Yes Tony, all this sounds like the experience I had at a private senior middle school at Cixi in China which I posted last March. I think that post is still at the foot of the postings here. I have travelled around quite a bit and did go with my eyes wide open when I went to China. I agree that the school uses a white face as an advertising tool. The teacher who replaced me left after less time than I had stayed for and for mostly the same reasons that I left there. I found that the management have no problem at all with looking you right in the eye and lying to you outright. I found that to be very disturbing being a person who always tells it like it is. This dishonesty was difficult to deal with. If other private residential senior middle schools are like this one then I would agree with you that they should be avoided. I am now back teaching in Korea again and find the situation far better than it was in China. I do not get stared at all the time here and do not have a crowd of the local natives gather around me when I go shopping here like I did when shopping in China.