Offensive? Aww and I didn't get get to my joke about the pandas and the dolphins. I guess that means something must have struck a cord with you. Hahaha. Well thanks for "countering" my post.

I don't even see why you're arguing with me. You're using the words "private school" and "Aston" interchangeably. So you've had a/some bad experience(s)? Good for you! Hope you learned from it. Just don't knock every Aston out there.

There's no point in really "countering" your statements (but I'll have to do so a bit anyway). I've witnessed enough of this stuff first hand to know that Chinese people are very friendly and nice, but when it comes to business they'll get away with whatever they can if there's some benefit in it for them. I'd say most people are like that in general, but workers rights are better in the US so it's pretty hard for people to cross the same lines.

Public schools will screw you over too. But it comes down to the "it's harder" to screw you over. I've seen it happen with 6 people from England at a local University.

My post isn't "Aston is awesome". It's Aston *can be* awesome if you're not smart. You're stupid if you don't do the (simple) little things to protect yourself. "I'm sorry you got pwned, but you walked right into that cave full of lions with sausages strapped to your body." I feel bad for murder victims, but I also feel like it was a dumb idea to get into that car with a stranger at 2 am. So when someone complains and I say "Bummer, didn't you research this city at all" and they say no I just laugh and say "Well what did you expect." Bad ideas shouldn't be reinforced. If this were a completely one sided thing I'd be with you. But it happens to the Chinese workers at school too.. the only difference is the whole Visa, passport, deportation thing isn't an issue for them. They're usually treated worse than we are!

Jumping into another country without any real knowledge of who or what you're working for is a very bad idea. I'll admit that most people aren't going to realize that it can be very dog eat dog with private schools here, but the simple things you can do to are in fact, so simple, that you should do them regardless of what company you're going to work for... if you want to have a fun time in China.