Been teaching in China for years and haven't heard of new life. I will give you some advice however.

Recruiting agencies take anywhere from 60 to 30% of a cut from your wage. It's best to try to go through a school directly. You "have to" negotiate", don't take no for an answer.

If they offer you to work on and l or F visa, "don't do it", that's illegal and if you're caught you're deported. You want a Z visa. If you get into any kind of trouble you have no legal rights. Ask them for e-mail or phone numbers of current foreign employees to get their side of the story. Ask them what school they will be placing you too, the name and address and look them up to see if there are any reviews about them. (if they don't, you're going in blindly and at your own risk). Other useful pieces of information that you might want is their Ministry of education registration number and SAIC number. I can tell you now, they will not have these two numbers or they will give you a fake. Since many and I mean many recruiters aren't registered. If you do decide to go through them, make sure you get the owners Chinese name and identification number or a copy of his ID. Once again, they will refuse, but ... if you show from the start that you are smart and are careful and doing your homework, they might think twice about messing with you. Many companies just change their names to get away from bad reviews. But they can't run away from their real name and real Chinese name. This is something for all esl teachers to consider. Any experienced ESL teacher in China has gone through some sort of shady company of school or dealt with crap. So I can't stress it enough do your homework before you go and don't take no for an answer. Can't stress enough also to "Negotiate". Good luck and please post about the company once you know more about them.