I have to say that i am surprised by these posts. I worked for yuming for a year but iwas sure to sign six month contracts so I was not obligated during the summer months. I was also gladly given a reference letter at the end of my stay. It is true that the T.A's were generally of little use except as crowd control. any one with any sense will know on looking at the contract that you should procure your own apartment all this involves is knowing a chinese person who is willing to help. I never had a problem getting paid whats more i was given allot of help. The school itself is just an arrangement to send teachers to schools throughout tianjin. Maybe they have loaded up on teachers and now dont have enough work to dole out, but when I work there i generally was paid around 10k a month. I was treated as if I was valuable to them, and people gave me help i certainly did not get the impression i was being spied on. One thing of note is psbs pressence in tianjin is quite strong and the company certainly has ties there, however im sure that most succesful buisnesses in tianjin do, this can actually be beneficial to you if you have visa problems. One problem is that you will almost certainly have to teach at multiple schools which can be tiring and if you take taxis, which you will probably want to, costly. I dont know how the situation has changed but if you do decide to work there sign a six month contract form september through february or. if you sign at the begging of a school year thet will undoutably have more hours for you and if you have teaching experience and they no this you are also likely to be given more work. I have to say i have dealt a fair amount of crap teaching in china especially with whole olympics fiasco but very little of that was in any way the product of yumming. your not going to make fourteen grand a month, if you want to do that go to korea. This is a good place to get experience as a teacher and an easy place to get a job. What has been going on there within the last two years especially in regards to a foreign experts certificate is beyond me, it iused to be much easier to work on a buisness visa I dont know how much this has changed.