Xinxiang - a boring place with nothing there.

To begin with, the boss recommended the place to me and said there was a lot of fun things to do - the first lie. A boring place, nothing to do, with some of the worst pollution I have seen - all of the teachers were sick because of it.

I agreed with the company to receive my flight money upon arrival - again, a lie - I had no money and was not given any by the company.

My first day - somebody met me, took me to the city, got food and then took me home. He said he would see me the next day and we would go and sort out my bank account and phone. Nobody came, so I waited until 4pm (no food or telephone etc.) and then gave up and went to the office. Tried messaging (via Skype) the company with no reply. After an hour, another new colleague came and gave me some money - without her I would have starved.

We did the training in Beijing which was OK. I met some nice people.

We came back and they made the schedules - I was due to work 6 days a week and over the contracted hours. The only way to change this was for me to work over the contrated hours a week Monday-Friday (it should have been 25 maximum and the original offer said Mon-Fri).

The company attempted to claim that sports and evening study lessons were normal - this meant that some days we worked 8 hours. (some teachers starting at 7:40 and finishing at 9:30pm!). I just said I'm not doing Saturdays or I quit - this meant other teachers had to work weekends.

After the first semester all teachers wanted to leave. I requested moving to a different center (which in the interviews was offered - again I thought this was good), and was denied - stuck in this boring place.

The contract traps you or you have to pay $500 to break the contract. Conversations with a friend who used to work there, it turned out that if you leave early, you won't receive your last paycheck (so basically you lose your paycheck + flights - at least £2000 overall would be lost!)

In an interview with a woman called 'Helen' she said the tax rate was around 100-200rmb - it turned out to be a lot more. When we complained they changed it - obviously not giving us the money for the previous paychecks, but form that point onward.

The only reason I stayed was because of the students - most of whom were amazing - one group particularly arrogant, but the rest were amazing.

Overall, don't work for this company, the main boss - Shi Bo, was a terrible boss and ruined the relationships with the school - meaning it was quite separated and not a good atmosphere. They will hire anyone as it is such a bad place to be, meaning some people will undoubtedly be bad teachers in the future, yet still teach. Once hired, you are trapped. If you want to go somewhere small and are tempted, make sure you get a 6-month contract and they buy your flights. YOU MUST PLAY HARD BALL or they will screw you.