I must bear some small fault as regards problems at this college. However, it was the result of some misinformation that this occurred.
I have been working in China for some two years and am not nave; I am married and hope to make China my home.

The Guangxi College of Finance and Economics (GXCFE) houses many students who have failed the university entrance exam, or were simply not up to it. Therefore, the first thing to inform you of is
The ability of the students it is extremely poor (as regards English)
Students have no choice in the classes they attend; consequently there are a huge percentage of students who are simply not interested in English.
The overall intellect of some of the students leaves a lot to be desired I dont mean this in a nasty way, simply an observation.

Let me also add the behavior of two other foreign teachers at this college during the three months I worked there.
One, an American woman, failed to even appear (I am told she made enquiries and even though she signed a contract decided not to come)
Another, an American man, left at the halfway stage he just never came back from the half-term break.
That left just me.

Toward the end of the contract I decided that despite the difficulty of the students (believe me it was difficult) I would stay on I decided this based on a few good students who I had the pleasure to teach. If someone didnt stay put for them, then what chance would they have.
But, the decision as to whether I stayed or not was left in the hands of the students and herein lay the problem. With the majority of the students having no interest I was on a loser from the beginning.
I didnt let it rest there. I requested, and then demanded to see the Principal and the comments left by the students. Both were denied me. I was simply told the principal made the decision (the principal had been in Canada for three weeks at this time so I was told) I had never been treated in this manner at any other school during my time in China, but dont mind admitting I was upset at both leaving the good kids and the comment made to me regards renewing the contract. I began to doubt myself.
However, the fact that such a thing had not occurred before made me realize that I shouldnt doubt myself. The fact the principal refused to talk to me about her decision, or show me the student comments, also added to me regaining some confidence. Lastly, and the final boost to me, on my departure I had some lovely emails from students who did appreciate what I was doing, one student going as far to say I had changed her life a little in terms of how she thought. Nothing wrong with me, I decided (although Im not perfect)
The teacher having responsibility was a good man but seemed weak or had little influence on decisions.

One last negative comment is this. I was asked not to fail students (even if they had failed), to ignore the cheating I might find (unless it was so bad it was beyond ignoring)
I guess this had a lot to do with statistics and parents expectations how I weep for the misled parents of China, where both they and the published statistics seem to be either led up the garden path, or falsified.
I love China, love teaching the students, I really do. But when you begin to experience these things it starts you to question so many others. You begin to question all published statistics that are so often produced by the Chinese to support their growth, ability and so on. At an earlier school I worked at (one of the better middle schools in Nanning) I was told by a very reliable source that the head of the English department took backhanders to place foreign teachers at the school I hoped corruption was on the decline here and remember being disappointed when I heard this what would the students think if they heard this?
This Family of people as the Chinese see their selves are just like any other country ripping each other off, the worse offenses against their own some family!

These are not the worse problems in Chinese universities but if you plan to work here I would think carefully about what you expect.

On a positive ending. I have never had a problem with payment, the apartment was good and the teacher responsible for me always helped if there was a problem in the apartment tried to help in one or two problems with the classes but nothing ever changed there my opinion was he was regarded as weak by the students also, or certainly as someone who wouldnt make too many waves.