Bob, assuming that you are white, a native English speaker (even Americans fall into this category), find a school willing to employ you and get them to send you a letter of invitation. This will make it easy to get a Z visa from your home country's Chinese Embassy with which to enter China. Sign a contract with said school and they will do the rest to obtain your Residence Permit, which is in effect your work permit, degree or no degree. If the school offering you employment has permission to employ foreigners they will have no problems circumventing any rules and regs.

Ensure that you deal directly with the school and not a middleman as they are usually unreliable in their promises.