LoPair Au Pair China: Learn. Care. Explore.

It started of well but after the first month me and almost every single other aupair had severe communication problems as they never did anything but send a WeChat message to the families if anything occurred always in their defence as the family pays 20,000¥ per month (£2000) and we only get paid 1,500¥ (£150) per month so if you sign up you are completely expendable to them.

I won't mention any of the other aupairs problems but in my situation my host family decided to move to a different part of China due to an ill family member endgame me 12 hours notice for me to decide if I wanted to come or not. If I left Lopair told me I wouldn't receive my language classes so I decided to switch families. When I told Lopair my decision they took a while to respond but they told didn't have a family for me and that I would have to wait for a new one.

What they failed to mention in their website is that they provide no accommodation or aid while I'm waiting for a new family. THEY LEFT ME HOMELESS IN BEIJING FOR OVER A WEEK! Due to our extremely low pay rate I had no money for an airbnb but I luckily met some people who said I could sleep in their apartment for a few nights. if that hadn't happened then I would've been sleeping on the streets.

If that wasn't enough they also charged me 300¥ because I left 3/4 through the month so I didn't complete that month of work which took away all of the money I had for food.

And of course THE WORST PART. I left at the and of January while the Corona virus was really bad. Because of this reason my host family didn't want to continue having me teach the children incase I gave them the virus so I contacted Lopair to get a new family, they said that they weren't accepting new families because of the virus and told me I HAD to fly home. I understood that so I asked when my flight left and they said that they wouldn't book my flight unless I paid them 3000¥ because they weren't accepting flights PLUS a number of different charges which weren't listed in our contract!!!

They did this to almost every single aupair and since it was 2 months of our salary none of us could afford it! A lot of my German friends got evacuated by their government and because the charges amounted to thousands of Yuan I begged my parents to buy me a flight home and I could pay them back for it when I start work again at home. Some of my friends from South America were stranded in China after I left trying to scrape together the money to get home.

This company does not provide any support to aupairs whatsoever and will only try to extort you for even more money. I would encourage you to look at other companies as a lot of them take excellent care of you but don't go with LoPair for your own safety, thank you

My expirience has been great as an au pair in China . It has thought me a lot and made me grow as a person.
the culture and everything is so different. The people and the manners too. You can deffenetly learn a lot.
To my surprise after six months in China, I dont want to go home yet.
If you are thinking about being an au pair in your gap year, I would say China is a different and exiting opportunity to choose. Besides the long, old culture you will also gain knowledge into the Chinese language.

My experience as an au pair in Shanghai was awesome! I'm about to complete my 6 months program and I will extend for 4 more. My host family is the best I could've wish for. They helped me settle in and they made me part of the family! I have a great relationship with my host kids and we always do something fun together.
The mandarin classes were really cool with an awesome teacher. I came here that I didn't know anything of the language and I have improved a lot through hard work.
Lo pair staff is also very friendly and they always answered all my questions very quickly.
I would totally recommend this experience, it's a great opportunity to explore a country and a culture that's so different from what we are used to and it allows you to grow a lot as a person.

I've been an Au Pair in Shanghai with Lo Pair for soon six month, I live a wonderful experience here. This is mainly due to the fact that my host family give me a lot of free time which enable me to meet a lot of friends and became fluent in Chinese ( I had a beginner level when I arrive and I can now speak normally). I think that the most important is that those six months really gave me an other vision of the world. The family part is important but it's thanks to my friends that I get to see what was the normal life of a young people here.

Spending 6 month in China was such a great experience. LoPair did a great job and the support was always good. Living in such a big city was a great experience and I’ll never forget that. Teaching a Chinese child is very interesting because you’ll always see the improvement after that time. Beside that I always enjoyed the Chinese lessons and I think that it was useful for me to learn such a different and interesting language. I’m very thankful for everything I’ve experienced and would always recommend the program. Thank you!

Of you want to learn about Chinese culture and language than this is your program! LoPair provides good families and a very good support to make this a great experience. You will learn about Chinese traditions, language, food, music, values and beliefs. In terms of helping with communication or cultural differences LoPair is always there to help!! Also they arrange cultural events every month which makes it very easy to connect with other people in China and at the same time you are learning more about Chinese culture. In addition you will have Chinese Language lessons to learn how to speak Chinese and learn about the Chinese characters so you will be able to gain Chinese language skills. Choose LoPair to make the most out of your time abroad.

My host family are amazing I made sure to take my time to pick them. I asked a lot of questions and asked what they like any movie or books to see what type of personality they have and about their family like grandparents. I very close with mine and I asked what they did in their free time. I had said no to other host family because personally we not the right fit not that they were not good but we are all different and some people great along great and sometimes it's not so smooth. So I picked my host family based on how I felt talking to them and after and it felt right. I would say never go to fast take your time to get to know them make the right choice. When you do you have a bond that with last years after I was 6 months now I am extending 3 more and plan to meet up again with my host family I truly love them. I not only had a wonderful time with them but also my lo pair works they are amazing people and I love them as much specially my hangzhou coordinator she has always put us first and cared with all her heart. I am grateful for the time and yes there have been some hard things but the world is big and different. as long as you can take the time to understand the difference between cultural. Then you will have a wonderful time with all the new friends and family you have here. Best of luck on your adventure.

I am about to finish my 8 months as an Aupair in Hangzhou and I have to say there were lots of ups and downs.
I had the luck to have an awesome hostfamily. My hostmom and I got along so so well and in the 8 months I spend here I can really say that she has become one of my best friends. Everybody in that family really cared for me as if I was a real family member. In the end it even felt like Grandma is my real Grandma and not just my Hostgrandma.
But of course being an Aupair isn't always rainbows and sunshine. Working with kids can always be really difficult and straining, especially because chinese kids are different. There were days that were amazing. My hostchild listened to me and we had a fun time. But there were also lots of times where sentences like „JieJie I don't want to play with you“ and „JieJie you are useless“ were on the menue.
You have to keep in mind that the chinese mentality is really different from what you are used to and the kids being spoiled and lots of pressure on their education is often normal.

In my time as an Aupair I grew alot. I've personally been through a hard time but it made me grow and I wouldn't want to take that back.
I made lots of new friends that grew important to me in a really short time and let alone the fact that I decided to extent my stay shows that I did enjoy my time here.
Now that I approach the end of my stay I have to say that I am indeed happy to go home but I am also happy that I decided to spend my time as an Aupair.
I am proud that I finished the program even though I don't think I would do it again. Being an Aupair once in your life is enough.

I'm also thankful for my Local Coordinator Yvonne because even if I didn't really have problems with my hostfamily Yvonne was always there to help. Also she was more like a friend to me than a person of authority which made talking to her about Problems a lot easier.