hi. I am an american and i have been living and teaching English in beijing for over a year and a half. the salary you can expect for teaching english in Beijing is around 10,000 rmb per month at most english training schools if you are fulltime. fulltime usually means around 25 teaching hours per week and some additional office hours. if you decide to teach part time, you can usually expect between 100 and 150 rmb per hour. it does not matter how much experience you have, and it really does not matter if you are a degree holder or not. I have a legitimate master's degree from america in teaching english and it has never made a significant difference in my salary rate. I commonly work with teachers that have no experience and no teaching degree and they make the same salary as i do. You can try to get into a university, but most of those jobs are already taken by beijing lifetime foreigners that stay in their positions for many years.

Most schools will hire you especially if you are a native English speaker. There is also a very high demand in China for english teachers that are female and white...especially for children. If you teach kindergarten here, expect to encounter tiger parents that have unrealistic expectations for their babies. If you teach at a kindergarten, you can usually expect a slightly higher salary per month. however, expect constant critisism from parents because they feel that their "exceptionally brilliant little angel" is not making progress. My advice is that unless you really love children, stay away from kindergartens. You will notice when you get here that there is a kindergarten on every corner and they are always looking for foreign teachers because most foreigners do not want to teach at kindergartens.

As far as rent rates go, expect to pay around 3000, rmb for a halfway decent one bedroom flat in most parts of beijing. if you are willing to live with roomates, then you can usually get by for around 1500 to 2000 rmb per month. If you cannot spend around 2000 per month for rent, then you will have to settle for a place that will remind you of living in a cramped, dirty, homeless shelter, and those are the nicer places.

As far as utilities go water is very cheap, expect to pay around 20 rmb per month for one person. power will cost you around 40 rmb per month and a bit more if you use your air conditioner. Gas is also cheap, expect to pay around 15 or 20 rmb per month.

If you can pull in a stable income of around 10,000 rmb per month in beijing, you should be able to live very comfortably and still have plenty of money to play with.

as far as taxes, currently you can expect to have around 650 rmb per month taken from a salary of 10,000 per month. however, forget about chinese taxes. You will not need to worry about this. most employers you will work for will pay you cash and claim they have already taken the taxes from your salary. it is hard to know if this is true or not, you just have to let them handle this. Each training center or school has their own system for handling chinese tax laws and trying to understand them will be impossible and a waste of your time. paying chinese taxes is the complete responsibility of your employer. foreign teachers do not have to deal with this. However, if your countries tax system is set up like the American system you may need to report your foreign income to your own country for tax purposes, so keep a record of your monthly income while you are teaching in China.

as far as good English schools or agencies, they are all about the same quite frankly. the only significant difference is the way that they deal with visa issues. some will pay for your Z visa completely, others will pay a portion. most agencies will pay for your Z visa up front, but you must work for that agency until you can pay them back. If you are willing to spend around 8 or 9000 rmb, you can use a visa company that will provide all the fake documents will need to get a Z visa and then you will not be obligated to anyone. My suggestion on this is to avoid agencies if possible and try to find a teaching situation where the school will provide you a Z visa with little or no cost to you. The bottom line is that most schools will not provide any visa service for you unless you sign a contract to work for them for one year. so, choose carefully because you will be stuck with your choice for one year unless there is a prearranged way to break the contract without penalties.

China is a great place, but, you will probably feel completelty overwelmed when you first get here. do not spend a lot of time complaining about things that you think should be done in a certain way or in ways that you think would work better. i got some advice when i first got to china that has helped me tremendously during those times when i feel like pulling my hair out. i will give you the same advice...just go with the flow...do not try to fight against the current. you will constantly need to adapt to situations that you never expected to be in. just go with the flow and China will be one of the most enriching experiences of your life.

qwe_322:

Welcome to the world of Chinese contracts for English teachers. I hate to break it to you, but if your "contract" is like most of the contracts that English teachers sign, they are full of confusing rules and are designed to give your school the financial advantage.

The fact of the matter is that your Chinese school can do whatever they want. They do not have to pay you anything and they do not have to provide you a Visa. They know you do not have a legal leg to stand on. It does not matter what the contract says. This is the risk you take everytime you take a job with an English training school, especially the small ones.

If you want to work at an English training school in China, you just have to sign the contract, and hope that they will give you what they said they would on the contract. If they do not, then keep moving until you can find one that keep their promises. Thi usually takes a few tries. Good luck.