There are also the holiday training camps that many teachers have, where they pull in large sums to tutor classes on their subject.

Some schools have ''good luck'' for chukao, zhongkao and gaokao, and the apartments next to those schools are let out for thousands YYYY per month for the students who travel in to that test centre.

Then there are the red envelops to keep little jimmy's or suzy's grades up in the top decile.

More income for the local teachers.

You cannot buy a car on a salary of 3000 a month as local teachers claim they are paid. There are multiple income streams for the locals that need not worry about visa violations, income streams that FTs no longer have access to (they did to some degree pre-2012).

Recently the PSB have become extremely strict about where FT's teach. You cannot, for example, have an invite letter to a school and get your visa through their PSB, and then work anywhere else in China INCLUDING a neighbouring city/county/town where that school is under the jurisdiction of a different PSB.

So this shuffling of teachers by centres puts the teachers in yet another risk category.

training centres may merely use a T.A as a
spy, some (and sadly, still only some) actually have quite professional staff

Yuncheng EV are of the former.

The 22-23 year old girls that are TA's all finished Uni in July the year prior. They work for 18 months, mostly on getting a bf, fiancee and then husband. It's a pure Mrs. Degree. They spend almost all of their time on their smartphone chatting on qq and Wechat working on snagging the richest husband they can get. All the ads say that your TA will help you, give you Chinese lessons, translate for you when you shop - it's all a total lie. They do not know their own town, let alone this new town they are working in that they just moved to. They have no idea how to solve basic problems or find anything.

Chinese, as a rule, do not know anything about the world outside that is more than 200 metres from their home, office or school. It's all a grey foggy mist to them.

They are only there to make sure you don't discuss the 3Ts and to watch what you do, where you go, and with whom.

Also the unwritten rule in Yuncheng is that foreigners are not allowed to purchase utilities independently. They insist upon 'your chinese teacher' to sign for anything and act as a filter on your behaviour. Things like getting a mobile phone, or getting water delivered. There is no law about this - like 99.9 % of China it's an oral unwritten rule.

Your water delivery, btw - that is a main spy source. They enter everyone's house and apt and see who has what possessions.

Your cleaning lady, ayi? Also a spy. She also tells the school. EV, your assistant, the PSB, what you have, what you do, what is in your flat, what you bought, what is on your pc, etc.

Your assistant will then attend the monthly meetings and stand up and tell the collected TA's and company management where you went, who you went with, what you did, who you dated, who your friends are, where you holiday'd, if you show up drunk (which they do not mind, it is a form of control on you. If you are drunk you are not learning about China.) - everything.

Their job is to be a spy - that's all it is at Yuncheng English Village.