Typhoonpilot

That is a pretty ignorant and arrogant statement. Did you not notice a USAirways overrun in PHL due to pilot error? Something about throwing stones in glass houses comes to mind.

So to answer the previous poster.

I'm not Canadian, not sure how many Canadians are on this board to be honest. My advice to start out with is choose your recruiting agency carefully. Next I would say to choose the airline you want to work for based a little on the QOL in your domicile.

There is basically no chance I would take a domicile in Beijing or any cold parts of northeastern China. Beijing because of the pollution and the others because they really aren't into indoor heating in China. It's usually colder indoors than it is outdoors in the winter. You have to experience that to understand what I am referring to.

If you think you'll need western comfort items then you'd be better off with Shanghai or Shenzhen. With Shenzhen it's easy to run across the border to Hong Kong to catch a breather from the cultural shock of China. Otherwise Kunming, Nanjing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xiamen, and a few others would be okay. Those places all have plusses and minuses.

Hope that helps,


Typhoonpilot

Probe

I must be a bit pickier than TP. I would only do Shanghai, Guangzhou/Shenzhen, Xiamen, Sanya, or Kunming. 50% of expats like Beijing. I am not one of them.

You want to do 1 day trips. Layovers tend to be on the "horrific" side of bad. Shenzhen Airlines being the only exception. I new a couple of their pilots and they stayed at nice hotels.

Lots of Canadians and Americans in China. Probably more than any other group.

Now that I think about it, it is the Canadians that seem to like Beijing. I guess they feel like home when they are sitting around their Hot Pot in the middle of winter when it is -20 outside. And in China it is also -20 inside. You get to wear your winter jacket for dinner. LOL.

But actually, I am not joking.

Believe it or not, I used to carry a ceramic heater in my layover bag. There were a couple of hotels we stayed at with no heat.

blahfod

typhoon, probe. Many thanks for the replies, they have been enormously helpful. From reading this forum and a few others it would seem GABS and PARC\CAE are recommended agencies. Searching the web turns up vor holdings, smile aviation, China aviation recruitment and China flight crew recruitment to name a few. Any thoughts on those agencies?
My 737 time is 200/combi cargo and 300 EFIS. will that make me competitive for NG positions or should I expect to apply only to classics jobs (Donghai Cargo comes to mind in Shenzhen)?

Thanks again gentlemen.
Fod

Probe

I think SF Cargo is also in Shenzhen and pays a lot better. Xiamen also accepts 737 EFIS time and they pay better as well. Xiamen is almost nice.

Go with Parc first.

NEDude

LOL the comments about lack of indoor heat! Was just complaining to my wife about that. But it gets even worse than just lack of heat, they actually leave windows and doors open even in the winter. I am in Chengdu and while it is not as cold here as it is in other parts of China, it is still regularly between 40 and 55 in the winter, and yet they still leave all the windows open! I was in our operations center before my last trip and everyone was sitting there shivering, bundled up in coats and yet all the windows were open. I was doing the initial medical stuff last February and nearly froze my butt off in the CAAC hospital because they refused to turn the heat on and left all the windows open. I guess they love to inhale the polluted air.

On another note - I personally do not know any Canadians at my airline, but I would imagine other than tax issues your concerns and preferences would be similar to Americans (although I think it is a bit harder to find a place to watch ice hockey than it is to watch American football). I think the big question you need to decide is are you going to be a commuter or are you going to be a full-time guy. If you commute regularly, like on a month on/month off, you might want to be a in a place that is easier to get home in one or two legs like Beijing or Shanghai. I know several of the guys here in Chengdu that require three legs to get home to the U.S. or Mexico even with United now offering non-stop to SFO. Doing that every month may get hard. However if you are here full-time and only traveling home once or twice per year then Chengdu or some of the other lesser known cities may be a better option than Beijing or Shanghai.

Agencies seem to be all about the same. All of the big ones have local representatives that will help you with apartments, mobile phones and other issues.

Probe

A pilot colleague of mine based in PEK had a nice 1 bedroom apartment in Lido. I think he was paying 1500 USD a month. 70 sq meters (about 700 sqf). The official start of "winter" was sometime around the 3rd week of November. That is when they turned the heat on in his expat building.

It was not officially cold until then.

He also said that most of the buildings had undersized heating systems. You had to know what part of the building to live in or you got no heat.

I believe this is the climate-control version of Obamacare.

EXPAT1

The Chinese will never run a central air heating system at night to sleep. They all complain about dry noses and low humidity if they have to deal with central heat. Many hotels only have heat from 8 pm until 4 am. Many hotels do not offer a room controlled air conditioner. It is controlled by the hotel and you get what heat they want to give you and when they want to give it to you. Carrying a small electric heater is not a bad idea at certain layover hotels. The cultural difference is huge in this respect as Chinese just put on another layer of clothes if it is cold whereas the Western mentality is to relax in our underwear in out hotel layovers and set the thermostat where you want it.

NEDude

Ugh, thankfully I have yet to experience one of those hotels.

Probe

I spent 4 days a week in one for 6 months straight. On a positive note, it warmed up by May/June. The bad news is it warmed up and there was no aircon either.

Typhoonpilot

You mean they don't have kangs in their layover hotels in the north?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kang_bed-stove


TP