Don't fall for the foreign staff who offer to answer your questions. They get paid extra to write canned responses to interested applicants and leave positive reviews on websites like the Beijinger and CityWeekend.

Some extremely naive posters, even those considering themselves to be China old hands, have recently posted that newbies applying for teaching positions in China ask potential employers to provide them with e-mail addresses of present or former foreign teachers who are working or have worked there, respectively. Such posters would be better to delete their posts. They are givuing the rest of us bum advice.
As it would obviously be in an employer's interest to paint a rosy picture of his workplace to encourage job applicants to sign up there, he will bribe rogue foreigners to tell lies, either with cash or with favors from pink room gals or with good dinners. Don't trust what other laowai say about particular workplaces unless you happen to know them very well! Beware of laowai scum in China. They won't think twice before helping unscrupulous Chinese employers dupe other laowai into attracting foreign teachers to their workplaces.