I read this as an English teacher in China and got a lot out of it — probably more about teaching and about the country than from most books with "education" on the cover.
Hessler's Peace Corps years in Fuling in the late nineties: fog, the rivers meeting, students writing things in essays they'd never say aloud, Shakespeare performed in a place that had barely seen foreigners. I recognised my own classroom in those bits — the rote habits, then sudden originality when you give them something real to chew on.
He's patient about being an outsider and doesn't claim to understand more than he does. Fuling today barely matches the book, which makes it more interesting, not less. I learnt a lot; I'll likely read it again.