Working in China (&Teaching English) Part 3:

This is part 3 of a long series on this topic, be prepared for acidity and jadedness:

Take all job offers (especially online) with enough salt to dry the dead sea.

Most westerners are hired for a few reasons in China, and here they are:

1. Mascot. You are the resident parade monkey they use to show off some aspects of his/her company. Be it metropolitan, cool, international, recognition, technology, or trustworthiness; there is something they need to put a foreign face on, and you are IT. Some people hated it, some people love it, and it’s up to you.

2. Technology Transfer. You may have worked in a company that has the technology/or just technical know how that they need. The requirements aren’t that technical in reality, you could have just worked in the industry and they just wanted to know how things were done over “there”.

3. Language/Communication Skills. Quite a few Chinese companies take over jobs from western service companies that works with multi-nationals or mid cap companies who aren’t interested or can’t deal with the complex bureaucracy needed in China to process certain things. They are often run by Chinese American(insert western country)s and staffed by high educated Chinese employees. But most of the time, they still have no clue how the “outside world” works, and they have trouble communicating what they can do, what is done and how the deadline works. Teleconferencing is actually a hell of embarrassment for a lot of highly educated/paid Chinese workers. Go figure.

4. Project Management. A lot of Chinese companies/people have trouble with this. This concept isn’t really very well understood in China. Even though China created the 4 great inventions of the world, when one speaks in terms of actual work, Chinese people are task(single goal), and routine orientated. Some companies or managers will run a project without knowing what the term means or how to take advantage of the available sources this sector has. You probably should speak a bit of Chinese.

5. Teachers. Most foreign ESL/English teachers are hired for a few things, mostly bragging rights and face time. It’s a very old cliche’ now for ESL schools to advertise that they have (in big and bright letters) FOREIGN teachers that teaches how many hours in their course. A few companies hire English teachers to upgrade their staff’s English levels, but most of the time, only the upper tier of service industry/or international company’s Chinese division that will do this. If you are coming here to teach, expect the competition to be fierce.

6. Deal with other Foreigners. A lot of Chinese companies don’t understand what western consumers want, which makes sense. These pampered companies haven’t really had to compete for every customer. Every market they ever entered had been a vacuum to start with. Customer service isn’t their strong suit. So what better way to deal with foreign customers than hiring foreigners? Expect to speak Chinese.

Don’t expect your contract to be sacred or to get paid (on time or at all).

Pay is a complicated issue in China. If you are coming here to teach English, and you are teaching in a private school in gods know where, there is a high chance that you might get cheated on your pay. NEVER tell any of your Chinese friends how much you make. The cultural landmines are surrounded by barb wires, lasers and sharks in moats. Leave it alone.

Is public school better? Well…, at least the promised room and board is real.

If you are coming to work in China, go through your contract VERY carefully. Make sure you have at least 1 copy of both English and Chinese version sign by both parties and possibly authenticated by a translator/lawyer you can trust. If it’s an important job, make sure important people know about it. You might want to give your home country’s business committee in China a heads up. Ask them about a good lawyer that you can trust, so you can double check that thing is kosher.

If you are going to work in a smaller city/town, be prepared to be a rock star.

Meaning, you will get stared at no matter WHERE you go. Most people find the attention flattering at first, until they learned that their friendliness actually have very heavy costs. NO PRIVACY. ZERO. NATA. ZIP. ZILCH. Hangzhou is NOT a small, backwards city. A black friend of mine who is from London can not go anywhere without gossip, pointed fingers, strange invitations to work for free, and other people TAKING his pictures. If you weren’t a private person before, you’ll probably be one after living here for a while. And if you have kids? Gods help you. This is, of course, assuming that you don’t look Asian/Chinese.

By the way, if you actually get to do the real job that you are hired to do, you have just won the lottery.

Exactly what it says. Don’t expect to do what you are hired to do, most of the time, the giddiness of having a (if you are the first or second) foreigner in their midst can be too tempting for all parties involved for any work to be done. And you will be surround with people, pounded with English questions, imitated, watched, and feared. Be on your toes, Chinese politics(people politics, not CCP) can be very nasty.

Of course, I am in no way saying all Chinese schools or companies are like this. But as Genghis Khan once said, “If you are cautious, 10 times aren’t enough to be trouble; if you are careless, 1 time is enough to kill you.”

And let me repeat this one more time for some out there:

China isn’t a place to escape a boring or mediocre life. I just don’t want to see another one going home 3-6 months, heartbroken, dream broken, life broken, bank broken, and drags his/her broken body home filled with menace and venom filled with misunderstood ignorance and hatred without realizing what this place can truly do for them.

