I read this board quite a lot, and it seems that China causes a lot of people a lot of problems.

I've been here for 2 years and i will shortly be going back to my own country. My advice for anybody thinking of coming to China is that you should do a lot of thinking and reading before you get here:

Firstly, i would advise you to work for a public school or college because at least some regulation of them exists (we are talking about China!). Even here though, you must be very, very careful, as the definition of a contract differs greatly between the West and China. For example, during an argument between some of the foreign teachers and the head of the FAO in the first college that i worked for in China, the head of the FAO said:
"But a contract is an abstract document; it is not concrete!"
Personally, I would not work for a language school, unless it was well known - and certainly not for some place run by one bloke in Dirtsville.

Secondly, you will also experience some truly bizarre and hair pulling moments. I'm a fairly mild individual and i've been reduced to screaming at the "head" of the FAO in one of the colleges that i worked because of their unhappiness with the fact i was dating a Chinese member of staff.

Thirdly, things that take about 5 minutes in the West take days/weeks in China (try to exchange currency or send money from China and you'll see what i mean).

Fourthly, you can save money, but, the only way that you're going to live on 400 RMB as some of the adverts that i've seen on this page claim you can is if you live like a Chinese person. Some people may think this is fine, but I can't say that i've been convinced by the claim that a lot of Chinese people make that:
"Chinese food is the most delicious food in the world".
Personally, i think a lot of it is pretty awful, but we all have different tastes.

Finally, you will have a lot of good times in China and meet some good Chinese people. I've also had some great students. However, i wouldn't trust the people that run the colleges as far as i could thrown them. If you do have any problems then make sure that you contact the State Bureau of Foreign Affairs and your embassy..