Hangzhou was the first city that I worked in; during my time in China. I have a bit of a soft spot for the place (I lived in the Xihu district, lol), but even that place has its flaws. Being able to drink the world’s finest green tea (well, some of the better stuff that you can get), next to a beautiful lake is great (a past time that I sometimes enjoy more than... most things actually) but even that doesn’t mean everything is going to be perfect, look at those poor guys there who worked for Helen’s, DD Dragon or EF etc.

Besides, some of the grimier places around the country are more fun than the shiny, modern places that are full of the full on douchebag foreigners that can’t survive without an English menu featuring western food and overinflated prices. I am actually reluctant to take work in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou or Shenzhen unless the benefits are really, really good. Unfortunately, if you are teaching English, that probably won’t be the case.

In those cities, there’s too many guys who are fresh out of uni that want a year long holiday (hence a steady neverending stream of unprofessional kids pretending to teach). People like that keep wages lower than they should be. That is also reflected by the way that some schools treat their workers, you are easily replaced, it’s all about the bottom line, etc.

Sadly, Hangzhou suffers the same kind of problems, it is an easy place for even the weakest of foreigners to live in, it is desirable, pricier than it used to be etc. I’ve heard one or two stories about Chengdu these days too, but I need to investigate that a little more.

I don’t have such negative opinions of China as a whole, but some of us are not newbie tourists and have experienced both bad times and indeed some good times.

So Mancunian, don’t defend China unconditionally. You are obviously lacking in knowledge in such areas and I’m talking about more than your linguistic skills. You can also have a bad time in your own country too, but if you get screwed over here, it is not because of your failure to adapt of cooperate, it is usually, just simply because you got screwed. People on this board have probably been in China long enough to know which foreigners are the crybabies and who are the genuine victims.