Home›Forums›General Discussion›Danes Coming and Working in Chengdu
- This topic has 6 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 9 years ago by Charlie.
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June 29, 2014 at 10:15 pm #41126KasperAndersParticipant
hey folks, we’re two guys from denmark going to Chengdu in the beginning of september, with the intention of hopefully getting some sort of teacher job. We are in a dialog with another dane in chengdu who is trying to help us getting a job, but it’s still very uncertain yet, so me and my friend agreed that we want to go no matter the situation and just live on our savings to begin with and always be looking out for job opportunities of every kind.
Do you think it’s possible to get a work permission in china without having a reference to any specific workplace or company? Or is it possible to simply just go there and just find some work along the way?
we also heard some stories about western people getting modeling jobs for different kind of companies, simply because they’re white, so we thought that could be an opportunity in the beginning if everything goes wrong. do you know is such jobs are common in chengdu?
June 30, 2014 at 12:07 am #41129WoodWERDParticipantI’m no expert but some things to consider:
– Google tells me Danes are not native English speakers as far as visa reqs are concerned
– As such, getting a Z visa is questionable (plus you need a BA and 2 years post-grad experience in most cases)
– Working on anything but a Z visa puts yourself in a ‘grey’ area
– Should said grey area not work out, you should have enough money saved to get your ass home and/or pay any penalties you may come across
– That said, it’s China and nothing is consistent so……
– I can’t speak to modeling jobsJune 30, 2014 at 12:44 am #41130Rick in ChinaParticipantmonkey er.. ‘modeling’ jobs are cash n go, I’ve never heard of a foreigner being contracted and given a visa for one of those gigs, it’s sorta like – you get hooked up with something, do your prancing around with a smile, *hopefully* get your full fee, and that’s it.
You can’t come to China without a work visa and easily change to a working visa either, if you were here on a travel visa and got a job, you’d have to do another exit/entry – minimum to HK, possibly to your home country.
Your best bet is to get a working visa before you come. You could also get a travel visa and pay the cost of changing to a work visa if you are willing to eat the cost (it will take a bite of whatever teaching gig you land, which typically wont net a whole lot per month relative to cost of exit/entry unless they cover it…) but as WoodWERD mentioned above, there are tougher restrictions on nationals from countries that don’t speak English natively than those that do.
If you’re not hurtin’ for cash, another point to make, is that you can typically get better jobs while you’re here than when you’re searching from abroad – so if your goal is to live here, rather than earn money, maybe it’s better to physically be here while searching 😀 Just depends on your situation.
June 30, 2014 at 1:24 pm #41140CharlieKeymasterYou will be able to enter China on a tourist visa without issue, but you won’t legally be able to work. This law is commonly broken though, by many expats who teach English on the side (out of contract) or by doing random gigs like modeling as you mentioned. If you really want to come to China I would recommend coming here and checking it out and seeing what opportunities there are. Your English looks good and you’re caucasian, so I think you will be able to find teaching jobs, albeit not from major schools that ordinarily mandate that teachers must come from English-speaking countries.
The cost of living in Chengdu is pretty cheap though, I would say you can live on around 4k rmb + rent if you’re frugal.
July 1, 2014 at 9:41 am #41163Al the DeadParticipantCharlie you became too fat 🙂 I managed to survive on 3k rent included. Granted it was an experiment which i don’t want to repeat.
July 1, 2014 at 10:43 am #41164Rick in ChinaParticipantI think when Charlie says 4k+rent, he means you don’t need to limit yourself to fried rice/noodles and drink your beer slowly, to make it last. 😀
July 1, 2014 at 3:06 pm #41168CharlieKeymasterCharlie you became too fat I managed to survive on 3k rent included. Granted it was an experiment which i don’t want to repeat.
I used to have a roommate who lived on 2k per month including rent, but it was a pretty miserable existence that I wouldn’t recommend. He was also Chinese, which makes it much easier to live frugally in China. At 4k + rent I think you can live pretty comfortably in Chengdu though.
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