To be specific, I was referring to junior and senior middle school Chinese students and not primary school kids. These kids are so buried in school work studying for the Gao Kao that they have less time to mess around- in my experience.

I used to work in inner city schools in the U.S.A. While some new English teachers would be subject to disrespect by their students- in the U.S. and China- I never put up with that. In my classes in China, students told their teachers I was too strict. I kicked students out of class, made them write on boards until their arm fell off, or sat them in front of class looking at a wall. The first two weeks of class, all their misbehavior stopped. Chinese university students are a different type and that is why I refuse to work at universities because I don't want to keep breaking cell phones every day.

As to Chinese teachers, 90% are jerks who treat the foreign teacher like an idiot. I figured that out quick. But the greatest satisfaction was working with the students who you really build nice relationships with. A foreign teacher while having to put up with more crap from all sides, can thus have better working relationships with students since they trust us more. I've had dinner with my students, gone fishing, played games, etc. These relationship is what I like about China.