This article reports on a study of secondary English teachers' perceptions of and implementation of the New English Curriculum Reform in China initiated in 2009. Ethnography and triangulated data collection methods were employed to gather information about three senior secondary English teachers' interpretations of the New Curriculum and their teaching behaviours. It was found that a considerable implementation gap emerged as a major obstacle to teachers' implementation of the New Curriculum requirements in their classroom practices due to a series of contextual constraints, namely teacher intransigence, examination imperatives, learner reluctance and pedagogy/policy inconsistencies. The study suggests the necessity to address the gap between reform ideas at the macro level and the school realities at the micro level throughout the implementation process, particularly at the initial stage. The study highlights three conditions to be fulfilled to bridge the implementation gap, that is, long-term goals, teachers as contextual decision makers and nurturing and developing teachers.