Volunteer Locations: Mian Yang, Sichuan

Travel to Teach's latest Chinese volunteer location is the city of Mian Yang, in Sichuan province. Sichuan is located in China's western hinterland and the state covers most of the Sichuan basin and is surrounded on 3 sides by mountains - Tibet and the Himalayas to the west, Qinling to the North and Yunnan to the South - giving Sichuan a mild tropical climate.

Volunteering Projects in Sichuan

Travel to Teach volunteers are based in Mian Yang city. Volunteers teach English in a variety of schools, working with local teachers to plan and teach lessons. Volunteers can be placed at schools within the towns and villages surrounding Mian Yang, and at larger schools within Mian Yang city itself.

The quality of the schools and the level of English vary greatly. Schools in the villages outside of the city are generally very poor with little equipment and generally very basic standards of English. Within Mian Yang city itself the schools are generally much better equipped, and usually have correspodingly higher levels of English.

Sichuan Province

With over 90 million people Sichuan is China's most populated state and has been has been important both economically and culturally since ancient times. It was at the center of a number of unique civilisation's and the areas history can be traced back to the Shang Dynasty of 1500 BC. The areas fertile lands and rivers have learnt it the name 'The Land of Abundance' and it was an important center during the Qin, Jin, Tang and Ming dynasty's and as a result numerous remains and important archaeological sites are scattered throughout the state.

The state is most famous for its tea production and Sichuan was the first area in the world to begin planting and exporting tea on a large scale. Other products include rice and wheat, citrus fruits, sugar canes, sweet potatoes, peaches, grape seeds and wine. More recently that area has become a center for the Chinese software, electronics and space industries.

Mian Yang is Sichuan second city, located in the north of the province 100 km away from the capital Chengdu. Mian Yang province is home to over 5 million people, with around 600,000 living in the city itself. There is evidence of people living in the Mian Yang area for more than 2200 years and it is famous within China as the birth place of a number of historical figures including Li Bai, a famous poet, Wen Tong an important painter and Luo Zu, a mythological Chinese 'mother of silk'. The city has also begun to attract international tourists due to the nearby archeological sites and the natural attractions elsewhere in Sichuan province (see activities below).

General Sichuan Town Information

Accommodation
Volunteers will share a flat in Mian Yang city. The flat is located between 10 and 20 minutes walk away from most of the schools we work in and has one bedroom, air conditioning, a washing machine, shower and a TV.

Food
From Monday to Friday volunteers will receive 3 meals a day at their school. On weekends the volunteers are responsible for purchasing their own food. Sichuan is famous for its food, particularly the internationally renowned Szechuan cuisine, which is based around the spicy Sichuan peppercorn, chili and ginger. Like most Chinese cities there is a huge variety of food available in Mian Yang, ranging from cheap although usually excellent street food at around 1 to 2 dollars, through to more expensive restaurants.

Activities
Sichuan is known as the home of the giant panda, and includes the famous Wolong Panda reserve. The reserve was founded in 1980 with the help of the World Wildlife Fund and covers over 200,000 hectares. It houses over 150 pandas both captive and wild, with one of the world's most successful breeding programs. As well as the giant panda the park is home to a number of other rare and endangered species including red pandas, golden monkeys, white-lipped deer and gnu.

Many of these species, including giant and red pandas are also found in Jiuzhaigou a narrow 400 kilometer valley in the Minshan mountain range in the west of Sichuan. Jiuzhaigou is famous for its spectacular senary, lakes and waterfalls and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992.

Other famous sites includes the Leshan Giant Buddha. The Buddha is the largest stone status in the world at 71 meters tall and was cut into a cliff face during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). For anyone with an interest in archaeology there are a huge number of sites both surrounding Mian Yang and throughout Sichuan province.

Weather
The Sichuan basin has a subtropical monsoon climate with long summers and short winters. Summers are humid although not too hot with average temperatures between 25-29 degrees. Winters tend to be cool and cloudy.

How to get to Mian Yang Town
Mian Yang airport has regular flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Kunming. The city also has excellent rail links including high speed links to Beijing and Shanghai.

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