonus they have going, and is indicative of the colleges attitude toward their guests. The apartments are old, leak, are consequently moldy, and are cold as h*** in winter. The water is frequently off, the electricity disappears at odd times, and in general you are always wondering what next. None of the faculty and staff live on campus, so they could care less about your problems, it doesn't affect them. Naturally, they lose all of their teachers every year, and some leave after one semester. Their work is then added to yours without any additional salary.
You will be sharing the building with international students who are noisy, unruly, and inconsiderate in the extreme. They are packed, four to an apartment, and it is never quiet and it is often impossible to get to sleep at night at a reasonable hour.
Many students are admitted without finishing high school and whole classes of underachievers are admitted regardless of suitability for study. In other words, if you can't go anywhere else you end up here. Students also pay handsomely for the privilege, more than if they attended a first rate university. Their attitude reflects this, and they are well aware that the college is a ripoff. Classes are large, and can be unruly as a result as most of them simply lack even a shred of motivation. Further, they are encouraged to complain about you, by the useless faculty, if anything makes them "unhappy". This gets to be ridiculous, as 95% of them don't understand 95% of what you say. It makes for a demeaning environment when you are constantly gossiped about behind your back.
There is also a dangerous element to working here. The lazy and incompetent foreign office assistant, G., thinks that you should only need help between 8 and 4:30 Monday through Friday. If there is any kind of emergency, after work or on the weekend, neither he nor his boss, L., will answer their phones. You simply don't matter to them, nor to anyone else at the college. You are on your own.
Thanks to an old Maoist dinosaur, the Party boss who runs the place, it is a very racist environment toward all foreigners no matter where you are from. They could care less if you leave, and actually plan for it. This is arguably the worst place to work in the province, so you will often have colorful colleagues. I think everyone knows what I mean by colorful. Finally, Qingdao is a great location, but the college is well out of the city. You should only consider working here as an act of desperation. There will be a tendency by some to think it can't possibly be that bad at QHMC. They would be right, it's worse.

[RobertD]

Sounds par for the course for many Chinese colleges!

[robbotochina]

Couple or more things about gatsby's post.
1. I've worked at 3 unis and colleges now and the condition of my apartment on arrival at QHMC was no worse than the others. At my second uni the mess had been left by the previous FT occupier - filthy.
2. I assume the RMB2000 insurance was the standard PICC cover.
Deciding on insurance on the basis of it's requirement for visa formalities seems odd. It's China baby and you need insurance for your care in case of accident. Try purchasing the same level of cover at home.
Thank your lucky stars if you don't need care in a Chinese hospital but have the cover anyway.
3. When I left I gave my duvet, sheets, electric heater and other stuff to teachers who were staying on. The bike went to a staffmember.
I did this at previous jobs and it seems to be a standard practise. Why the FAO staff would want FT cast-offs I don't know, as their own homes are very well and tastefully furnished.
4. I had the cellphone numbers of several Chinese teachers and never felt abandoned.
5. I've felt more embarrassed by other FT's treatment of their Chinese hosts than the other way around. One US jerk at QHMC shouted at the FAO 'My country is more powerful than yours and more advanced and in every way superior'. Keringe!!
6. Many Chinese teachers who were single or living weekdays at the college occupied the same type of apartments on campus as FTs.
7. I found Hotel Management majors a pleasure to teach. The students who paid their way to enter - less so.