City guide
Teach English in Guangzhou, China
Southern China hub with deep international school and training center demand.
Guangzhou's ESL market is sizable but less saturated than Shanghai or Beijing, which is the whole argument for coming here: close to Tier-1 pay against a materially smaller applicant pool. Cantonese is the local language, though Mandarin is universal in business and education, so it does not affect hiring. The city is older and less polished than Shenzhen an hour down the line, and considerably cheaper to live in.
Neighborhoods
Tianhe for the CBD, the training centres and most of the new international schools. Yuexiu for the older central districts and a more local day-to-day. Panyu for space, families and lower rent on the metro. Haizhu as the middle ground between the two.
Cost of living
Roughly 3,000 to 7,000 RMB a month for a one-bedroom, the cheapest of China's four Tier-1 cities. Summers are long and humid, so air conditioning is a year-round cost rather than a seasonal one.
Best for
Teachers who want Tier-1 pay without Tier-1 competition, and who would rather bank the difference than live somewhere photogenic.
China at a glance
Salary: International schools: 25k to 45k RMB per month. Training centers: 18k to 30k RMB. Public schools: 12k to 22k RMB. Universities: 10k to 20k RMB with long vacations. Most contracts include housing or stipend.
Visa: Z visa. Requires a bachelor's degree and a criminal record check (notarized and apostilled). Foreign language teachers also need more than two years of language-education experience, which is waived with a bachelor's in education or language, a teaching certificate from your own country, or a qualified international language teaching certificate (the standard published by the Beijing government). Many schools also ask for a 120-hour TEFL. Applicants are usually citizens of countries where English is the national language. Age cap of 60 is typical.
Full China guide →Open positions in Guangzhou
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What you need to teach in Guangzhou
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