I should mention one terrible thing that happened to me while I was teaching at a college with a 'back-dated Z visa' conversion from L.I had supplied the college waiban with originals of my degree,teacher-training college certificate and enhanced disclosure police check,as requested.Guess what,the only one I was ever able to get back was my degree!There were not even any photocopies taken of the other two.The college waiban,who was a Christian,then defended herself by stating that I had only given her my degree.I told the college president that whatever others said I knew the true situation.Then I cursed them all.
Not too long after that another foreign teacher who happened to be my hometown fellow arrived.He submitted a lawyer's letter written by his solicitor.It stated that he was a person of good character who had never been in serious trouble with the police.It was accepted by the provincial education office!They issued a foreign experts' certificate to him.But not long after he started teaching,he was touching the more beautiful of his freshers.My students said that he was a 'toucher',not a teacher.I pointed out that there was no such word in English,but the meaning was clear.Because the girl students in his class were afraid of the old man,it was not long before they all moved to the back of their classroom.He was into kissing girl students' and women's hands,so my wife always wore gloves when she knew she would be meeting him.One morning he was drunk in class and mooned to his students.Not surprisingly there was a mass exodus of his students to the college president's office.A little later he was hauled over the coals,but not fired!A few days after,I learned that the old rascal only had a certificate for taking 2 night class subjects,and had been a farmer!At the end of the academic year the old man was invited to the college end-of-term lunch.He brought a young Chinese woman who smoked and drank excessively wit him.I could only assume her to be a 'lady of the night'.During the meal he collapsed onto the floor as he was much the worse for wear.His lady friend and I helped him get home in one piece. Because of what had happened to me re my certificates earlier,I had no sympathy whatsoever for the college.Quite the contrary,I had a good laugh about everything.They had got their just desserts!

Dear Turnoi,

I know that this is off-topic too,but I think it'll be of interest to many foreign teachers working in China.What is in quotation marks is a copy of an e-mail I sent to my recruiter,X,after being offered a teaching contract by a school in Y after arriving at Y and teaching for almost 2 weeks in Y.The school had initially offered me a job knowing full well that I have a long-term L visa because of my marriage to a Chinese national.There is another foreign teacher here who had also been duped by initially being shown a contract that was different from the actual one.He is not angry about it.By the way,he had 'converted' to a Z here in the provincial capital,Y, 6 months ago.But I'll be damned if I'll convert here given what has already happened in a relatively short space of time - probably won't be able to anyway.My wife heard that the school had been let down by an Australian who failed to arrive on the 1st of September.That's why they had to resort to me!Last but not least I e-mailed a copy of the e-mail below to the school waiban.Needless to say she has told me a pack of lies in an attempt to appease me!

"Dear X,
What is not so good is that:

a)the school's contract received by me from you did not contain the two parts detailing the probationary period of 60 days,and that 70% of my students should like my classes.
b)the contract via you was for 2 terms of teaching,but the one they offer me here is just for 1 term of teaching.

So the school has changed the terms and conditions of the contract which was originally offered to me through you,even though I agreed to teach 22 classes a week instead of the 18 on the original contract!

But I'm happier with a 1-term contract because:

a)Y will be very hot in summer,resulting in the buying of food,as indeed the teaching,being very tiring during the 2nd term.

b)my students are in big classes,which are more difficult to teach than small classes would be.

c)rather a lot of the students are non-English majors with very low levels of English.

I'll sign the contract despite it being clear that the school doesn't trust me.

Yours sincerely,

Foxy."