First, welcome to China. Second, be very careful. Have you signed a contract? Have you seen a picture of your apartment inside and out? Are you working for a public school or private? Have you communicated with past employees? Who will pay for your work visa? Is the school you'll be working for actually permitted to hire foreign teachers? These are only a few of the questions you should have answers to. I sincerely hope you've done your homework because you seem like such a nice person, full of excitement and hope, and I really hope this works out for you.

Yes, you can buy winter clothes fairly cheap in China. The quality is generally pretty good, but that of course depends on where you buy it. Street vendors and little shops often have great prices but shabby wares. Check out the zippers and the threading carefully - often the coats for example are only single threaded and will tear easily. The zippers are often low quality plastic and fall apart after a few days of use. If you do shop in such places, remember that being a foreigner you will automatically be quoted a price at least four or five times what they are willing to get and sometimes even up to eight times the price a local will pay. Learn to bartor; even better, until you get the hang of things you should have a trusted local help you with most of your purchases. Well anyway, pack lightly and save yourself the burden of traveling with too much luggage. Traveling by air in China is inexpensive by comparison to domestic flights in America, but they'll really sock it to you for excess baggage. Traveling by train can be a great way to go, but jostling your luggage around so many people can be a real hassle. And then there's the added factor that thievery is rampant - especially on sleeper buses.

You should be able to manage through your first month with about 500 US Dollars - that's around 4000RMB.(Later, depending on your lifestyle, you may need less than that to live comfortably.) However, I would suggest having a lot more than that on hand if you are able to do so because you are walking into an unfamiliar situation where having the means to beat a hasty retreat can save you a lot of heartache.

If you haven't signed a contract yet, please don't do so until you've seen your apartment and the environment in which you will be teaching. I cannot stress this enough Lynn, and I speak from three years of experience teaching in China. My guess is that your new boss will have a contract ready and waiting for you to sign, practically from the moment you step off the plane. They may whisk you off to a restaurant to show you how kind and wonderful they are, after which the contract will suddenly appear. If they insist that you sign it then and there after your repeated wishes to check things out first, leave. Rent a hotel, find an internet center where you can do a job search and take it from there. There are thousands of jobs available, but unfortunately only a small percentage of them are legitimate and/or operated by honest and above board employers.

But just so I don't end on a sour note, back to the clothes thing. I love the scarves you can get in China. I've ended up with quite a collection of winter scarves. You can buy them on the street from vendors at incredibly cheap prices - often as low as 10 yuan; slightly more than a dollar. I've even gone so far as to go to yarn shops where I've picked the material and paid to have them made, and even that ends up being a great deal. I've ended up with so many scarves that I've had to take some of them home to store when I go back for vacations.

Well then, good luck. China can be a great experience if you keep your eyes open. Some of the above may seem awfully negative to you, but I'm just hopeful that you won't make some of the same mistakes so many of us have made by being overly optimistic. Oddly enough, my Chinese girlfriend, who I've been with for more than two years now, is often telling me to not be so trustful. My meaning is that if she can be so open minded about the negatives of this society than so should I. Yes, don't be too trustful, but don't let mistrust get in the way of what can be a great experience.