@atwilden: does the guy who gets paid 250rmb per hour work 5 times harder than the guy who gets paid 50rmb per hour?
@dudeson: seems you're paying a bit much for health insurance unless you've got a family of 4 or more - medical costs here are pretty cheap. US citizens don't have to pay income tax to the US unless they're making a bit more than you make overseas. And I don't see why your salary providers should cover your flights back to the Old Country every year.

@alien

cheapest 'alright' health plan with zero deductible for my age is ca. 1300 RMB/month. But it's not exactly a carefree plan. no outpatient cover, tiny medz cover etc.
But that wouldn't cover my wife and kid, plus as you said treatment is cheap but we are travelling quite a lot so we chose an international plan excl. U.S.
So at the moment I have a rather good plan and i compared dozens of plans for month, with providers all over the globe and that one I chose is actually 2600RMB/month cover for my whole family.

According to the law [there is an actual gov issue catalog of perks foreign experts are eligible for]
And a return flight home is in it.
But anyway that was my point, it being required by law doesn't mean you'll actually get it and that even adds to annual costs.

If you work for a registered school you should get the benefits. But there are lots of 'consultancies' and these are in a grey area.

Don't listen to them, and don't convert to dollars: this is a different culture with a different cost of living. You can live very well on 5,000 a month. You can get much more (some of my colleagues make 15,000, but they have advanced degrees and teaching certifications). But if you learn to live like the Chinese, 5,000 is more than enough.

Don't listen to them, and don't convert to dollars: this is a different culture with a different cost of living. You can live very well on 5,000 a month. You can get much more (some of my colleagues make 15,000, but they have advanced degrees and teaching certifications). But if you learn to live like the Chinese, 5,000 is more than enough.

Don't listen to them, and don't convert to dollars: this is a different culture with a different cost of living. You can live very well on 5,000 a month. You can get much more (some of my colleagues make 15,000, but they have advanced degrees and teaching certifications). But if you learn to live like the Chinese, 5,000 is more than enough.

@Dudeson: I see - you're US, hence hi-cost med. insurance. But if you're paying 1300 rmb a month just for insurance it's a much larger amount than you are likely to have to spend out of pocket on medical costs here, unless you've got some serious condition, and if you teach in universities they seem to cover most medical expenses - anyway, that's what I hear.

thats why i chose zero deductibles so i get full refund for all medical fees.
sure i may not spend a lot of money on medical fees. but it's to make sure if something happens that my family is covered.

don't wanna end up begging for money to pay my medical bills.
plus they can go up steep as well especially dentals.

@kunmingteacher
Of course you can live on 5000RMB, hell probably even on 1000RMB.
It depends on what you are looking for in life.

When I got here first I started working just for pocket money as I was studying. But now with family kids etc. I can't work for 5000RMB and I don't know why I would or should.

I work hard and I deliver more than I have to so I don't think getting paid 'fairly' is a bad thing. Especially if I know that 80RMB is even less than a Chinese English teacher at New Oriental, [or other schools in kunming] is getting paid.

In the end you make the choice, if you are happy with 80bucks, good for you. I'm not. And as a matter of fact 80/h is crap I even know a room cleaner that charges 70RMB/h. So let 250 or more be too high capitalistic, bourgeois, mainstream, millionaire friendly, greedy -nuts but it is still bad pay for a teacher of any kind.

Also getting a paid or lot, or very little doesn't say much about the teaching or school.

Also working for non profit or charity doesn't mean that they will actually not squeeze out every penny possible of those remote schools they visit. Actually as a matter of fact I know that they get paid pretty well and make quite some nice profit and I just talked with one of my staff members about it, she said it's the perfect labor expenses scheme, you keep all the money and have to give nothing to the teachers besides some food and lodging expenses.

Point being that working for charity or low pay doesn't mean you bring goodness or more benefits to society.

So in the end it's your gut feeling

I would struggle on 5000 a month here.