It's also worth noting that some schools (particularly training centres) would actually prefer to employ newbies with little or no language or cultural experience of china (easier to control). By in large the management of such places are not looking to become friends or extend cultural ties, what they are looking to do is make money. Do that for them and you'll generally find that you have a more pleasant experience working for them regardless of your ability to speak mandarin.

This is spot on. After working for training schools for about 2 years, and having outstanding recommendations, as well as a legit TEFL and an advanced degree, and also having the right sort of look and temperament that is considered desirable, I found nobody was interested in hiring me. Why? I knew the ropes and couldn't be cheated. What they really want is a young person just out of college who they can manipulate, and will be smiling and stupid while getting cheated because they just don't know any better. When foreigners first arrive in China to teach, they are like baby sea turtles just hatched from the eggs and trying to make it to the see. Those turtles can be eaten by gulls, crabs, and then once in the water sharks. The idea of the training schools is to get such green and tender foreigners, in China for the first time, filled with good intentions, and then cut them raw deals right away and get their signatures on it. Cheating the new teacher is more important than having a reliable good teacher, so shortsighted are the predatory capitalistic "communist" businessmen.

I remember telling one such bosshole that I didn't need help opening a bank account, as I'd just done it on my own using Mandarin. He scowled. Why? Because there was a "favor" he couldn't hold over me. I did it myself. Better to not speak any Mandarin and be completely at the mercy of the school, and completely dependent on them. The last thing many of these schools want is a competent, independent, acclimated foreigner. They want a virgin, so to speak, and not a seasoned whore, so to speak.

I remember actually considering taking teaching experience OFF of my resume and replacing it with unrelated office work type stuff, just to disguise the fact that I know the situation on the ground and couldn't be taken advantage of left, right, and center.

Universities, on the other hand, all wanted to hire me, but they almost all wanted to cheat me as well, except for the ones in really remote areas with really severe winters and heavy isolation, because they were so desperate they were willing to supply the standard government contract without tinkering with it so that they personally benefited from the personal losses they'd cleverly arranged for me.