I am a colored English teacher here in China and i have read with good understanding some of the professional and unprofessional wrangles among you teachers of ESL here in China.Though not in any way judging, i am in simple vocabulary commenting and stressing on the fact that teaching as a profession is a CALL to duty and shouldn't be mistaken for a hobby.Once you find yourself in this noble profession, you should be prepared to sacrifice, to offer nothing but your maximum effort to realizing what is being demanded from you as a teacher.Being aware of the fact that foreign teachers here in China would want to live life in China as in their native homes,we ought to be aware that once you are out of the womb,life is different.it could be good or bad,but that is it in China.To my view the Chinese are actually doing well in providing a comfortable life to foreigners and they keep improving on those necessary conditions, especially to foreign ESL teachers.It is not the high pay or facilities that makes a good teacher performs his or her duty effectively, (though without these conditions inefficiency will show up somewhere) but a dedicated teacher, who has a sense of duty, who has his or her students at heart.I have been a victim and is still one to most of the embarrassing problems most of you have encountered here in China as a teacher and some other racial problems white teachers can not experience.But i tend to give a passive eye on them as common problems every where on the globe, though teachers as just as every other people have a right to voice and seek solutions to redress their common worries.Chinese are humans just like any other human on earth, capable of writing down and interpreting something (contract) in their own way, which may look entirely different to another people (Chinese inclusive).I think it is preferable to read, understand and interpret a Chinese contract, (though translated into English) in the Chinese way.That will make you live comfortably with your employers.