It is my great pleasure to meet you through our link on the Retired Teachers Association home pages.

By way of introduction, I've been a self-employed businessman since October 2000 in the field of Direct Mail (DM) marketing. In my work, I've found more and more Chinese students spending a lot of time studying English language, but many of these people can't understand a very simple English phrase nor even speak everyday English to people who come from English-speaking countries.

So an idea came to my mind, I call my idea “China Sojourn”, which involves inviting Retired Western Teachers to travel to China and live in Shenzhen as English tutoring volunteers. China Sojourn would not only benefit the Chinese students who would learn English by interacting with native English-speakers, but it would also benefit the retired teachers who regularly dwell or sojourn in China by reducing their living expenses when compared to living expenses in developed countries.

Shenzhen, a city with a population of 12 million, is the biggest Special Economic Zone in South China, which borders Hong Kong. The cost of living in Shenzhen is about one fourth of that in Hong Kong.

Please revert to the expenses in Shenzhen listed below:

1. Monthly rent for an apartment large enough for two couples, US$800 for 2 couples, or US$200 each person. Most of our apartments are large and located in building over 20 floors.

2. Food for two couples, our chef cooks dinner. US$800 for 2 couples, or US$200 each person.

3. Round trip air tickets from US to Hong Kong, US$600-900 each person, depending on discount rate, time of year, etc.

4. Travel from Shenzhen each weekend for four weekends to the beautiful nearby Chinese cities, such as Guangzhou, Dongguan, Huizhou, Zhuhai, US$200 each person.

5. Our professional video production company, Video Shenzhen Program, can create a video record for each visitor fo his or her trip in China.

As you can see, for US$1200-1500, each person can stay in Shenzhen for one month. If a sojourner wants to stay in Shenzhen for an additional month, it is doable to renew his or her visa at the local Shenzhen Public Security Bureau of Exit-Entry.

During your visit, we will show you the local parks, supermarkets, hospitals and English language venues, such as the English Corners. We can arrange for you to hire a chef to teach you cook Chinese cuisine dinners upon your request. 

Many people find it boring to stay all their life in only one country, they may dream that shifting to another country is a better choice. If you sojourn in China for 1-2 months, it is easy to spend many afternoons and evenings, speaking with the local students and white-collar employees here. If more and more students and English fans come to the English Corner, maybe we can run an English Club and sell entry tickets later on. But in the pilot stage, we can't expect too much and must start on a small scale.

Every educated Chinese people begins to learn English in the first year of middle school, but there are few English speaking venues readily available, so as a result 80% of them cannot speak in English. There were many English Corners in Shenzhen where people can practice speaking English. However, very few people from native English speaking countries visit these English Corners, many of the English Corners nowadays exist in name only.

I am 45 years old this year. I enjoyed reading the popular serious books entitled “Rich Dad & Poor Dad” written by Robert Kiyosake and I hope to promote a cultural and English-speaking exchange between Chinese and the people from United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries where standard English is spoken.

Shenzhen now has student population of 0.64 million from primary to middle high school, and 0.43 million of international employers and employees living and working here. If 500 couples of retired teachers from English-speaking countries would come to Shenzhen each year, and stayed for 1-2 months, we could run a very good service business. With the migrating people increasing, our sojourn cities can eventually be expanded to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu, Chongqing, Dalin, Tianjin, and other similar cities with population of 6 - 30 millions. If a retired person from 60-year-old came to China each year and sojourned for a total of ten years at different cities in China, he or she would live a quite different and splendid retired life when compared to retired life in his or her home country.

If you need more information on Sojourning in China program, please contact us.
Thank you for sharing my dream. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Eric, Xiping Zhang
General Manager,
Sojourn Life Club
Mailing address:
P.O.Box 31-004,
Shenzhen 518031
PR.China
Tel: +86 755 83201295
Fax: +86 755 84419097
elderclub@bizcanalad,cn

English corners in Shenzhen

Lizhi (Lichee) Park
Time and date: 3:00pm-6:00pm Sunday afternoon
Venue: The two-story Summerhouse near south gate of the park.

Lianhuashan (Mount. Lotus Flower) Park
Time and Date: 3:30pm – 5:00 pm Sunday afternoon
Venue: 50 meter passing through the front gate, in the palmtree wood, near the Teahouse.

Science and Hi-tech Park
Time and Date: 7:00pm-9:00 pm Friday night.
Venue: South zone square of ShiP, beside Virtual College Park

Shenzhen Daily House
Time and Date: 7:30pm-10:00pm Wednesday night
3:30pm-5:00pm Saturday afternoon
Venue: Huanggang Park

Baoan Xian Park
Time and Date: 7:30pm-10:30pm Monday, Wednesday, Friday night
Venue: near the Chushui Furong statue.

Dongmen (East Gate)
Time and Date: 3:00pm-6:00pm Sunday afternoon
Venue: the square in front of Siyue Book Court

CITIC City Plaza
Time and Date: 3:00pm-6:00pm Saturday afternoon
Venue: Shennan Central Rd.

Bijiashan (Mount Pen Rack) Park
Time and Date: 9:30am-11:30am Saturday morning
Venue: near the Grounder Field

No entry ticket is required to go to the English corners above.

Excellence English Social Club
Time and Date: 3:00pm-5:00pm Sunday afternoon
Venue: Superstar Castle Club, 4028 Jiabin Rd.
Entry Ticket: ￥15

Jane Story Cafe
Time and Date: 7:30-10:30pm Wednesday night
2:30-5:30 pm Sunday
Venue: Shennan Central Rd., near Xinghua Hotel
Entry Ticket: ￥15
Beer: ￥38/Stein

Xiangmin Teahouse
Time and Date: 8:00-11:00pm Friday night
Venue: 2/F., Jiale Building, Zhenhua Rd.
Minimun charge: ￥20 for lady ￥25 for gentleman.