@tigertiger, thanks for that advice. I think we should all be more prepared to stand our ground in terms of our demands to ensure we are adequately compensated for our time, and ultimately, the students get what they pay for...after all, this is what we assume the students would like to achieve.

I would also say be wary of university students claiming to be "paying for their lessons by themselves", because usually that's a sneeky way of saying "I don't have much money, maybe you could even teach me for free if you prefer"...umm no. But I did teach a nice little girl who was majoring in Lao, a major which i find a little odd, incidentally, I can also speak some of that language, but I digress. Anyway, while she was a very attentive student, there was a miscommunication with my friends who referred her to me, and in the end i got only 210 Yuan for like 5-6 hours of teaching...far, far too low, but after a while she ran out of money and stopped coming (no surprises there, and given she will be going to Laos for one year as part of her degree, her parents probably don't have a lot of money to spare for other things, on the other hand, she can easily find plenty of westerners over there to practice English with, given the large numbers of tourists and expats there).

Lastly, would you recommend drawing up your own contract, or perhaps using a law firm or just a Chinese friend to help write up a contract that can be mutually adhered to? I was wondering for the sake of giving private lessons in the future.

Some good posts here...valuable advice too.

After teaching for one semester at a university in Kunming in the second half of 2010 (before I even came to China, I was given the silent treatment and later on found out I didn't get the original one year contract due to the fact I don't possess a TEFL certificate, even though I have 2 degrees and a number of years of teaching experience) I found myself teaching mostly private students.

In some cases the money was a bit on the low side (usually only 100 an hour, but I did accept this at first, now i know that's much too low) although I always received my pay after the end of the lesson, however, private lessons are notoriously unreliable because they usually end after only a few weeks at most unless you do what has been suggested above. I can't begin to tell you how frustrated I've become, when after I did everything right and looking forward to getting my pay I would receive a last minute phone call that my lesson was cancelled. In one case earlier this year, the manager of a company that I was teaching business English to suddenly became "too busy" and after only around 10-12 hours of teaching he stopped communication and I knew there would be no more lessons. This kind of behavior is typical. I try my best to cater to my student's needs but if they treat me with this kind of disrespect then I have little desire to continue private teaching as a worthwhile way of making a few extra bucks in addition to my main form of income.

Hi lovesiwo, I might also be moving to Chengdu in a month or so. I was thinking the same thing as you; although I might still go for a plane since I am concerned about safety and until the fast train is completed between Kunming and Chengdu, the thought of having to be constantly on guard against theft for 19 hours (or however long it takes) is a bit nerve wracking. Also, I can easily justify the increased expense of one flight just to be assured that I probably won't be the victim of theft.

On the other hand, I have no experience of rail travel in China (except on the exceptional Shanghai Maglev) but riding on the Vietnamese train up to Lao Cai near the Chinese border a few times was always very safe in my opinion. I have heard they can be compared to the normal Chinese trains, except they don't have the crushing crowds in VN (be very careful when you board your train).

It's interesting though that Kunming has mostly Asian foreigners rather than the western foreigners you see in most other parts of South-East Asia. It gives it more of that traditional Chinese (or local) feel than other parts of Asia.

BTW that report (above) is what I am basing my figures on. Yes, so 47000ish is the number i read too. So both Chinadaily.com and the gokunming article have the same figures (probably the same source).

Some people on this thread have said that east coast cities have hundreds of thousands of Koreans and Japanese, and a successful American entrepeneur in Kunming told me that 2-3 million foreigners live in Shanghai alone. If that's the case, then how can there only be 3/4 million foreigners in all of China (according to the report)? I believe more credible figures are 300,000 foreigners IN TOTAL in Shanghai, and perhaps the 3/4 million figure for all of China is indeed correct, but seems very very low for a country that is so important for the world's economy.

On the other hand, I have read claims that there are about 55 million foreign tourists (basically everyone who is a temporary entrant for whatever purpose and for a short term stay) coming to China every year, but where are these people (I certainly haven't seen many of them)? I saw quite a few foreigners in Shanghai, but not any more than what you'd normally see in Bangkok, Hanoi, Saigon, Phnom Penh or Singapore on any given day. And as for Kunming, well, we all know that you can walk through downtown and you'll be hard pressed seeing more than a couple of foreigners at any one time.

WTF? How stupid are these kids? You should tell them to go fuck themselves (ok so they're just kids, but this kind of racism is unacceptable). I think you should stand your ground and tell their parents that racist insults are unacceptable.

Incidentally, I only have good things to say about my neighborhood. Sure, you get the occassional shouting match down in the street below, but since that street is more of a back alley with only a small amount of truck traffic and since the yelling isn't heard so well once you're 9 stories up, it is rarely a burden. Also, it is dead silent at night...and I have never heard anything from the neighbors (mind you, my place is nice and modern, only 3-4 years old). I used to have an expat neighbor but unfortunately he moved to another part of town and now I have these weird Chinese neighbors instead, although I can't hear them when I'm sleeping either; but they do like to yell sometimes (during the day).

The one annoying thing that has happened (only once) was a resident's car alarm that was on ALL NIGHT. It was infuriating, that sound, that horrible sound. I can't remember if anyone complained, but i don't think residents were happy, particularly the ones closest to the alarm (I wasn't as badly affected, but even with my window and bedroom door closed i could still hear it).

Personally I've found noise in residential areas far more of a problem in South-East Asia than China. Whether it's those 5am "Good Morning Vietnam" wake-up calls, where a car or motorcycle with an amplified stereo churns out some kind of communist rhetoric at the highest possible volume, the weddings in rural Thailand that play country music (mor-lam) until 1am, the roar of motorcycles, people talking with their neighbors etc. plus the calls to prayer in Malaysia you just don't get that in China (at least I haven't experienced it yet).