You'll be aware that Chinese agents will pay you for teaching on their behalf. In contrast, Chinese recruiters take a one-off intro fee, and you are subsequently paid by the school you have been sent to.

It seems that you would have been the victim of 'bait and switch' if you'd have signed up at that other place.

As for Yangshou, it's a tourist trap. Maybe there is more supply than demand for EFL jobs there. It could be that though Buckland tried to find a job for you there, the schools chose other FTs to fill their vacancies.

Anyways, at least you were offered a job, not so bad really when you compare it to the difficulty in Oz ad elsewhere in the West of landing a decent job in these times of austerity.

In order to judge Buckland as to his greed or otherwise, we'll need to know what the deal at that other school was in terms of salary and total package compared to clock hours per week taught. With said info, I can calculate Buckland's commission fairly accurately. So, please go into more detail.

I'd say that recruiters in the PRC take 10-20% of an FT's total employment package, and agents should take the same.

Finally, I'd advise others who come to China to teach to be more flexible as to where they will accept teaching vacancies.