Hi Terry. Hey man, you don't need to do it. Even if you bought the ticket, you don't need to go through with it. I recently heard a horror story about Jinan. Are you absolutely sure it's NOT a vocational school, and that the students are real students who got in on their merit and not on their parent's money.

4,200 is almost as low as it gets. I made that 3 years ago to teach 14 hours a week, and was also paid for 12 months. THAT was the standard government contract at the time. Chinese teachers with Master's degrees should be making more than that. They were making 5,000 where I was. So, I wonder how many hours you have, and whether you have a 10 or 12 month contract. Flight reimbursement? Do you have to do English Corners for free on top of your schedule? How many different subjects will you be teaching. Those are all things to take into consideration.

Likely you will get some serious lung infections. Also, unless it's a newly built school, you'll probably get those squat toilets as well.

None of that means you won't have a very positive experience. But, you are precisely correct about why foreign teachers need to make more money than the locals. It's because we come from a different economy, and will return to it one day. This ain't charity. One can cope with low wages, but when they dip below one's Chinese counterparts, that is a pisser.

Your contract should allow to to bail out at any point with a one month notice. If you don't happen to fall in love, or find yourself in one of the increasingly rare fair scenarios where everything is going fine (and that's STILL very possible, and some of the people on this thread have found such cushy niches for themselves I think), make some excuse and bail. I would use family illness as an excuse. You can forge a doctors note if necessary. Even if they were inclined to call your country to check, they'd probably be too cheap to make the phone call. Besides, you can get any friend to pretend to be a doctor over the phone, but it will never come to that. Just serve up the lie and that's that.

IF the shit hits the fan, or if you change you mind now, scoot over to neighboring Vietnam or Cambodia. You can always find work in those countries, though in Cambodia it's only in Phnom Phen (sp?). I think you can find work in Saigon almost instantly. There were training schools there everywhere. Visas are not really a problem in either country, especially Cambodia, as you can get a year visa that you can teach on for $230 going into the country. That could be a back-up plan.

If things are getting dark in the winter, and you're gacking up loogies and choaking them back down while trying to teach, and people are playing you like a tool, get the hey outta' there.

I think, however, that you have about a 65% chance of things being quite to your liking. Probably 80% change it's tolerable. And then there's the 20% chance it sucks. And then there's a 15% chance it's a nightmare.

Actually, I sorta' regret giving you things to worry about, because it's not really helpful. So I'm going to throw in one tip that might help you through the winter there. As soon as you start getting a tickle in your throat, start gargling with vinegar. The acid in the vinegar kills the bacteria on contact. I found doing this as much as necessary (could be as much as 5-6 times a day) in the initial phase of exposure, which usually showed up in the throat, killed that crap before I'd get yet another month long lung infection, of which I've had at least 8 or 9 while in China (that doesn't include regular colds).

So, again, best of luck to you. I believe you'll be fine. And now maybe you have some back up plans so if the shit hits the fan you don't just have to sit in your cell and get pelted full on in the face. You can turn that fan around on them and let them wallow in a shit-storm when you bail out, and they have no replacement.

Cheers