Its extremely expensive and the only reason I live here now is my job and the fact that the spouse is not interested in leaving China. Real estate values here cannot be justified in my opinion, but it is what it is. If you want a smaller apartment of 80 square in the CBD of Beijing, plan on blowing at least 2 million RMB or more just to get the keys and then easily 200,000 to 600,000 RMB for an interior and furniture that won't fall apart in a month. Our current place would be likened to a good upper middle class family home in the USA, maybe a notch under that, and it is very expensive. My current housing allowance of 8000 per month covers the mortgage 100% and gives me coverage on all utilities, and property management fees so it is a win win proposition. Because I sold the other place and made money on that, I had a nice chunk of change to slap down on this current place which offset the mortgage by about 50% I am on a ground floor in this new place and we have an enclosed patio, a small yard, and even a 1 car garage so it is almost like being home.

What were my options? Pay rent to someone else and fund their wealth and help them to pay their mortgage?
Live in some dive outside of 6th ring road to save money and spend a life time commuting each month?
Put the kid into a Chinese school so they can learn how great Mao supposedly was?

If you end up in China with a spouse and a kid you need a real job that pays the bills and helps you to to enjoy a reasonable quality of life and being able to have upward or lateral movement as well. There is no retirement and no glory in being an ESL teacher working for peanuts and living far below the poverty level in your own country so that when you go home, you have nothing to show for it all other than some pictures.

Most of my friends in education that live in China are getting out of education fast. They woke up. They smelled the coffee. They avoid most of the GW, the problems, and the low wages and they actually have a life for a change.

If you don't have a family, or if you don't have any kids and don't ever plan on having any, and if you never plan to go home, then enjoy the countryside of China and the 4000 RMB per month wages, or struggle on 9000 at some ESL mill where the cost of living is 10,000 and you can never afford to go anywhere or see anything like in Beijing.

Many of the international schools are a joke and they pay 20,000 per month but the atmosphere sucks, they swim in GW, and you work like a dog while dealing with snobby little brats that should be slapped into reality.

I keep my teacher licenses valid, but I stopped teaching. Although...I do have a private ESL gig going on, on Saturdays, teaching 2 Japanese businessmen business English for 600 RMB per hour. That's 1200 RMB for 2 hours starting at 7 and I am done by 9. Monthly that's more than some ESL teachers make all month and I teach only 8 hours per month. 4800 RMB per month buys many trips to the zoo, ice skating rink, movies, and other things for our child and by the time our kid wakes up on Saturday AM, I am already home.

Stop being abused in China. Turn the damn thing around and milk it for all that it is worth because the machine that China has become will sure as hell do it to you and the Chinese won't even blink.

Doing privates? Teach the Japanese. They have the cash and they really want to learn. They work hard and they are respectful and grateful.

As for the Chinese, let them teach themselves.

My opinion of many ESL teachers in China is that they are good people, but for whatever reason(s), they fell out of line with the normal rhythms of life and now they are stuck in some bad situation and they lack the confidence to dig out and make a go of it. Once they get a good kick in the ass, they tend to get with it and venture out more and you'll see them crop up in other companies and level out and do well over time.

We hired a guy like that recently where I work now. In about one month's time he stabilized. He dropped the defensive attitude and the looking over the shoulder mindset and he is a good person. He started here and seemed like he feared the world. I guess my point here is that ESL is a highly abusive job and it really twists people into some bad habits and you can see them unwind and come into line with some normal routine after a month or so. The entire culture shock of living and working in shite each day for years on end is damaging to people. I have told the HR manager here at this place to be understanding of the teachers that they hire because many of those people are coming in from the rain and they are all like beaten down dogs. It takes them some getting used to when getting paid on time for a change, having a real one hour break, real insurance, real sick time, real clean house, and so forth. They don't know how to act.

That's pretty sad if you stop to think about it and just how bad teaching in China really is for many people.