3&3 Phoenix International Bilingual Kindergarten-YIWU, ZHEJIANG PROVINCE, CHINA
-a sorrowful experience

Yiwu is a ludicrous place where beggars in the downtown area practically attack you. There is a big Muslim community and many Muslim restaurants, so you can find decent food. The Turkish restaurant is the place where we had our best meals in China. If you need western ingredients and eat bread, forget about it. You can, although, find (almost) everything you might need in Hangzhou (a three hour train ride northward).
The unemployment in the city is very high, so watch your back. Also, marvel at the use of bars on the 7th floor windows and mansards around this gritty city.
The kindergarten is situated next to the municipal courthouse and employment center, giving you the ability to gauge the level of employment by the crowds. Exiting the compound in which the kindergarten is enclosed presents three option: the beforehand-mentioned crowds of urbanized peasants, the bus station (you know how these are in China) or a brisk walk outside the gates and onto a tertiary roadway. Unsurprisingly, the third was our more frequent choice.
The decorations inside the kindergarten itself are incredibly kitsch, on the same wall you can find Leonardo de Vincis portrait next to that of Placido Domingos, and other famous western faces. Einstein is written as Einstain, spelling mistakes abound. In other words: an occidental miscellany borne of conceitedly smug and contentedly oblivious Chinese minds.
Our saga with this Taiwanese-owned outfit began, of course, through email and phone conversations. We were assured that the school was in perfect legal right to offer us all proper documents pertaining to our employment. As you can guess, things were not as advertised.
Although our main grievances were engendered by their inability to provide legal status, we must mention the teaching conditions.
Remember, this is a kindergarten destined for children of the extremely well-to-do parents in Yiwu, mostly involved in the exportation of goods.
The kids, of course, have to do their business by squatting over the ditch/ traditional Chinese trench. Some of them are too small, so they put their hands in the filthy canals. As you probably know, hand-washing in China is treated with disdain, and the personnel in this school are no exception.
The food that is not finished during a meal or that slops onto the tables is collected and used later or the next day by the kitchen staff.
The living conditions in the apartment they provide (which is located on the roof of the school and adjacent to the Chinese teachers) can be described as adequate at best. Adequate, that is, if you happen to be a Chinese peasant.
There is no kitchen (he had to plead for two months to get a gas burner), so forget about cooking something at home. Every morning you have some childrens music blaring. Forget about getting some decent rest when you have to listen to the same CD 4 hours a day. You are subject to auditory torture every day.
These were by far the most unpleasant living conditions we ever experienced. At times, the temperature reached 5C in our living area: we could see our breath. Of course, we tried to heat and were handed huge electricity bills. Even with the heat on full blast 24/7 we couldnt keep the place warm. For some reason it is hard to heat a concrete room with 11 feet ceilings and inch thick tile flooring.
The air conditioner provided and the heater that we bought were not enough to heat the rooms, and as you can surmise, it was impossible to take a shower. We slept with two pairs of trousers, winter socks, tuques, sometimes even gloves. We were ill all the time, coughing and sneezing. The conditions in the school were similar. We were teaching in our winter coats and gloves/mittens.
Living next to the Chinese assistants was another extremely unpleasant aspect. They used to come back from pubs late in the night (midnight) while talking loudly and making noise stomping up the steps like wildebeest.
One afternoon, a group of teachers burst into our apartment (we were told that we had the only key!), literally opening the door and walked into out bedroom by mistake. We were shocked. For many weeks, we simply couldnt get rid of their image (four people!) in our apartment, while for them, this was funny.
Payday was always a hassle. We had to ask for the salary all the time, because it was never ready on the day of the payment. Usually, they were completely shocked that we demanded remuneration for our work. Someone had to rush to the bank to get the money owed to us. One very wise thing that we did is absolutely INSIST that we receive our money each two weeks instead of each month
We had to ask for the holiday money before the holiday, because they wanted to give it to us after we returned. Even so, they gave us only part of our wage.
Our contact with this school began as such: a certain F. contacted us and she assured us that the school can provide legal documents.
We sent her our resident permits and passports in order to start the procedures and we sent our belongings in about 30 boxes. When we arrived in Yiwu, we saw nothing of the city that she had described (you can find foreign food here, she ensured us) and soon found out how they had treated the renewal of our residence permit: our documents were kept in a drawer!!! Never mind that we insisted on the fact that we will not work without legal status and send out documents through EMS so that they can begin the processing, the school didnt do anything.
Upon our arrival, we met the owner, A. (who speaks not a word English) and that moment A. found out that we had sent the documents before our arrival and that our permits were to expire the next day.
It was afternoon and we went to a school to try to do something (what? we never really understood). Eventually, they gave us a solution: we would go to Hong Kong and get a tourist visa, to give them time to process the documents. They paid the plane tickets and we had to take care of all the other expenses.
We were incredibly frightened about these illegal proceedings. We went to Shangahi and our permits were expired already (5 days). The Chinese officer was kind and said that next time, we must be careful. Well never forget those moments. But those moments were only the beginning of what was to come!
We came back to Yiwu with a one month visa, gave them the passports and waited, waited, waited. Waited.
They kept telling us that the documents were being processed, and that everything was almost ready. Before the winter holiday, we were told that only the health check must be done, all the rest was ready. Like people with good will (or like idiots), we believed them.
After the winter holiday, we had to go to Hong Kong again. This time, we got a 3 months visa and came back. In March, the police caught school and discovered that they hire foreign teachers illegally.
We were detained and interrogated at the police station for 12 hours. After 12 hours, we were given a 1,000RMB fine each (the maximum fine permissible by law) and the school got a 20,000RMB fine (the minimum).
The next day, one of us was asked to leave China in 10 days!!!
Why? We dont know.
According to the Chinese law, the owner of the school has to pay all the expenses incurred by the repatriation of the foreigner. The school didnt pay anything!!!
The day after our episode with the law, the school was suddenly able to get Foreign Expert Certificated for us. Presumable, they had always had the ability to grant us the proper documents, just that is was cheaper for them to shell out a few thousand yuan for our tickets than bribe the right person.

