I worked for English Village education employment agency in Yuncheng China for about a year.
The agency manager, the office staff, and the translators were all fluent, friendly, and
helpful. Most of the translators were recent English major graduates with a good
attitude. The translators help the foreign teachers inside and outside the classroom.
The apartments were minutes away from the schools. I arrived late but was paid full
airfare. They gave me the recommendation letter I needed to apply for my next job.

I was wondering when you would come out of the woodwork. This person posts as MESL on Daves. You submitted a similar 'white list' report for YEV around this time last year. YEV probably had a trawl and contacted you out of desperation.

Regarding your comments about the office staff, they are generally true on the surface but they are more slippery than used car salesmen and they are trained to be so. They systematically lie.

The assistants (or 'translators' as you refer to them as, which makes me think you are not native) are a mixed bag but again they care about their salaries so follow the bosses like puppets and will monitor everything you do. You probably were not aware that they reported on your every move at their semi weekly meetings.

The apartments generally are near the schools (first correct point) but are generally of the courtyard type and so you freeze yourself in winter as you have to go outside to the bathroom in the night.

English Village has about 2 dozen teachers, but most of the schools have only one or two
foreign teachers. There is a large western owned café and many expats get together
there on weekends. The English Village Christmas party was held at this café.

Now they have even less teachers and the ones left are being run into the ground covering classes, probably why they contacted you to try and cover their crap reviews. There is the said cafe although now there are other options and it is less frequented than before and is very expensive. Yes, the Christmas party was held there at 10am in the morning (apparently they got a cheaper deal by having it at that time).

There were major visa complications, so I had to go to Hong Kong twice at my own expense.

At least something true, despite what they say they never ever repay any of the expenses involved.

The towns were typical small Chinese towns with few expats and not much to do.

Basically true except that generally you are the only expat(s).

Simply, with Yuncheng English Village, you are taking a big risk. I took that risk and paid the price just like everyone else. Personally, I would say stay well clear. They don't deserve foreign teachers whatsoever.