If you’re having a so-so January, it may be time to turn your attention towards Hohhot. Jill and Paul Quin, who run English-language courses at schools in Hohhot (the capital of Inner Mongolia, if you were wondering), are on leave in Portsmouth, but being paid to recruit teachers and teaching assistants to work at two private schools in the northern Chinese province.

Jill, a qualified teacher, has been teaching primary and deaf children for most of her professional life. She is now the head of teacher training and recruitment at Honder International school. Paul spent many years in journalism and corporate PR before he decided to take a TEFL course in 1990. He is now executive principal of Little London English school, owned by the same company as his wife’s school.

The couple initially planned to set up an English school in France, but then something much more exciting came along - the opportunity to teach in China. Paul was teaching an English language course in Portsmouth when a cousin of one of his students invited him and his wife to teach in Inner Mongolia. “It just seemed like an interesting thing to do,” says Jill. “We had thought about Voluntary Service Overseas from time to time and it’s a sort of last fling before we retire.”

Life was tough for the Quins when they arrived in September 2000. First, there was the culture shock, then the teaching itself. They were left to get on with it, says Paul. “The Chinese style of teaching is very regimented and involves a lot of learning by rote. State schools may have 80 or 90 pupils in a class. They sit in rows and the teacher won’t walk down the aisles. Our style is fairly informal, so the children all thought it was whoopee time when I started. I got through it but it was pretty hairy at the beginning.”

For those of you now looking at your class in a softer light, don’t be deterred. Jill and Paul were the guinea pigs, but training and assimilation programmes are now in place. Jill says: “The experience was probably a lot more traumatic for me than it is for the younger teachers going out now because we’ve set everything up for them.”

One recent returnee, Adrian Meurer, who was supervised by the Quins when teaching at both schools, is now back in the UK but hoping to go abroad again to work in environmental conservation education. He has nothing but positive memories of his time in Hohhot. “I had a little previous experience from teaching English to children in Peru, which although confidence-boosting, wasn’t strictly necessary, as I received training in China.”

The Quins do not rely on textbooks. They prefer their students to speak English rather than learn from a book - a quite different approach from that taken in state schools. “Some of the Chinese English teachers have practically no oral English,” says Paul. “All the instructions are delivered in Chinese, then they refer to a textbook.”

For those who seek the finer things in life, Inner Mongolia could be a little too far off the beaten track. But for anyone with a sense of adventure who wants a truly alternative teaching experience, Hohhot could be the place. It’s not one of the world’s most famous capitals, but nor is it some dusty backwater that Beijing forgot, says Paul. “We are lucky to have gone out when we did. China is about to join the World Trade Organisation, the 2008 Olympics will be taking place in Beijing, and China has just qualified for the World Cup for the first time. Even though Hohhot is years behind Beijing, it is a rapidly evolving city and things are beginning to open up.”

Donkey carts may still be a common form of transport, but at the same time Paul reports that everyone seems to have a mobile phone stuck to their ear. Post has never existed for private citizens in this part of the world, so email is the most popular way of keeping in touch.

But the weather will definitely take some getting used to. With the Gobi desert on the doorstep, temperatures can sink to - 25C in the winter before shooting up to 38C in the summer.

Life in Hohhot is familiar enough to ward off any pangs for the comforts of 21st-century life, but different enough to remind you that you’re thousands of miles away from home, says Adrian Meurer. “I was surprised at how developed China was, although I can imagine that some people might find it a little rough around the edges. It takes a while to to get used to everyone in the streets staring at you, and communication is extremely difficult as so few people speak English, and Mandarin is very hard to understand.”

Mr Meurer says his year in Inner Mongolia gave him insights into a culture he would never have discovered as a backpacker. “It was a priceless experience that someone just travelling through China could never hope to achieve.”

And his advice to people tempted by a year in Inner Mongolia? “Do it. People imagine that it’s always other people who do this kind of thing. If you think you have or can learn the skills, do it yourself.”

WHAT YOU NEED

Jill and Paul Quin will be in the UK until February 20. They are hoping to recruit teachers for the start of the spring term at the beginning of March, but there is some flexibility on timing. They are looking for two qualified teachers with a TEFL certificate - but this is negotiable. They are also hoping to recruit four graduates for teaching assistant positions. The minimum commitment is for a year and the minimum age is 22.

The Quins pay pound;500 towards the cost of a return ticket to Beijing. Internal flights and visas are paid for by the schools. Jill admits that the salary, pound;170 a month for graduate teaching assistants and pound;254 a month for qualified teachers, sounds “horrendously” low by western standards, but she insists that it goes a long way in Inner Mongolia. Western-standard accommodation and one meal a day are also provided.

For more information about teaching in Hohhot, contact Jill or Paul Quin on 02392 640 176. Email: jillquin@aol.com. After February, they can be contacted in China on 0086 471 469 7692.