Where I come from, our apostilles come attached to each required document with a kind of wedge that looks like a huge ugly staple.

It's a fact that an official transcript is much more authoritative than any apostille. Transcripts are close to impossible to forge, they have special properties, just like money. Organizations usually rely on them alone and not some ridiculous authentication process, like the one the Chinese have adopted.

My Chinese embassy is also uncaring and lazy enough to waste teachers' money by not accepting documents along with return envelopes over the mail. Who knows, maybe they operate corruptly by pocketing kickbacks from couriers and agents!