Trust Mart has been the Walmart front in China for a LONG time, the just started rebranding the stores as Walmart. It's not the same kind of Walmart Super Center you'd find in the States. It's MUCH smaller and has the same issues I described above. It says Walmart but it's market is native Chinese.

There is only one direct route train to Shanghai, and yes it's an Express train, but it's not like one of the bullet trains you'd find in Europe or Japan.

Well there are some western conveniences and they do have import stores, but its not to the degree youd find in Shanghai. You might be real comfortable with it. For instance take shampoo. There will be one "american" brand (herbal essence is big) everything else is going to be a chinese brand. Your not going to find a whole shelf devoted to american brands of shampoo. Its like that for everything, if your not brand specific you should be OK. Then there are just things your not going to find available (Like a collapsible laundry basket). For me in GZ it was a shower rod. I had this full size garden tub in my apartment, but I couldnt find one of those spring loaded shower rods. Found shower curtains at Trust Mart with fish on them, but no shower rods, took months and a lot of looking before i found one.

The other thing that your going to find is an issue (at least for me) was english in beijing, GZ, Shanghai, HK, more people understand english. In small places like Ningbo, its far less common.
Youd think with so many schools and a university their would be more sophistication, and there is at the upper end of the societal spectrum, but those arent the people you interact with and depend on to do things. Youll find an expat bar and be able to have some beers while BSing to one another, but everyone else from the bus drivers to the store clerks to the bank tellers are far less likely to understand you. Thats why you need a day and time during the month to go to the bank, because the foreign accounts clerk/teller is only available at limited times of the week. If you go into Watsons, dont be surprised if the manager follows you around, hes really just there to help you with whatever you need, since its unlikely his other employees would be able to understand you.

I agree, and your right Realtor Agents work for the landlord. That is after all how they get paid, though there are agents that work for renters/buyers, they expect to be paid by their clients. No body is going to do it for free, and Id rather the landlord pay them myself. That doesnt mean the agent doesnt have your intrests in mind as well. Yes they want the best commission they can get, but they also dont want you going to someone else, if the agent doesnt introduce you to properties that dont fit your needs or requirements.

What i meant by "professional agent" is someone working for a relocation service or in HR,who professionally on a regular basis made their living in whole or in part in helping people find places to live. In my experience its either been a relocation agent or someone in HR

While a fellow teacher may know about their own place to live, and on places they have lived, I would think their information would be limited in other properties that they might have heard about from fellow teachers. In all not a very broad or deep source of information, especially given a city like Beijing or other large cosmopolitan city that caters to expats and may have a VAST number of buildings and apartments available. How could a teacher be expected to keep up with whats available and what isnt on a daily basis.

When i was the new teacher leader, I had one teacher and his wife who had done a lot of research online and had something over 20 apartments they wanted to look at (they had researched online). I simply didnt have the time to dedicate to take them everywhere. I ended up pushing them into an apartment that i wouldnt live in, but was close to campus, and had 3 bedrooms (they had 2 kids). They werent unhappy, but they werent happy either. I was just really not in a position to know very much about the places they were interested in.
Its one reason Im glad many schools in asia provide and or require housing their first year.

I did the new teacher welcome tour, and introduction when i was in China one year. It really depends on how well informed and connected/tied in the teacher is. I just cant and in my experience see a teacher being as familiar and up to date on the housing market as a professional agent would be.

Reliable AND cheap, is kind of a contradiction. Ive heard good things about Air Parcel Express

http://www.shipping-worldwide.com/

They have a cargo container service out of Miami.

Well its small compared to Shanghai. Its much more a blue collar city then the cosmopolitan culture of Shanghai. Its takes about 3 hours to get to Shanghai (depending whether you take a bus or train). Its hard not to compare Ningbo to Shanghai. The people are very nice but foreigners arent as common, so you wont see as many of them and as a result the economics of the city arent set up for expats and a lot of imports, so finding things will be harder. Of course costs are cheaper as well. If you were looking for a lot of western availability and conveniences you picked the wrong place. As long as your not brand picky though you should find what you need (The hardest part for me was finding the optical shop, to get contacts, every time I went in he'd check my eyes again).

The humidity makes it seem a lot warmer then it is, in the summer i didnt know if i was sweating so much as just wet from the humidity.

The night life isnt the greatest, mostly pubs and bars. They serve mainly Tsingtao and Tiger, though you can find Carlsberg. your not going to find a big dance club scene, and if thats your thing take the train and lots of money to Shanghai. Eating out is pretty popular, and pretty cheap to do. You will find a lot of really great and authentic chinese food.

Huamao Academy isnt the best school in the city, they have an OK reputation for a 2nd tier school. They have problems like any type of school, mainly competing for a limited pool of enrollment. They know they arent the best, but they want to be (who doesnt) they just dont have the budget. This is the type of school you really want to keep your head down, and be very flexible, there are going to be problems, and somethings will probably seem unfair to you. It will help if you remember that the pot just isnt big enough for everyone to eat all the rice they want.

