I love Thailand. in fact I've spent a lot of time there usually in one or two-month stretches. I did my CELTA there and worked for a Thai company for a month or two after getting the certificate. But I'll admit, that's not the same as dealing with 7:30am gate duty year after year, so feel free to take what I say with a small grain of salt. In fact, this letter is not really about Thailand, it's about China. There have been a few letters here suggesting that China is the ESL promised land and that any sensible teacher ought to jump ship and go to China, but my experience of China was nothing short of disastrous. I feel I ought to add my perspective, to add a little balance.

My partner also did his CELTA in Thailand and after careful consideration, we decided that China offered more opportunity than Thailand. The contracts my partner and I signed were great (equivalent of 50,000 baht each a month plus free housing and bonuses) and we did what we thought was extensive research on the city and company.

I worked in China for eight months of a one-year contract and by God it was a horrible time. In the end we pulled a midnight runner back to Thailand after we discovered that we had been working illegally for the entire time we were there. In addition, a colleague was stopped by police and arrested when his paperwork was found to be not in order and the company we worked for tried to extort a massive fine out of him. They were the ones who faked the paperwork.

That was the final straw, but during the time we worked in China, we had the terms of our contract broken repeatedly. Our apartment was disgusting. We were lied to frequently over the big issues and the small things. They 'forgot' to pay us our full salaries every month and we would have to threaten to leave in order to get our full pay. We were actively discouraged from teaching effectively in favour of looking more entertaining to the parents peering in through glass windows. We were isolated - and they attempted to keep us on a very short leash indeed.

Outside of school problems, my partner had the trots for eight months and I was sick for two consecutive months in minus 30 degree winters. The city was polluted, the food very unhealthy and the people were nowhere near as friendly as Thais. Arriving back in Thailand after our escape was one of the happiest days of my life. People smile at you! When people ask 'where you go?', it tends to be a middle-aged lady wanting to help you out or practice her English, not a policeman asking what the hell you're doing in his country. Basic rules of politness are observed. Oh, it was heaven.

What's the point of all this on a Thai website? Just a warning to think very carefully before you jump. Chinese schools sponsor and own your visa so getting out of a poor situation is not an easy thing to do. For all our problems, our school would cave in and pay us properly whenever we stood our ground. As bad as they were, there are much worse ones out there.

On the bright side, I can highly recommend Vietnam as a place to live and work!

Ange