You have received some pretty good advice here. I am in the same position as you, except that I am Mexican. I was also educated in the states where I received my degree. You may also need to have clear English pronunciation. You can certainly insist on having a conversation via skype to make sure your employers know that your speech pattern is discernible.

Your first prospects are small cities in rural areas that have trouble recruiting teachers. I myself am in a town of 500,000 people and earn about 7,000 a month which makes for a comfortable lifestyle. I have been in country two years now working in rural areas. At the moment I am receiving offers from bigger cities like Nanjing now that I can network and schools can meet me in person. But like someone said earlier in a post,"I would not work in Shanghai for 15,000," and neither would I. Matter of fact, I would stay here and earn 7k a month than move to Nanjing and earn 10k a month. But if you would like to someday move on to a bigger city, being able to show a potential employer that you have staying power in China goes a long way.

Every year I meet native teachers from those "big five" countries that just had it with China and the way they do things that they just have to leave. Once again the schools must bring in a new batch teachers to repeat the process over the next year. There is a place for you here in China, if you do not mind starting on the edge of civilization and working yourself in.

If you need some references on where to find employment, send me an e-mail. Take care.

Hi Teza

In answer to your questions

1. There are plenty of non-native ESL teachers who currently work in China. It won't stop you from finding a job but it may limit you to the number and location of opportunites. On one hand this may be the result of the school's preference for what it considers to be native English speakers. On the other it may be because at certain times and in certain parts of China the visa restrictions for foreigns are tightened to ensure that only nationals from a select list of countries (UK, USA, Canada, Australia & NZ) are able to work legally as a foreign teacher.

2. It wouldn't hurt your job prospects

3. Your TESOL would be enough for the Chinese authorities. Again having further qualifications would make you a more attractive candidate and hopefully a better teacher.

4. It depends on the school. Most public schools and universities in Shanghai will offer accomodation. Private schools or training schools increasingly don't offer accomodation in Shanghai. What they will do is pay you a higher wage but then you will need to go and find your own accomodation and pay a large chunk of that wage towards it

5. This is a link from another post on salaries at public schools and universities which are dependant upon qualifications http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/legal/index.pl?read=238

6. It'll help opportunities and pay but i doubt that you'd need to do a masters degree just to find a job here

7. Well that depends on location and lifestyle. From a personal point of view i would struggle to live on 5000RMB a month in a city like Shanghai. However, if you head out to smaller cities or areas away from the East coast then this amount would be enough to live comfortably.

8. Again it wouldn't hurt but in all honesty you could find a teaching job in China today with only your bachelors degree and TESOL certificate. When considering all the questions above about qualifications and certification it's probably worth thinking about whether your move into ESL or education in general is just going to be a temporary thing i.e. travel around the world for a bit teaching as you go or whether it's going to be a career move