There are several things to consider when making the decision to teach in China. Here are some precautions to take along the way.

1. Make sure the school is government approved
   
   
2. Speak to other American teachers who have taught at that school before hand and have since returned to the United States
   
   
3. Make sure the school can issue a work-permit visa and provide a Letter of Intent. It is the Letter of Intent (LOI) which you will take to the Chinese Consulate when you apply for a visa.
   
   
4. Get a picture of the apartment you will be staying at.
   
   
5. If you have a TEFL certificate, let the university where you obtained the certificate place you with a job. Do not find the jobs on the internet. Many of these jobs offer fraudulent contracts, and you won't find that out until you arrive in China.
   
   
6. Under no circumstances should you pay any money to teach in a foreign country. One person shared an experience with a company called "I2I . They had her pay $995.00 up front to get a teaching job in another country. When it was suggested she ask for references, details of her housing, accreditation of the university, etc; they couldn't provide a thing.
   
   
7. Some places will advertise a school or university, but they are only private groups or individuals trying to make a huge profit. Darren's employer sent him a photo of a beautiful two-story building with a courtyard and flowers. When he arrived in China, he was taken to a rented classroom in a library. He requested to be taken to the "school in the photo", but he was told, "I just took a pretty photo of that building. I have no idea what it is. Everyone lies here." She also called herself "Decai English Training School" and misrepresented all of the points of the contract. Eventually she contracted with two legitimate government schools - one primary and one secondary - but she kept $40,000 in tuition she collected, giving only $10 per student per semester to the two schools.
   
   
8. Some recruiters are and professional. But there are also many unscrupulous ones. They will find you a teaching job and then take up half of your monthly salary per month. If you contact them during them during the semester with problems or concerns, they are never available to help. That is why it helps to go through a university in the United States that has had experience with recruiters.
   
   
9. Darren was promised small classes, upper grades, his own apartment, heat, air conditioning, hot running water, tutoring in Chinese, a 20 hour work week, a work permit visa and much more....
   
   In reality, he had larger classes, grades 1-12 weekly, a shared apartment, no heat or air conditioning, no hot running water, no tutoring, a 7 day work week with 1,200 students per week, and the windows of his apartment were forced to stay permanently open during the intense winters (causing him to wake up with frost on his blanket). He was never given a work permit visa, forcing him to travel to Hong Kong monthly to renew his tourist visa. The so called owner would never sign any contracts herself, instead asking her hired staff to sign and therefore not implicate herself in any fraudulent contracts.
   
   
10. The State Department's site at www.travel.state.gov/travel/living/teaching/teaching_2848.html states, "The U.S. Embassy cannot act as a legal advisor or negotiate business or personal grievances on behalf of individual citizens. Americans experiencing problems can contact the Embassy's American Citizens Services Unit at telephone (86-10) 6532-3431, extension 5648, 5028, 5609, or 5344, or via e-mail to AmCitBeijing@state.gov to report problems with school employment contracts."
    
    The important point is Darren contacted the U.S. Consulate and his parents as well as contacting the Consulate, contacted the U.S. Embassy after Darren left the school. By that time he was robbed, sick with fever and bronchitis, and without funds. If only the Chinese National who took his call would have forwarded his pleas for help to an American staff, he would be alive today. There are 43 American staff and 170 Chinese Nationals at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, China. It would have taken 30 minutes for one of the many staff to pick him up and get him to safety, instead, he was murdered hours later. It is important to put pressure on the State Department to issue warnings about the illegal schools in China. It would take a full-time staff to keep up with the illegal schools which are growing like mushrooms in the dark.
    
    
11. Make sure you have some type of medical coverage which will cover medical evacuation if deemed necessary.
    
    
12. Leave copies of your contract and all pertinent papers with either a family member or friend in the United States.

These are just some of the precautions to take when thinking about teaching in China. It is important to be vigilant in researching the specific school you choose and the best resource you have is universities across the country.