I left broke and homeless, relying on the charity of family and friends, thankfully I am back on my feet now.

That's one important thing to consider: Once you decide to work in China, you are bound to and dependent on your employer. If your employer is a crook and you have a dispute with him, you have basically two options:

* To give in and take all the rubbish until you will complete your contract period.
* Not to give in, speak up and fight - you will take the risk to be thrown out of your flat and become homeless, and to get broke because you are not paid. I have been in that sort of situation myself a couple of times in 2003, when an employer made me come to China under false pretences (I was promised a university level job with some special tasks assigned in administrative management), and after I arrived it turned out to be a shabby training centre, run by two evil Chinese businessmen with ties to local mafia, there was no decent flat, and all that what was in my contract. I gave them a serious warning that within three days, they had to arrange my flat or job they had promised; if not, I would be gone. I managed to get my flight expenses refund beforehand, and after three days when they had changed nothing, I left with all the other foreign teachers. For such a case, I had secured alternative job offers that I could take if the first thing would not work out, and I had enough money on me. But by leaving that place, I became "homeless" for a couple of days and had to spent larger amounts of money for travel, hotel, phoning, etc. Luckily, I ended up in another, better place where I was able to complete my contract period successfully.

It is an advantage in such a situation if you can speak and understand Chinese sufficiently as you cannot rely on anyone to do all the translation work or necessary arrangements for you; you are entirely left to yourself - in China, it is the other side of what I call "mother's care" that foreign adults are given and are not really in need of either. It's China after all, and there seems to be nothing to fill the gap between either of these "extremes".

I got on feet walking by myself, and it is good that you managed, too!
Good luck anyway!