Good points, but if you are in ESL for the money then China is just the wrong place, as point of fact.

A years teaching in Saudi Arabia, hard though it may be for some of the males on here, will let you have more saved than 3 years in China ever would, unless you are a professor or something like that or an expat working for a big company. Even then you may have to pay tax in China. Teaching in Oman just got more difficult due to the visa process getting more stringent, but the demand from Saudi Arabia seems high, it may be boring, but you get paid for your boredom and in the summer break, chilling out on a beach in vietnam, or backpacking south america is doable, as well as a trip home.

Perhaps I should ask this, how many FT's on here who are currently in China, and without resources back home, travel abroad each summer holiday, and return home, and make savings. Not many I bet, only perhaps the ones with resources.