Got your 'enhanced disclosure police check' document? You'll need same to get FEC for Inner Mongolia
Baotou is a small city
Small...it was pretty damned sprawling when I was there, although I guess by Chinese standards anything is small compared with say, Shanghai or Shenzhen?
Agreed on the beef and mutton is fantastic there, also some of the locals are friendly...but there is a lot to be careful of in that city as you rightly say.
Baotou is a small city of aprx 1 million people along the rail line of Beijing to Yinchuan and on. It is a rather dirty little city with not a lot of western amenities if that is important to you. Also there is limited local sites to see. There is a huge Hui or Muslim population there which does add to the charm of the area. The mutton is great and so is the beef.
Personally I would advoid EF schools and I would also add Aston, Kids Castle and SHane Schools as they are all profit at the expensive of the teachers. Yo can many posting here about these chains of schools.
Any general information on living in Baotou would be really great:
There was a religious NGO of America supplying foreign teachers to the steel university in Baotou's most western of its three districts during my two years of teaching in that city. I guess that is still the case. Amenable folks, but sometimes their religious talk is rather tiresome. Still, at least they are friendly foreign faces.