All in all its a pretty "routine' type of life,

None of your friends really want to hear about your trip, or see pictures. They will say how lucky you are, and then move on to the next topic, because they dont want to be reminded that they dont get to travel. They will REALLY get tired if you keep bringing up stories and situations about how another culture solves the problem so easily. Especially other teachers, they dont want to hear how great your kids are, or how much easier things are, etc, etc.

They are having a "teacher", not an HR rep. play housing/apartment realtor?

Did they contact you or something? Its times like this I really keep my fingers crossed and hope Im wrong.

Also think long term. I dont know what position you took, but is this the school you can retire from? If not and you ship $5K worth of belongings what are you going to do at the end of the two year contract? Just hope the next school pays the same amount. You might end up paying out of pocket to ship the majority of your belongings to the next school ,and when you consider that, you might have just been better off buying new items.

You mentioned being cash poor, but almost all schools only reimburse (and even then it takes a while) so your going to be paying for the shipment out of your own pocket and just hope the costs come in below your allowance, and that you get reimbursed for everything.

Maybe, but if there holding on for the OPs as possible 2nd or 3rd choice candidates they wouldnt just ignore a candidate they want they would maintain some kind of polite communication. 1) They dont want to damage their reputation or image. 2) They dont want the OP to become unavailable. If they do decide to contact the OP candidate how do you explain why you blew them off, and didnt even return an email. As a candidate i wouldnt want to work for a school that practiced that type of recruitment. The message it sends is "we dont really want you".

The differences depend on the volume of freight and route of the shipper your carrier is using and what level of service they offer. Costs can very widely, as overhere described the level of services can very greatly. If you pack, and pallet, your own stuff and can pick it of at the warehouse at your destination you can get pretty cheap prices, but you have to have a truck, driver, translator, and be close to the pier yourself. if people are coming to your home packing your stuff up, shipping it in a truck to the pier, loading and palleting and packing your stuff ina container, and then doing the revers at the destination, those are going to have very different costs.
Your school may offer different levels of help, if they dont have a lot of new staff coming in, and they are well organized and staffed, they might be able to help you with a good chunk of that. If they are going to be busy, they might not be able to help you very much.
Import duties may also be an issue, and check with your school if those are costs you can charge against the moving allowance, and research what those costs would be. You have to pay duty on all of it since your shipping it into the country and not entering the country with it.

Unless you ship at the beginning of the summer, your likely to have to wait several months for your stuff to arrive. What are you going to do in the meantime without your stuff?
Unless you live on the coast, air freighting is a great option, and usually faster (3-6 weeks instead of 3-4 months), and as long as your not moving furniture is pretty economical.

There are different levels of insurance, some cover just the boat trip, and yeah the boat has to sink. Some cover losses and damages from door to door, of course they cost more money as well.

Im single and i dont have a lot of stuff i travel light. Ive always gotten by with maxing out my extra baggage. I bring cloths, electronics, and some personal items.

Yeah you answered the question wrong, and now they dont want you, sorry.

They dont have a great reputation, sorry. At least your going into it knowing that. Sometimes a jobs just that a job.

Thats a really nice allowance. Many schools reimburse with receipts. I dont know of any schools that pay movement allowances upfront (unless its bundled as part or the relocation allowance).

Depending on where your going, I would avoid bringing electronics with you outside of your laptops, and smart phones (if they are GSM). Even with transformers they dont run right, and its easier to purchase home/bath/kitchen electronics cheaper once you factor in the costs. High end electronics like TV's can also be problematic depending where you move, they likely dont support the same television standard/format. Things I bring:

Laptop
Ipad
Iphone
Electric Razor's

Things that ive had problems with

Printers (not that they didnt work, but the ink replacements were slightly different, making ordering them more expensive)

DVD's region coding means I can only play them on my laptop.

Alarm Clock never kept accurate time, ran fast because of the transformer, radio reception was the same way, transformer caused too much interference.

XBOX/Wii was a waste of time TV standards were different, didnt even bother bringing them.

With $5200 if you do the packing and slating yourself you could get a pretty decent amount of stuff (half a container at retail, lose to a whole one at whole sale). It doesnt really matter which company you use. The reality is they are all middle men for the actual shipper. They all use the same boats and containers, the difference is what level of service, and insurance they offer. You contract with them, and they hand off your stuff to someone else who actually moves your stuff onto the boat, across the ocean and unloads it, and then delivers it.

Depends what your school does. Most people when they arrive get some sort of temporary housing (either a hotel, or short stay/vacation rental), your school is the best source for how to handle that. I stayed in temporary housing a pretty long time when I was in Italy, its expensive, and ate away at my relocation allowance very quickly.