I worked in Immigration for 4 years. I know how big cultural shock can be. No matter who you are. If you go on to live in a foreign land with a frivolous reason, you’ll probably regret it(hate yourself) sooner or later. Get your two feet on the ground first before boarding that plane in the air.

I wish you luck in your travels.

Journalists, Activist, Noobs working/protesting in China or about China(don’t forget Cold War).

Well, the Cold War thing is a bit of a joke, but you’ll get the point if you read it.

This is for people who report, talk about or need to publically demonstrate their pov about what they see or hear in China.

I do not have any previous personal experiences about being a journalist in China. I have followed up on a few who do. I don’t know if a journalist visa would be a bane or boon to you. There were a lot of talk of “greater” press “freedom” last year when everything was bright and peachy, but given the current situation and embarrassment they have faced, I wouldn’t count on any “freedom of the press”. If any of you can read/understand Chinese, read or watch some China Daily/CCTV4. Given the fact that they have blocked ALL shots about the protesters in SF and etc, I doubt most people in China really knows how the temper is outside.

Anyway, this isn’t about how bad or crappy or politically unjust China is. This is about how to deal with the reality of living in or with a CCP country.

All Chinese internet use are monitored to a certain extent. They even introduced 2 online police agent programs this year that are suppose to run when you are on a politically sensitive/or yellow (nude or adult) websites. Technically these programs/or real online police agents (not sure how exactly it’s suppose to work, I am leaning against the later) will block the site in question and track your ip address to report you. I have not personally heard anyone gotten arrested by these online cops. Most of the time, any young guns assigned to these flashy jobs are important sons and daughters of the party cadres. It’s considered to be a career stepping stone and not a real job to put effort into. Most of the time, the traffic is too big to block anything useful, and they just use the firewall to filter out the usual suspects, like major news networks. CBC seems to be the least blocked of major news websites, so you can try that. (maybe we aren’t a threat? )

Proxy servers and encrypted e-mails are probably standard if you have anything that will get somebody in major trouble. As for who or what to use, take your pick, they are everywhere online.

All landlines and (possibly) cellphone communications are monitored to a certain extent as well. You should be happy that too many people own cellphones for anybody to actually monitor anything with any accuracy, but if they go ahead with the Chinese 3G standard, have fun. Most of the time, only the communication to and from politically sensitive locations and in and out of the country (especially TW or US) are probably heavily monitored. I don’t know about SMS, but given the amount of junk mail I receive everyday, I wouldn’t want to be the one reading all that.

If you are calling just to BS with friends and family, I wouldn’t worry. If you are talking about anything important, mix your languages a bit, and throw in a bit of accent. That usually throws most Chinese translators up.

Fax. Apparently, fax is the way to go(as long as you own the fax machine). According to a personal friend who is a high level political adviser, fax can’t be intercepted by the Chinese. I don’t know how much stock I can put in this theory, but she is still alive and doing well.

Last but not least, the human factor. Look, if you are just an average Joe/Jane trying to do your thing somewhere in China without causing a ruckus, you’ll probably be fine. If you are someone important, like say a CEO of a medium or large cap company, a journalist for an important newspaper/news channel, be very careful. One Chinese president once boasted that he knows how many time Rupert Murdoch had sex with his new wife when she was just his extra marital girlfriend in Chinese hotels.

Extreme? Yes. True? Very likely.

Moral of the story? China is a Communist country, get that through your skull first. As soon as you forget that after seeing all the lights and colors, you will probably be on a list somewhere. It ain’t monolithic like the Cold War, but it ain’t Sweden either.

Books for you to Learn more about China:

Sorry for the delay, but my grandmother is visiting, so I’ve been kinda busy.  I’ve also been debating on whether or not to go more acidic for this blog, since I know bursting quite a few bubbles already.

Anyway, if you want to learn more about China, here are a few books I’ve found to be “Personally” useful. This isn’t meant as a commercial or advertisements for these books at all, buy them at your own judgment.

Mr. China

Excellent book, I would recommend it even if you goal isn’t to do business in China. Old China hands like him paved the way for us newer expats.

Asian Godfathers

This is not Directly linked to China, but this should give all the potential investors and business owners a quick cold shower before they rush to the next gold rush/big wave.

Beijing at your Door

Old book by Chinese info standards, but a decent guide to start you off with. There are some outdated information, but this should give you a heads up about Beijing and life in China.

