Well we can argue about all this until the cows come home; but let's say for arguments sake you are right, and let's say the other posters with gripes about China are right, SO WHAT? Did all of you(not you personally) embark on a teaching period in China without knowing what you say you know now, and if so why so? It sounds to me as if you were all(not you personally) totally uninformed about Chinese ways before you decided to take a wreckless and blinkered plunge- and now lo and behold ,shock horror at what a terrible place it is.

The conniving, wild wild west world of "business" that is the charade in China is something that cannot be set in stone with a mere critique or two. I read a Mandarin book about the latest cons that happened in China. It was literally the size of a dictionary. Now if you tell me that a middle aged person or elderly got duped, should they then be so ashamed of having been duped despite the life experience and therefore chain themselves in their houses, never to come out again? Thieves are always coming up with a new way to get what they want from you, and no matter what research you do it won't fully prepare you for what happens in the real world, this cuts across more than just teaching in China.

There's no excuse for FT's not knowing what they think they know now before they arrived in China for the first time. With respect to you, Turnoi, you have been warning most of them since when they were still in short trousers nearly, is that right? There is absolutely no excuse for past and future FT's for not finding this site alone. I know I found it very easily before coming to China. If an FT was too bone-idle to have not learned about all the bad things, well hard luck, I have no sympathy for them-just get on with it.

These inexperienced teachers who have not been to China will also run across sites like Dave's ESL Cafe and other places that speak about China more rosily and in a misleading manner. I myself found this site back in 2007 when I was just starting out as an ESL teacher to be full of misinformation. The warners were labeled as misinformed, of low character, and even accused of flat out lying by the seemingly endless onslaught of expats who cannot see anything wrong in China, by goons who worked at these places who were Chinese and typed very "good" Chinglish, and by cold hearted individuals with an ulterior agenda to not want to see anything wrong with this ESL world that they work in. It takes work to change things, and by your attitude you would never have helped bring it. [edited]