Changchun 长春, Jilin University 吉林大学

[Wàijiāoɡuān]

It looks like I'll be going to Changchun after all. Jilin University to be precise.

Has anyone been there, in the city and/or the university?

Any tips or advice? What's life there regarding the climate, night life, prices?

Any and all advice will be very appreciated. I apologize in advance for not being too

specific with my questions, but I've just found out so I'm kind of hyped.

Thank you!

[moderntime]

I lived in Changchun for nearly two years, from October 2005 to July 2007. Things have undoubtedly changed since I was there. Changchun is very much a second-tier city, and as part of the Manchurian rust belt it was, at the time, struggling out of decades of poverty. It's definitely nothing like Beijing or Shanghai, but you will actually find a few foreign food shops and markets there.

There is a small community of foreigners, divided up largely by income and jobs. There are the German engineers and their families, and then the students/English teaching crowd.

Changchun in the winter is bitterly, bitterly cold, the kind of cold that seeps in even if you are wrapped up in five layers, drinking hot tea and sitting next to your space heater. It easily reaches -20 in the winter. I cannot exaggerate enough the importance of knowing how to layer in the winter.

The good news is that Changchun is dirt cheap. If you spend 2000 RMB a month, you're living like an absolute king. On that you can take taxis, go to bars, and eat out regularly. Of course, things may have changed since I lived there, but I'd be very surprised if Changchun was approaching anywhere near say, the Beijing cost of living.

The Mandarin spoken there is extremely clear and you'll find it easy to understand most people. Dongbeiren are also super friendly and direct, so you'll have many opportunities to practice Chinese. Since it's so cold, in the winter you'll just want to study anyway! Luckily, the spring and the summer really are glorious, especially during cherry blossom time, you'll just have to wait six months for spring to arrive!

While I was there I also wrote this little guide to Changchun. Not having been there in ages now, I can't tell you if it is still accurate, but perhaps you can let me know once you are there!

PM me if you have any other questions (though I have to warn you that I'm about to leave for three weeks of travelling so may not be able to respond immediately).

[roddy]

PM me if you have any other questions

Or post in public and you might get more answers

[Wàijiāoɡuān]

thank you very much for your help. really means a lot, since i'll be going there with no idea as what to expect i'll go through your guide and contact you for questions.

[aljensen]

The Corner Cafe is the local expat hangout, it's at the corner of Tongguang Lu and Baihui Jie.

Changchun is ideal for studying Chinese. Changchun people are friendly and the city is quite safe. People will be quite willing to talk to you in more or less textbook mandarin. Few people there speak English. There is a quite nice private Chinese school called "Aliens" which offers private Chinese instruction at 80 kuai for an hour and a half lesson [it is located on Tongzhi jie in the same building as the Hengkelong supermarket]

In summer the air is quite clear, but it winter things get a bit smoggy. In summer it is quite nice, the weather is similar to England or Canada in the summer, rarely does it get hot, although it is warm enough to start swimming in June. August is the only month that really requires anything like air conditioning or even a fan. However, by mid September you will need a jacket.

Changchun is quite cold. I lived in St. Petersburg, Russia in January, and yet for some reason Changchun felt colder. I wore three pairs of pants in winter.

The city has had some moderate growth due to continued VW investment in the city.

[Wàijiāoɡuān]

Thank u all for the posts ;)))

I was wondering what is there to see outside of Changchun, I see that Jilin is very close, there are a lot of lakes and mountains around.

Any good points of interest?

[aljensen]

Harbin is only a three hour train ride away, and it is both nice in winter (with the ice festival) and summer (with the beer festival). Shenyang is about four hours south and it has some nice shopping, the Manchu palace and the Manchu tombs. You can take an overnight train south to Dalian to escape from the cold. Jilin Province itself doesn't have much - I've never been to Jilin city, I hear it is nice but even quieter than Changchun.

Edit: Jingyuetan Forest is right near the city, and has skiing available (although in the dead of winter it is almost too cold to ski). Also there is Changbaishan, which is well worth a trip in summer.

[xiao an]

Hello,

I've been accepted to Jilin University, political science studies. Have you heard anything about the program? Or maybe you have any friends who have studies there? That would be very much of help.