There are quite a lot of books you can read about China, but very few honest or decent ones. After scanning quite a few of them on my trips home to Vancouver, I’ve come to realize that most of them are just hype machines written by this business “guru” and that China “expert”.

I’ll be very careful about some of these books, especially the investing ones. Most of the Chinese companies don’t really understand the concept of Fiduciary. Actually, I don’t think this idea exist in the Chinese language or culture per-se until western common law ideas were introduced. You can NOT get any accurate information about anything involving a company unless you are an insider, so you can guess who actually makes money here. And Chinese companies simply DO NOT BELIEVE they own you Anything(including information) just because you happen to be an investor(minority or majority). If you or your fund managers aren’t willing to put in the FACE time required dig through/drill info from the company(homework), don’t bother, you might just as well go buy a dream weaver, because you’ll get better dreams that way( and lose less sleep).

There are 2 more books that I am reluctant to post, because they are more political or less informative. And one of them might get you in trouble because it talks about a No. 1 Chinese fugitive. So let me brew on that one.

Have fun reading.

Food in China Part 3, Part B:

Continued from Part A:

4. Know your palette. Most westerners(especially North Americans) are used to westernized Chinese food. I recently heard from an Athlete in an interview saying how sucky Chinese food is in China and how she has eaten better Chinese food at home. Let me put this to you straight, whatever you are eating in the Chinese restaurant back home is most likely not “real” Chinese food. There has been a book published recently by a Chinese American addressing this issue. Chinese food in the US has sort of become a comfort food that is as American as the apple pie. There is nothing wrong with that and I am not going to snub your palette/taste just because it wasn’t ethnically authentic. If you like, you could try some “real” Chinese food in China. Don’t give up too early and learn to have an open mind. Chinese spent 5000 years developing their cuisine, I think there is bound to be something you like. If you need that fix from home, try some Cantonese food, because that is what a lot of American style Chinese food is based on.

5. The parts. Yes, the parts. The parts that most North Americans find “disagreeable” to their palette. Nothing is wasted in China, and you can just bet that some parts have became a delicacy some where in China. Don’t make a disgusting face about it, and don’t snub it. Quite a few cultures have been poor for long periods in history, and it has been survival of the fittest for those times. I don’t snub my American friends for eating “fake” and “overly westernized” Chinese food, and people shouldn’t do it here either.

Don’t knock something until you have tried it at least 3 times. That is my motto concerning food. I have tried all the crazy food they have here. I like some, and I dislike some. It’s just my taste. Food safety has Absolutely nothing to do with eating perfectly cooked meats or veggies. It’s very impolite to refuse to eat things the host has ordered in a Chinese banquet. If you have a business deal, kiss that deal good bye.

6. If you have allergies or a health issue, let them know. Surprisingly, almost all waiters or waitresses in a half decent restaurant in China will ask you if you have allergies or not after you order. Make sure you are specific.

7. Expect Carbs. If you are watching your carbs, be careful in China. The main stay of the Chinese foods to provide the necessary calories and energy has always been noodles and rice. Go bonkers on those cheap, good and plenty comfort foods can have your weight exploding. Typical Chinese fare actually have less calories/portions and fat compared to the North American fare. So if you go too chopstick happy on those awesome dim sums, get ready to buy some new jeans. Whether you eat balanced meal or not is up to you, but this is just a heads up.

8. If you follow a very particular diet, you need to know if you are really suitable for China. It’s very tough to follow vegan or kosher in China. The stress of using up so much time on a daily necessity can be really difficult. Be prepared.

9. When all else fails, MacDs, Pizza Hut, KFC, Sizzler and etc, all have a large presence in China.

10. Be adventurous, have fun and enjoy it. Food is one of the most profound pleasures in life. If you are staying here long term and you don’t enjoy the food here, you really should reconsider. As for visitors, try the local fare, because no “western” food they can make in China can be as good as your grandmas’. The fun part is finding that special something that you have never tried but love it at first bite. Bring an open mind. This is one area where you won’t get in trouble for being adventurous.

What to pack for a trip to China?

Sorry for the delay, minor family problems kept me from writing.

I can’t believe I had forgotten this section, seeing how important this is.

1. Lotion. No matter where you are in China, it can be quite dry even if there is a lot of water around. An expat friend of mine who used to work in Hangzhou, one of the few cities in China with lots of fresh water and a half decent weather complained that the place is too dry. Bring a really big bottle of your favourite lotion.

