Thanks for your best wishes, Turnoi. I won't actually start my new job in a university until next term.

The good thing about having worked in China for a good few years, is that you can can get recommended by teachers whom you've worked alongside before, have moved on to a different gig and tried the place out for you.

When you are job hunting for positions in China, you know you are doing a good job if you find that after a school tells you they really want you, they then go on to suddenly ending all contact with you, because you have been an annoying sod by asking too many questions about what they mean by this or that in the contract, and also you have insisted that they send you contact details of other teachers who have worked for them in the past (teachers who currently work for them are not often reliable, they are pressurised by the likes of Yuming to give a glowing report) basically, companies like Yuming do not at the offset want trouble- makers who insist on them sticking to the contract. Although anybody with an ounce of sense would completely reject the Yuming contract even if it was honoured it, which it won't be.

One of the important things to cross-examine employers about is when they say you get a free flat. You really do want to know what this means. As often as not this means that you will arrive in China exhausted and they will say we have a few flats to show you. They will take you to the flat to meet the landlord-you will then be asked for the deposit, heating money for the entire winter and lots of cash for other things (so arrive with maybe 5000 RMB. The company will then undertake to pay you a rent allowance, usually short of what the rent will be, every month-so, you have to work a month before you get any rent money. The chances are after you have been in the flat for only a couple of days is that the ancient washing machine will give up the ghost- Your employer will have an agreement to recoup this money for the landlord from your first wage packet (900 RMB perhaps) and so your Yuming-type nightmare starts cos there's the telly, the fridge and other appliances all lining up to be renewed or replaced at your expense.

This is not advice for you, Turnoi, I wouldn't presume to try and teach gran to suck eggs.