I don't think this school should still be allowed to operate, I my self made some poor judgement decisions, I would like to share them to make sure others see warning signs and do not get themselves into the same pickle.

I applied to the school through an ad on an ESL web sight, The school responded promptly asking for an interview, when the the interview took place I was only asked one question:" when can you come?" I though it was strange they didn't ask about previous experience, why I wanted to come to China or any other standard interview questions, they just said they really needed teachers and that I should come ASAP.

In order to begin work ASAP I was advised to come in on a tourist visa, the school said that to get the correct documents to the UK would take 4 - 6 months and that it was much faster to do it from China. They also said that they would fly me to Hong Kong to process the paperwork once it was ready and it would be ready by the time my tourist visa was up.

-This is where I should have realised it was a scam, you should never leave your country without the correct working papers, a school that says otherwise is not legit. the fact that they were so eager to get me there was another alert I should have registered -

On arrival I was taken to a hotel in which the school paid for 2 nights, the girl who was supposed to show me apartments was too busy for 3 days so I ended up having to fork out for 3 more nights in the hotel. When she eventually did have time she showed me 2 apartments and said I had to choose they were bother really expensive 2800 for 16 m2 one of them didn't even have a western toilet.

- Later it was uncovered that this girl had been running her own scam, she was renting apartments way-over what the landlord was asking and pocketing the difference, when caught out she pulled a runner.

The school oversaw the signing of the lease and I was told that the standard contract was 3 months up front plus one months rent deposit then in one months time another 3 months rent, that is almost 20000CNY/ 2000 pounds in one month, before even receiving your first salary which is only 1000 CNY for a 2 week training period. But I was not to worry they said, the school would lend me the money and I could pay them off over a 4 month period.

- I later found out this is how they tied you to the school without any money how can you leave, they had even been known to take teachers passports a security deposits, so you literally cannot leave the country. I also know now that this is not a standard contract in China some landlords do ask for 3 months upfront but you can negotiate, just be very careful who you rent the apartment from as many of the agencies are also skimming off of your monthly rent-

I was then to learn that all the teachers were on F visas, all had been spun the same story about obtaining legal working documents and none of them had got any, the school kept saying that the laws had changed.

- In order to work legally in China you need a Z visa, there is no other type of visa that you can use! X visa is for students, F is for someone on business from another country and an L visa is for tourists.

The school taxed all the teachers which makes no sense since none of us were working legally. This tax wildly fluctuated from 400 - 1000CNY a month. Then the school would find any excuse to deduct money from you, "you were productive enough in office hours, a parent made a complaint", if you were sick its 500CNY a day deduction, even if you only usually taught 1 class, if the school closed for a holiday 500CNY a day deduction, it was endless. How are you ever to pay back the debt to the school.

One day while we were all in class the teachers office was robbed , bags and purses were emptied and the " robbers" got away with thousands, the police were called in, took a couple of statements and that was the end.... sound suspicious?

While I was working there the school went through 7 foreign teachers and 12 Chinese staff. It turned out the management was even extorting the Chinese staff one of my teaching assistance had a break down when, after woking 70 hours a week for 4 weeks straight during the summer holidays, no days off, she received a pay check of 450CNY ( four hundred and fifty )

There were so many breaches of the contract that they initially sent we lost count, paid holidays, flight allowances, over time pay, taxi reimbursements, number of teaching hours.... but there is no one to report any of it to especially since you are working illegally, you yourself can be fined a huge sum and deported so what are you to do?

- Its a really bad situation to get yourself into, it only got worse and worse, never allow your self to be in debt to the school and come with enough money to get your self out in case things go pair shaped.-

-I have learnt a lot from this awful experience and I hope that if you read this it will prevent you from actually having to go through this to learn the lessons. You think I know the scams out there, when I Googled the school in 2014 there were no complaints up, Its good to see that has changed, things just got out of hand so quickly, your so overwhelmed with culture shock its easy for people to take advantage of you.