Completely disgusted by their behaviour and of course sill untrusting, we were fed up and expressed our desire to leave they country.
We were asked to vacate the apartment immediately. We gathered our most important belongings and send them back home via China post. One of us made frequent runs to the post office while the other sorted our things at home. At one point, there were quite a few objects waiting outside our door, some of which our honourable Chinese neighbors proceeded to loot.
What we could not send through the mail (the majority of nearly three years worth of living), we transported down four flights of stair to the local rubbish heap. Soon thereafter the local hyenas swarmed upon of mound of stuff (clothing, beddings, pillows, an oven, pots and pans, electric kettle, DVD, tape recorder with CD player, decorative objects, expensive foreign food bought in Hangzhou, shelves, bamboo furniture, electric blankets, curtain, arts and crafts material, dishes and many, many other things) We wanted to leave NOTHING to the school.
We worked like this all day until 3 a.m., went to a hotel, left Yiwu the next day, bought our plane tickets and left China.
Things like this happen because such schools are not afraid of anything.
The foreigners are being used and punished, while the real wrongdoers are being tolerated.
Our last months overshadowed our previous period of living in China. To leave a country in such conditions is a shame for those who are responsible for this.
The local PSB doesnt care about the schools legality. But if they catch you, the foreigner, than watch out unless your boss is not a very close friend of the PSB officer
And this wasnt our case.
The officer didnt enforce the law to its full extent (the school pays for all the expenses determined by the expatriation of the foreigner). He didnt care about the history of the school and he didnt ask for information about the F. person who contacted us, in the name of the school, that person KNOWING that the school is illegal and being responsible for our presence in the school.
There was one decent person in that school, a person called Mary. She was ashamed of what the school did to us and felt guilty. The person called A. kept asking us, until the last moment, to stay. Who could continue living in a place like that? After all the obstacles we had to go through?
We ended up by thinking that she is mentally unbalanced
What is beyond our understanding is that, after the whole situation was revealed to the PSB, the school was not requested to cease its activity.
Frequently, when a school turns into one with a flawed reputation, they change their name and continue with their uncivilized scheme.
When is this masquerade going to end?

Mabel and Claude Gordon
Canada, Vancouver
gordonfamily2005@yahoo.ca