A. Don’t forget Sunblock, SP30.

2. Medications. There is absolutely no guarantee that China has/sells the medication you need to function, especially newer drugs (psychotropic drugs are especially rare) that hasn’t lost their rights license, and Chinese companies can’t rip it off yet. The pharmaceutical industry in China is one of the worst industries that is constantly plagued by scandals and corruptions. (In fact, the Chinese equivalent of Head of FDA was executed last year for corruption charges) Unless you know the doctor really, really well, there is no telling what snake oil he/she is bribed to sell you. I’d also recommend you to memorize the active ingredients of some of the most common(therefore available) meds that you are used to taking, because none of the brands that you are familiar with are actually sold in Chinese pharmacies. Please don’t forget to bring your prescriptions.

A. Common meds that you should pack, just in case. Ibuprofen or Motrin/Advil. Alka-Seltzer. Tums. Meds for the common flu and cold symptoms, especially ones for coughing. Meds that help you sleep and meds to help diarrhea symptoms.

3. Deodorant. This is VERY Important. I have not been able to buy ANY deodorant in China at all. Suffice to say that most Chinese people don’t use it and probably don’t have the need. Some of my expat friends have been known to ration these fresh scented blessed sticks of gold. I’ve been called at early mornings for deodorant emergencies. Bring your OWN. And if you are planning to stay a long time, lots of it.

Athletes! Remember your country’s image, bring one for the team!!

4. Shaving Razors/Shavers. This is somewhat related to the topic above. Let me put this to you straight, a lot of Chinese people don’t need to shave, so except for the really expensive electric shavers in the malls, all they sell in supermarkets are disposables. You might get lucky at see a few surplus razors on sale in a few places. Therefore, if you have a favourite type of knife, say fusion or venus, bring your own.

5. High End Electronics. Laptops/Notebook Computers in particular. The selection, quality and price isn’t the same as home. It’s MORE Expensive. You heard that right. Even though China makes everything from soap to houses, it still can’t make/assemble some of the high end electronics with required quality requirements and price. Don’t expect to buy cheap and GOOD electronics in China. If you can tolerate Chinese standards, buy what you need here. If not, bring your own.

Mini story: A Dell with the same setup is more expensive in China than the US.

6. Sizes. This will get a little personal. Please don’t be offended. Ladies, if you are/have bigger than a D cup, taller than 185cms, bigger jean size than say 35, and a shoe size bigger than 10? Choose your wardrobe VERY wisely. Most stores won’t carry/stock those sizes. There is just not enough demand. Northern China is probably better than Southern China is this regard since they are taller/bigger here. Gentlemen, don’t feel left out. If you are/have taller than 195cm, jeans size bigger than say 42, a shoe size bigger than 12 and/or a broad chest/shoulder? You are probably in the same boat. And please remember, China doesn’t use US sizes, it uses mostly an ad hoc size system that combines European and Chinese. Try everything on!

Bra is a big issue for quite a few female expats. Lingerie shopping isn’t exactly sophisticated in China due to governmental regulation of its advertising and sales. You won’t find Victoria Secret or La Senza in China. You can always try the more expensive international malls that are catered to the foreigners for your luck for any of the clothes that you lack. Otherwise, you’ll have to do HK shopping runs like a lot of expats.

If you are an discerning shoppers with a Chinese sized body, you’ll love the clothing shopping in China. The selection is quite varied, and if you know how to find them, you’ll be able to find some awesome clothes for the fractions of the price you pay back home. Provided that you know what you are doing.

7. A phrase book or an electronic dictionary has been proven useful for certain people. This is entirely up to you. Most of the time, you probably won’t find what you are looking for at the time when you most need it. Something (like an electronic dictionary/translator) that will sound out the words might help more/be better, provided it doesn’t become a crutch that hinders your Chinese learning.

8. Some gifts that represent your home country or culture. Something a little cultural, a little unique to your homeland provided it’s legal to enter the customs is always nice to have on hand no matter who you meet.

Food in China Part 3, part A:

Ok, besides all the scary pictures and disgusting stories, how about some realistic expectation what’s good to eat and what’s bad to eat?

I am the bad news first person, so I’d like to prepare you for the worst before presenting any of the good stuff. But, I don’t really think people need help spotting something they like, and recommendations are hard to give due to personal palettes can be so different.

