Did you ever wonder why recruiting agencies in China take such extreme measures to recruit you? My girlfriend worked for a recruiting agency, and I was shocked to hear the following:

What they charged one middle school for three teachers:
360,000RMB for one year
What they paid the teachers:
5000RMB for one month

You do the math. Even given that the agency will pay your rent and etc., that's still a hefty profit.

Why will the schools pay so much? Sadly, they've got there own little profit game as well. I worked at a middle school where three native speakers taught 9 different classes each week (2 hours each class). Each class had an average of 65 students. That's 27 classes. Okay let's call that about 1,800 students. The school charges each student an additional 200RMB a month beyond their regular tuition for the privilege of having a foreign teacher. If you calculate this at 10 months times 36,000, the picture becomes clearer. It's basically a break-even proposition for the school and they don't have to mess with visa and housing problems to boot.

Even though the above figures will vary from agency to agency and school to school, it's easy to see why so many Chinese "Tom, Dick and Harries" are jumping on the EFL bandwagon. On one level you've got to admire their capitalistic, go for it attitudes. On the other level BEWARE! It takes a few years of hanging out in China to get enough perspective to navigate the ESL/EFL maze. So, if you want to make the plunge, jump on in, but don't hesitate to ask for advice or heed the advice from people like Larry who are rightfully trying to help you avoid the pitfalls.

Good luck!