What a farce.
http://globalnews.ca/news/1918082/canad ... -sex-case/

Are the students all Thai or mixed? Which Thai schools have an international mix?

I have a feeling you are going to be based in Hongqiao, which is a decent place to live.

Aesthetics? I have one behind the TV and one under the dining room table. The others are strategically placed in semi-hidden places around the apartment. I prefer not to see them. If I want aesthetics, I'll buy myself a nice big Buddha painting.

I mentioned this above, but just to push the point - www.smartairfilters.com and their other site http://particlecounting.tumblr.com/post ... out-of-the

S33 dollar / 200RMB per unit, includes one fan, one strap and one filter. We change the filters about every five week. Free delivery to your apartment. We have five of these running in our apartment 24/7.

What bit of Shanghai is your school in?

Most of my colleagues seem to know an average of about twenty words. Some of them have been here years, so clearly they think it's enough, although most live in areas with high expat populations (we don't). I would find that horribly frustrating. I've been dipping in and out of the Chinese speaking word for seventeen years now. My reading, typing ( my actual writing is dreadful) and speaking are at a very functional level, but not fluent by any stretch. Day to day communications are not an issue and I rarely have to repeat anything. You have to make the effort to learn Chinese, it's not really something you pick up as you go a long, at least, not at the beginning anyway. It's well worth the effort. One of the reasons we are here is so our kids grown up bilingual.

I lived in Egypt for three years before coming here. I probably got away with knowing about twenty words. I just didn't have the interest, plus a higher proportion of Egyptian speak English.

chilagringa, I think we're talking about international contracts. Most of us know the situation in Canada, that's just the way it is. Not in your control.

I've only had to do this once and I photoshopped out my passport number before doing so.

Google translator doesn't work, or at least, doesn't work well. I was not aware you could download Google maps. I have never seen that option, I'll certainly look into it. Anyway, anything Google on a phone is going to suck, pretty much. Dipping into hotels really isn't much of an option. Baidu maps is good, but requires a level of Chinese reading beyond most new teachers. For translation, the Pleco app is best, but it is more of a dictionary than a translator.

'Explore Shanghai' has a good Metro Map in English. There is also an app called ???? (Shanghai Metro) which is the same but in Chinese.

WeChat works great and you will likely be using it a lot.

Update:

I just managed to download Google's Shanghai map. While it's true VPNs don't usually work when they are on the network, they generally do when connected to Wi-Fi, so you can still download apps.

Astrill seems to be the most popular VPN, but the government has been making it increasingly difficult to use VPNs, particularly on Apple products. It works 90% of the time on laptops, significantly less than 90% on Apple tablets and all phones (it's next to useless on my Android phone). I don't think any other VPN service would be any different. We hope the government will stop their current attack soon. I still use Gmail / Google products, FaceBook and Dropbox, but you have to face the reality that there maybe times you can't access them (in my case, that includes right now). It is a minor annoyance.

If you want cheap air filters I suggest you look at these guys http://www.smartairfilters.com . We have five of their fans in our apartment. We change the filters about every five weeks (they are on 24/7). You can pay by Paypal if you can't set it up with your Chinese account. They don't seem to have much profit motive, although they do seem to be getting more professional. They seem like decent guys.

If you want filtered water, then buy a water cooler machine and get the 18 litre bottles delivered. Nestle and Nongfu both deliver. Be aware that when you buy a water cooler machine it will say on the front '?‘ (leng - cold) and '?’ (re - hot). However, Chinese have an aversion to cold water, so leng actually means 'not hot', meaning room temperature. If you want a machine that gives you chilled water you want one with '??' ?bingshui - iced water). Oddly, this was the cheapest one in the shop when I bought mine. Most do not have bingshui.

Most of the teachers at my school either ride a bike to work, get the metro, or ride battery powered scooter/motorbikes.

Hope that helps.

Have you consider the other BC offshore schools. Some are in much more favourable locations, even within China.

http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/topic.page?id ... 450E70CE73

Maybe give this a read. Most of it is about South and Central America.

http://www.amazon.com/International-Liv ... 1118758595

Probably worth reading both, but if not, go with the second one (Global Expatriate).

Read Andrew Hallam's book. I believe there is a short section on Raymond James. The general gist was to avoid, however, he also says one or two products are ok. Read the book.

http://www.amazon.ca/Global-Expatriates ... 398&sr=1-2