Anyway, here goes:

1. Avoid the Street Stall foods like a plague. Fruit on a stick, fruits, sausage, egg rolls, spring rolls, Chinese pancakes, grilled meat on a stick, roasted yams in drums, meat and veggies dipped in hot broth and etc. You will see this all over the place in China. They are cheap and plentiful, so, good eats, right? WRONG! Chinese news reports (whenever it’s not political, they have no problem reporting idiots) have found people spray painting (industrial paint) their fruits to make it look better and shinier. The tin/steel drums they roast yams with are usually pilfered off industrial waste sites that were used to contain industrial solvents, glues and really nasty chemicals. What about stuff made on the spot? Have you ever paid any attention why something is so cheap, how they make a profit and where they get their ingredients? Home made sausages made using meat scraps recycled from farms and butchers. Recycle the sticks they cook BBQ meats or Mai La Ton with.

Some might argue that millions of Chinese eat/buy this without problems. But you as a new comer don’t really have the skills and literally don’t have the stomach to actually deal with problems should they arise. I don’t know how skilled you are at picking grocery at home, but you ain’t prepare for what’s here. And should you fail in your choosing, your body will not be ready to deal with the disaster.

2. You will get sick/stomach pains at the beginning. Deal with it. I go through this almost every year. No matter how careful you are, you are bound to find that one rotten apple and eat it without realizing until it’s too late. Just remember to keep hydrated and plenty of rest. As a new comer, you will eventually get bowel pains. That means your body is adjusting to the food here. A doctor once told me that most westerners just don’t have the enough E Coli in their bodies to digest the food in China, therefore, they need to go through that first 2 weeks to get more.

3. Picking restaurants is an Art. China has 8 big regional cuisine influences. i won’t go into what they are. The Chinese idea of “western” food usually leaves a lot to be desired. Combine this with the difficulty of finding good staff and lack of decent local produce, you have an extremely competitive industry running in its hamster wheels. A lot of media sources would like you to believe that there are a lot of hip and happening restaurants that are just like home in Beijing or Shanghai. Take that with the same attitude that you take everything that comes out of this country, with a salt lake. So how do you find a good restaurant that suits your delicate taste buds? Make some expat friends that speaks fluent Chinese. There are very few decent media sources that are trust worthy (most of them start with good intentions but usually ends up being a advertising platform). Quite a few expats have gone through what you are experiencing, and most of them usually have an unpublished mental list of decent restaurants, Western or Chinese.

Outside of that, here are some ground rules:

A. Is it busy? MOST of the time, this rule, well…, rules! The Chinese logic is thus: If a place is busy, that means some of the food is decent, and since they are churning out lots of dishes, most of the stuff is fresh. I’ll be frank, this rule HAS failed me before, and a touristy place with lots of tourists usually doesn’t a great restaurant make. You might want to watch the demographic that walks in, and judge for yourself.

B. Is it a Chain? Chain style restaurants, despite the bad press they get at home, are usually held to a higher standard in China. After all, they are trying to make or sustain a brand in a very competitive industry. They usually face greater scrutiny in terms of food safety and health inspections. My black Chinese joke goes like this: If there is something wrong, I can scream murder and claim in western media that they are trying to poison a westerner. Then I’ll sue them. *wink* By the way, a lot of Chains that you are used to may not be the same as back home due to Chinese ownership laws. Starbucks is an notorious example of not holding up their image and service in Beijing compared to home. Pizza Hut is a interesting example of turning a humble pie into an high class restaurant and succeeding.

C. Is it brightly lit, clean, and do the waiters waitresses look like they will have a job tomorrow? This is self explanatory.

D. How long has it been in business? Longer doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better . (ouch, I made a funny) But if the place has survived for at least 1-2 years, that means it has something going for it.

4. Know your palette. Most westerners(especially North Americans) are used to westernized Chinese food.

Sorry to cut this short, but there are more fires to put out, so I’ll be back to finish this.

I am going to update this section with a new post to avoid confusion.

Teaching English, Part 2(and working in China in General):

This seems to be an extremely popular section, so I’ll give it more press.

I have taught English/ESL part time for nearly 10 years, and my experience is more than enlightening. If you want to teach English or otherwise in China, here are the general advices:

1. What do you want?

I can not stress this one enough.

Look, a lot of people came here with the reasons I have posted in section 1, and I really can’t say I approve it. The reason is very simple, working in another country is a VERY BIG commitment. China doubles that equation by 5 or more. Most westerners are JUST NOT prepare for the experience. This is in no way patronizing on my part because it is true. The amount of people, time, man hour, money and life wasted away here by westerners is probably enough to take the current USA out of recession. China didn’t build their current economy. Foreign investments, technology transfers and eager beavers who tried to cash in did. They lost trillions. I want to prevent you from doing the same.

