When coming to China most teacher will suffer from "culture shock". The main obstacle will be the language barrier, which is particularly opaque even for teachers who've been in country for more than a year. Chinese is just an incredibly difficult language to get very good at.

At first, one will be faced with the language barrier, the different customs, the inferior hygiene (the shock of the WC!), the housing which may be on caliber with a crack den in the West, foods one's stomach is not accustomed to, being pointed at and constantly reminded one is a "lao wai" or "wai guo ren", difficulty in doing the simplest things such as buying a bus ticket, and the inevitable string of overpowering lung infections if one happens to have the misfortune of working with children (as regards the disbelief in germs and resultant easy spread of communicable diseases)

When one is in this delicate adaptation phase, and one might need a helping hand, how will schools and employers generally respond? Some, somewhere mind you I've not heard of them but they simply MUST exist will take this into consideration and ease one into one's new career and living situation: providing quality Chinese lessons that attack the most basic and practical language first; maps in English so one can find one's way around; a few days of orientation in which people will show you around your new environment and introduce you to some decent restaurants and grocery stores

The reality is something different. At one end there's complete indifference to your situation of "culture shock," or shall we just say being immersed in an unfamiliar environment in which one is hardly able to function (again, because of the nearly complete language barrier): at the other end is the deliberate, calculated, opportunistic and dare I say predatory attempt to exploit the green foreigner at just such a vulnerable time in his or her life. Yes, this is the time to try to ask the new teacher to do extra hours, to give private lessons to the boss's relations, or to serve up an alternate contract to the original or the standard contract. Once those hooks are in the new teacher may never be able to free his or herself from them.

I guess I don't need to say that this sort of behavior on the part of administrators in schools is despicable. Curiously, the "golden rule" of "do onto others" somehow is not even given lip service when it comes to business in China. Also, as a foreigner, you are considered incomparably wealthy, and hence it is perfectly justifiable to cheat you of a small fraction of your perceived infinite funds (even if in reality you spend the last of them to come to China and start working for a school).

To avoid this, one should try to learn a bit of the language before arriving, should familiarize oneself with standard contracts, and if possible to arrive with enough money to go back home or somewhere else if the school turns out to be sleazy. The one card we hold is the ability to bail out and leave them in the lurch, but one has to be willing to play that card and follow through, in which case it's an Ace.