Yeah I have rarely ever gotten a payslip. Very uncommon at least in all the posts I have been in.

I was in your exact position two years ago. I had a choice between lifestyle or money in Thailand or China as well. I ended up choosing China as I had lived in Thailand before. I made $5,000 per month net in, and I got a lot of experience with AP. I saved a ton. Bought an extension on my house; went on trips did a lot of great stuff, however, after two years my health is much worse, and I have decided to leave China. More than likely I will never return. In retrospect I should have probably took the better lifestyle of Thailand over China. I will say this though just last month I was offered a sweet post in Thailand of all places and I was faced with the same dilemma this time between Thailand and Qatar; again money and lifestyle, and this time I picked Thailand. I guess this old dog can learn something new and that is money does not equal happiness.

On a side note if you are netting 60K baht per month you can live well on that in Thailand. I have done it before when my wife and I lived there between 2010-2011. We lived on my income alone as my wife does not work. If you want to know more info about cost of living in China and Thailand send me a PM.

China is a pit stain of a place. Ugly industrial cities with rude people. Filthy and dirtiest place I have ever lived.

If you want to work in the Philippines your options are going to be limited to a handful of schools. They are all very selective even the bottom tier schools, because they know they can get a ton of applicants. I agree the Headmaster and Principals at ISM are incredibly rude. I met them at a job fair, and they were not nice people to say the least. The principal at Kings School seems to be of the same breed....arrogant. Good luck getting a job in the Philippines it is a beautiful country.

Be careful there are three different international programs that are run at three different campuses of Shude in Chengdu. Chengdu Shude has three different branches, one downtown, one in eastern Chengdu around Guahuangua avenue, and one far out near the airport. The downtown Shude has a mixed international program, the eastern chengdu shude has an AP program run by Dipont education China, and the one near the airport has an IB/AP program. This program is run by a small chinese company, and the location is far from downtown Chengdu. pm me for more information.