Sounds like Aston really is terrible to work for. I've been talking to their Canadian recruiter based in Dalian a fair bit and he genuinely seems like a nice guy. But working for Aston sounds just like working Public School in Korea in that if you care about what you're doing too much, you'll just get your heart broken. You say to 'give it a miss' due to constant contract violations (which is standard practise in Korean Hogwans), so where on earth is good to work for in ESL in China apart from Kens English and Perfect English (both based in Changchun).