//but I wasn't there for the money. I could always use my own money from abroad that I could cash with my VUSA card.//

Why a FT back home after finishing uni, assuming get a job in the high 5 figures.dollars to start get a house, marry his gf, get 2 new cars. Leave all that one day because teaching English to 30 or 40 kids in a training center 6 days a week in communist China is so appealing and the little pay and living conditions does not matter. If this is the case, all FT in China should be treated like heroes. It sounds like the story of the beloved in China Dr. Henry Norman Bethune.