I've been attending interviews...and I'm still not exactly sure what the average salary is for local people in Kunming..it's a local chinese company so they are paying in Yuan...I'm from north america so the money is not going to be enough. But if I stay long term (a year) then do you think it would be reasonable? is 5000 rmb/month satisfactory? or low? it's a full time teaching dance job 4 hrs a day plus extra time for class preparation..so I guess it would be 4-6 hours plus rehearsal hr..

Is it worth it? the money converted to Dollars is definitely not enough...but for a life one year in kunming...do you think it's ok? I just wanna make sure I"m not being scammed into a low wage.

Thanks for any advice!

I don't know what dance instructor jobs usually pay.

5,000 RMB a month certainly won't afford you a lavish life style, even in Kunming, but you can probably scrape by on it.

Ask for double (10,000 RMB/month) and negotiate it out at something in between. If there are benefits, such as housing, insurance, paid vacations, travel allowances, etc., then take those into consideration as well.

I think if you're doing skilled teaching, you should really be getting anywhere from 125-200 an hour. On 10,000 a month you can live very comfortably here.

I believe 5000 is about the market rate for locals, i.e. most graduates in dancing will get offers of 3000-5000 more or less depending on the exact nature of the job. Someone with more experience will obviously make more. I know with English teachers, we have an spoken fluency that is difficult to get from locals and hence the premium in salary, I don't know if there would be a premium for foreign dance teachers unless you have a background in something that they don't have in Kunming.

You can try to ask for more but I suspect that being a private school, even if the fair market pay is 10,000, they would be willing to pay that much.

Here is a monthly breakdown of cost of living in Kunming:
Rent 1000-2000
Eating out: 500-1000
Utilities+Cell Phone: 200
Transport: 100

The figures have to be adjusted based on what kind of life style you want. If you want a large Western style apartment, you can be up to the 3000 range, if you go for the local frugal apartments, it can be as low as 600 (although I wouldn't recommend this unless you are adventerous). If you go for steak and McDonalds every meal, 800 wouldn't be enough but if you subsist on noodles and buns then 300 should do....well, you get the picture

5000 will be more than scraping by, (the average beginning salary for a college graduate is about 2500-3000 yuan), but you wouldn't be living large either.

Hope this helps!

Cheers~

You might try to supplement "dance income" with teaching English. Going rate for "one-on-one" tutoring is 100 kuai per hour.

Good Luck - - Cheers - - JJ

Oh...and there's a new French restaurant opening in a hotel - they're looking for FOREIGN greeters (guess that means attractive, presentable) that's willing to pay ¥80 per hour for a few hours work per day (easy money aside from standing around in "greeters" attire. Since it's in a hotel - should be rather conservative though.

Drop me a line and I'll private message the manager's email.

I don't think you are being scammed but it does sound slightly on the low side. Also keep in mind that the inflation in China currently is around 4 percent but in Kunming it's probably closer to 8 or 9, and the wages aren't following suit these days. 4 hours a day, 5 days a week doesn't sound too bad but make sure it isn't a 6 or 7 day workweek we are talking about and make it clear how much you want for overtime. As JJ mentioned you can supplement your income with tutoring but it's not always easy to find students, on the flip side most teachers can charge 125-150 with ease. Assuming you won't settle for noodles day in and day out, would like to eat dishes 3-4 times a week and once a week at a foreign place you should probably budget 1000-1500 on that account.

If you are coming for the experience I think you'd do fine but if it's some kind of career move you're better off staying abroad.

As I recall - Gokm did an article on a dance troupe somewhere in KM with a studio. You might wanna look 'em up for some gigs and other ideas...

My husband and I teach English at a local university. We teach 8 classes a week and make a total of 6,000 RMB between us (3,000 each). We've found it's more than enough to live on for us. We eat Chinese food or slum it at home during the week and splurge on eating out during weekends. We take buses as much as possible. DVDs are really our only luxury item, with the occasional English book, too. Even with that, we're still able to save HALF our income each month and we think we live fairly nicely here—much nicer than we did in America!!

I don't know what your teaching experience is or what sort of career move you are hoping for but 5000 a month is enough to live comfortably in Kunming including rent, travel, eating out in Wenlin area at least once a week, buying foreign products like olive oil and cheese etc. It shouldn't be a problem. However saving is not as easy. Why don't you consider asking for a package with benefits included such as an annual return flight to your home country, rent allowance, bills allowance, health insurance etc.? Your employer can pay these items as a business expense so it is preferable for them. Benefits like that can greatly increase your monthly spending money.