"ESL is more than face or skin", you say. Are you kidding? Tell that to the many African-Americans who are regularly discriminated against in this country when it coms to getting ESL jobs. All it IS is face and skin.

As for your lofty prediction that it won't be long before China is in a position to select its teachers more carefully, forget it. One: they can't afford to (Hu Jintao recently told us that the average Chinese salary by 2015 may be as high as $3000 US. WOW! You can see qualified foreign teachers lining up for that, can't you?). Secondly, the dross and con-artists that run buxibans in your country simply don't care. White face? Blue eyes? Blonde hair? You're hired!

China is poor and it's going to stay comparatively poor for the foreseeable future. As long as it's poor and as long as the advertising line is "No money, but come experience our culture!" all you'll get are deadbeats and dropouts. I live and work in Korea where I make $3,500 US a month after tax. Where would you be living if you had the choice -'Jeff'?

As for the 'sumptuous banquets', I myself have sat through the ten courses of tasteless glop in Fuzhou, the transparent disguises of food, the oil and the fat, the bad service, the warm beer, the roaring and the spitting. And you cite this as an attraction?

You can keep it. I'd rather live somewhere civilized.

Peter.

PS: And you're right. "China isn't for everyone" - and that number of takers is dropping all the time.