I just want to add a story similar to this one about the school that I am working at here in north central China. This also happened to one of the Chinese teachers that were working at my school. She had to return to her home because her grandmother had taken ill and the school with held her last months pay check from her. They too felt that this was no reason for her to leave their employ and were put out with her leaving. So this happens to everyone here in China regardless if they are a foreign national or Chinese national. Many of these schools will go to any length to illegally take money from the staff as the court system here do not work the way they do in western countries or as we know. It is also very expensive for a Chinese teacher to come up with the money required to take this matter to court. So one of the ways to try to protect yourself is to request/demand the email address and or phone number of past and present teachers at a school that you may be considering teaching at.