[Wàijiāoɡuān]

xiao an you got political sciences study, i got contemporary international relations and politics

for how long will you be there?

[xiao an]

I got Chinese government scholarship for 1 year, how about you? Speaking about entertainment in Changchun, I've done a little research on that - there are merely no clubs to go to, but there are quite a decent choice of pubs (at least this is my impression after googling for a couple of hours).

[Wàijiāoɡuān]

contemporary international relations and politics, 3 years

i don't know about clubs, i know it's no beijing or shanghai but i think we'll find something

[xiao an]

Waijiaoguan,

I am sure we will. There is very little information about Changchun in English, I tried to search in Chinese; however, my Chinese skills are not that good. But I managed to learn that there really is a lot to do (winter sports, etc.)

[anonymoose]

But I managed to learn that there really is a lot to do (winter sports, etc.)

That's good given that winter lasts the best part of 8 months there

[bored]

i have been living in changchun since december. there are some bars here. there are three mayflowers (biggest bars in changchun). there is a bar street (longli lu) that has some bars. also there is a small bar called ferry port and a few others throughout the city. jilin university is somewhat far from the city center. i just did a three week summer class there. if u have any questions about changchun feel free to ask. if u have the option i would suggest that u get an apartment rather than living on campus. u can find a decent one here for 1200rmb/month in the city center

[BertR]

bored, I was wondering whether you could give more details about the summer class? Which school did you go to? Were the teachers good? Which books did you use? Where there many people in the classes? Where were most students from? Did you like it? ...

[Wàijiāoɡuān]

Bored, thanx for joining our discussion

since you've been living there for some tima, what's it like there regarding shopping, eating out etc. i know Chanchun isn't Beijing or Shanghai in terms of nightlife, but it would be kinda sad if there were no places to go out ina big city like that.

I'm more interested in bookshops, DVD and computer electronic shops, things like that

[bored]

.

the summer class i took was at jilin university. the teachers were good but there was only three students in the class. i studied chinese. i had three classes 1. comprehensive (m/w/f) and speaking/listening (tu/thurs). because i was only there for three weeks i really cant judge the school. we used "short term spoken chinese." this book was used because it was a three week summer class. i do not know what they will use for the normal semester. also for learning chinese dongbei shida (northeast normal university) is supposed to be better than jilin. i signed up yesterday for dongbei shida which starts sept 1st. to my understanding most foreign students in changchun are from korea/russia/africa. and yes i did like the school....

my pleasure to join the discussion. if u can use facebook where u are i believe there is a changchun group (changchun friends i believe) but facebook and many other sites are blocked here including youtube

shopping: u can get better deals in shanghai on clothing/electronics for the most part but they dont rip foreigners off as much here as they do in shanghai. there are many nice malls but also many markets (mostly underneath the nice ones...much cheaper)

eating out: its so cheap here and the food is good. its heavier (dong bei cai) than other chinese dishes...the food here can easily make u fat

nightlife: if u go to mayflower u can easily meet some girls trying to meet foreigners. for me the nightlife here is just dinner and drinks at different restaurants every night with my gf and friends

bookshops: CC has one big foreign book store and many small ones. there are also many cafes that have free internet

this city has 2 walmarts a carefour and a few big shopping malls

there are a few malls for electronics here. u can buy dvds/cds on the street for about 4-5rmb each

are u in china now?

if not and u didnt know u can go online here and watch almost any movie for free and download any song also for free

hope this helps. any other questions?

[Wàijiāoɡuān]

thanx. i'm not there yet, but will be in a month.

what's this with blocking facebook, i heard somewhere about that but i didn't know it's that bad

[BertR]

bored, thank you!

[bored]

waijiaoguan dont worry about the internet being blocked here. there are many many free proxies that work that will get u past the firewall. to my knowledge facebook is blocked because the gvt has said that foreign people were using it to incite the ethnic riots they had here in the recent past (u can even google "should facebook be punished"). i really have no idea but its easy to get around here especialy in jilin province. some of the proxies that work here dont seem to work in other parts of china (is that possible??)