List compiled by Sam S, China 12, Fuling

1. When you get here…its going to be very hot. The Peace Corps wants you to pack “business casual.” What this means is bring a couple of nice slacks and some nice shirts that are light weight, comfortable, CONSERVATIVE semi-nice (not jeans) clothing for your first summer. Depending on where you’re permanent site is located you may or may not need dressier business casual clothing to teach in. The custom in China is to wear the same outfit several days in a row. This may or may not offend your American sense of fashion, but a few months in the thick of it, you will find yourself following suit (ESPECIALLY in the winter months). Bring some to be safe, but don’t overload on it. The one thing you do not want to skimp on bringing is clothing. I don’t know your personal measurements, but unless you are 5’ 5” and below, 100 pounds and below, small breasted, with small narrow feet you are going to find some difficulty in finding clothes. Leave your bathing suits at home. Well, maybe bring A bathing suit—you may want to travel to the beach at some point. And don’t forget your long underwear! The winters are cold…period.

*In general, follow the Peace Corps dress code. If you must bring flip flops, bring one pair for at-home use only. The Chinese don’t wear flip flops and view them as sloppy. The fashion lends more towards classy but practical sandals in the summer and knee high boots of various and wondrous colors in the winter (women). The men pretty much wear the same thing year round, with the exception of a few who wear leather sandals in the summer. FYI—you will need a dress (women)/suit (men) for swearing in.

2. Bring lots of deodorant. There is NONE here in Fuling. Even if you find it in big cities, it’s very pricey. The same goes for all other western luxuries (make up, food seasonings, etc). You might as well begin saying goodbye to cheese now. (For women) I have not shopped the feminine product lines because I was paranoid and brought my own SAMS/COSTCO bulk, but I know there are some, but I don’t know what kind. I just recently started seeing tampons sold at our local supermarket, but I am not sure of their quality or even if they have any staying power (traditional ideas and all that).

(Deodorant in China isn’t very strong, either. If you sweat a lot, definitely bring plenty of your own. Also, with make-up, you run the risk of buying some with whitening agents in it that can and probably WILL irritate your skin. Usually it’s marked if it has whitening stuff in it, but I’m paranoid and refuse to buy any makeup that goes directly on my skin. You can easily find lotions without whitening, though if you fancy a particular scent and can’t live without it, bring some or have it shipped.)

3. All other hygiene products (shampoo, body wash, conditioner, face wash, shaving cream, and razors) can be found here as well as well as regular electrical appliances (hair dryers, curling irons, clothes irons). They range in price based on whether it is an American brand or the just as good Chinese brand. Save some space in your bags and wait to buy your toiletries here. Plus, for the electrical appliances, you don’t want to be dealing with the extra aggravation of finding an electrical converter and/or transformer.

4. If you have a lap top, bring it. If it’s a Mac, you might find more than one difficulty using it here because most people use PCs. The main difficulty will be with the internet connection. It can be done, but it’s difficult. I strongly advise you to bring good anti virus software and your Windows set up CDs just in case. The anti virus is a must, though.

5. SKYPE—find it, use it, love it. It’s the best and cheapest internet phone service you can find. 2 cents a minute to land line phones and free computer to computer anywhere in the world. We use it to call friends and family at home and the other volunteers throughout China . You can also use a web cam. If you have one and want to bring it, cool. If not, you can find that and other neat gadgetry here and pretty cheap. You’ll even find some stuff that hasn’t made its way across the ocean yet.

6. Bring Presents! When you first arrive in China you will live with a host family for two months. You should bring something to give them by way of introduction when you first get here and something to give them by way of gratitude for when you leave. This should be something made in America (harder to find than you think) and representative of where you live or what you stand for. We’re from Texas so we brought our host family some paper mache Mexican dolls. Other volunteers brought picture books of their home state, etc and so on. DO NOT wait until you get here to buy something. Any and all trinkets you can find here, they already have—and are going to give you.

7. Get a haircut right before you leave—especially if you are picky about your hairstyle. Haircuts attempted through a language barrier are always entertaining and sometimes disastrous. I suggest you wait to find out what the deal is. Chinese hairstyles are much different from American ones and few salons know how to cut foreign hair. You definitely don’t want to go into those odds with no cards. (You an try to bring pictures of your preferred style, but this doesn’t always work)

8. BOOKS! Bring as many as you can. Volunteers often swap reading material amongst each other and you’re going to need some reading material for all the waiting you are going to do throughout the next two years. English books are hard to come by, even in big cities. Even harder to come by are English books written in the last century. Magazines are also cool because the students LOVE to see American celebrities and read about American life (use your good judgment on this—COSMO will not be well received).

9. MOVIES! You’d be amazed by the number of different kinds of movies/TV shows you can find here. AND they’re cheap (even by PC salary standards) and mostly of good quality (you can view before you buy). If you’ve got some favorites, bring those, but I would save space and wait until you get here to buy them. You may want to find movies about HIV/AIDS, Native Americans, and sexual diversity before you come only because these movies are not en vogue here. Depending on your school, part of your job as a PCV is to talk to your students about HIV/AIDS, women in development/gender and diversity, environmentalism, etc. So if you know of any good movies that touch upon these topics, please bring them. There are no guarantees that you will have the equipment to show them (or that your university will even let you), but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.

10. AND FINALLY! Relax! This is NOT PC Africa. You will not be living in a mud hut, farming your own potatoes, or digging your own well. The difficulties you face in China are social and linguistic ones. However, that is not to say that sometimes you won’t find yourself living with sub-par plumbing…That being said, pompous and arrogant attitudes are not appreciated. Even though the living conditions are above par (for Peace Corps) you must remember that you are in the Peace Corps. Some people forget that when they see how good they’ve got it. You’re a volunteer—don’t forget what that means.

I really hope this has been helpful and not a drain on your time. Don’t sweat trying to learn Mandarin before you get here. The Peace Corps has the best people on board to teach the language and you WILL learn what you need to get around. The stuff on the CDs and tapes is good reference material, but not always practical. Also, there’s a big chance you will be in an area where the people don’t even speak Mandarin. So…the Peace Corps so far (after 2 years) has been a wonderful experience. They take really good care of their people, much to my surprise. We were big critics of US gov’t programs in the past, but PC has done everything right. How well you get long here will be based ENTIRELY on your attitude. Positive and Can-Do will carry you no matter what. The rest, as they say, is gravy.