If you want adventure, romance, sex, excitement, and a big pay check.., go to law school or take a MBA program. The best way for you to get that glamorous movie expat life is get hired by a large International Conglomerate and get stationed here. You make foreign currency, and all your living needs are already paid for by your company. Life on the ground is not like that. This is no place to escape a mediocre life. You need to know what you really want before setting foot here.

2. Take a tour.

Come here first. Take a look around. Spend 1- 3 month to travel the country a bit. Backpacking if you must. Talk to some expats around the town you are interested in staying. You need to get a general feel about the place before you decide to settle down here. If you can’t stay that long, 2-3 weeks is probably minimal.

3. Do your homework.

Talk to a career counselor and a financial adviser before coming. This is important. Working in a foreign country is like immigration, except that you are going to a (most likely 3rd world country). You need to have a realistic expectation on how much you are going to spend, and how long you can go without a job. If you loose/quit that first job(extremely common) you get hired for in China, you need to know if you can survive. China isn’t a cheap place to live anymore.

4. Have a realistic expectation.

This is the typical salary range for an foreign English teacher in China (exchange rate may vary) :

3000 – 6000 RMB/Month = 400 – 800 USD/Month.

But what about your living expenses? China is cheaper, right? Let’s use Beijing as an example:

Within 4 ring road:

1000 – 5000 RMB/ 1 bedroom, 1 bath/10+ square meters/Month = 150 – 700 USD/Month

2000 – 8000 RMB/ 2 bedrooms, 1 or 2 bath/20-25+ square meters/Month = 280 – 1100 USD/Month

3500 – 20000 RMB/ 3 bedrooms, 2 or 3 bath/35-40 + square meters/Month = 500- 2800 USD/Month

That’s not so bad, right? As long as you stay within the lower range, and you take on a few private tutor jobs, you should be fine, right?

Wrong. Most Chinese buildings are built to Chinese living standards according to the year they are built. Most of the buildings that are semi-suitable to what you used to as western standard of living are built after 2001 or later. I won’t go too deep into housing here, but expect what you deem acceptable to be in the high range.

What about living expenses?

2000 – 5000 RMB a month for food, public transport, a few nights out, 2 dinners a week is very common.

What about the visit home?

5000 – 6000 RMB for a round trip ticket from Beijing to Vancouver.

What about those jobs with contracts that includes room, food and an airplane ticket?

You get a room in a dorm. You will (most likely) share the bathroom with the entire floor. You WILL have a curfew. You will eat free in the school cafeteria that serves …, anyway. And expect things NOT to work. Your roof might leak, and most of the appliance are probably 5-10 years old. Expect to catch some kind of skin disease.

5. A Personal story.

A friend of mine makes almost 25,000 – 30,000 RMB/Month = 3500 – 4200 USD/Month in Beijing teaching. That’s REALLY GOOD, right? Guess how much he keeps at the end of the year? ZERO. He’s been here for 4 years, got a wife and kid, and takes 2 vacation outside China(mostly going home to Vancouver) every year. Very typical and normal for a western family right? Except that he doesn’t get to save any money. Why? He still hasn’t paid off his student loan, nor his credit card debt that he incurred when he first arrived and he has child support from the first marriage. That is also extremely common for typical western families. Making RMB to pay CAD debts is down right insane and not really workable.

But you will say, it is possible to make that much teaching, right? LOL.

The reason he even makes that much is because he has build up his reputation for teaching excellence after 4 grueling years here. And he doesn’t really teach in schools at all. He teaches for multinationals and big companies.

6. Consider the human cost factor.

I can’t stress this enough. Life is tough here. I am not just talking the pollution, the cost of living, and/or any of the other crap I have mentioned. Working in China can be very tiring psychologically and emotionally. The rudeness, the behind the back talk, the staring, the people asking for free lessons, the constant questioning, the sneaky picture taking and the complete absolute lack of privacy. There are a lot of wonderful things about the Chinese people, but you have to wade through a lot of things to get there sometimes. Think about it.

To be continued. I’ll also answer my board mate TK’s question in the next post. I’ll update this post later.

Chinese Food/Street Stall Pictures:

Courtesy of my man Jack, if you are weak of constitution, do NOT click on link.

BBQ!

Sheep Head!

Scorpions!

Silkworm Cocoons!

Are you a leg man/woman?

Giddy UP!

And last but not least, the Itsy Bitsy!