For the sake of anonymity I will confirm I work for YEV but don't want to give my name.

I started working for them in late November last year. I'm only holding out to finish my contract and even then it is 50/50 as to whether they pay me what they owe.

Simply, they are as slippery as oil to work with and as dodgy as they come. I needed a job at the time and they served that purpose (however I escaped from one frying pan and jumped into a bigger one). They do give you a contract but it has more holes in it that a sieve and is largely in their favour. Don't expect to be paid for any holidays other than their 1,000 travelling allowances which they make a big song and dance about giving you and expect to be paid the bare minimum they can get away with. Also if you have to do a Hong Kong visa run, expect to be funding it yourself.

I did eventually get to go to Hong Kong following one extension in Qingdao (again at my expense). Not only did I have to pay for all of it they even deducted my salary for the week I was there. Fair enough, I took that on the chin. At least I was getting a z visa. When I returned to Yuncheng, I found that in my absence my few things had been packed away and stored at the office and that I had been relocated from Yuncheng city to a county an hours bus ride away.

On the exact thirtieth day of being back, Helen from EV and some other person who I don't know showed up at my door at 7.30 am and said pack your stuff you are going to another school. (It transpired that the school where I was, I don't wish to say which, had decided to no longer retain foreigners due to the hassles). I was then shunted to another county and left passportless while they took my passport to be processed for the resident permit.

After a month, I politely asked about my passport. It was still 'in process'. Six weeks, still no news. I was starting to get cabin fever and also pissed off so I went to the office and demanded answers. I didn't really get any. After the second month, I got so fed up I called my embassy. They called EV and the PSB. The PSB said EV had had my passport already over a month. I was livid. I got it back the next day, no apology or anything.

They do shunt teachers around and certainly since the beginning of this semester have had major hassles in recruiting new teachers. The polish couple someone mentioned on here are no longer with EV as they were told that they would be unable to be got a z visa and they elected to leave of their own accord. One school (I think it is Linyi) refused to have foreigners teaching there who were not on a z visa and so is having a stream of stand in teachers which EV are pooling from their ever dwindling teachers. I was asked to go there but refused as it is simply too far for me.

I was in Yuncheng last weekend and met another foreigner who works for another school who is nothing to do with EV and it appears like night and day. What he said about the way he is treated and other stuff literally is the total opposite.

From me, I am counting the days until 7th November. I have another job lined up. I shall just chalk this up as experience, as I said it has served its purpose but working for YEV, you put all your eggs in their basket and you will get scrambled.

Yuncheng itself is not so bad. The counties, well they are backwaters and have all the baggage that goes with living in such places.

Would I say stay away? Yes to EV. To Yuncheng, No.