Originally Posted by
welliewanger
I don't know about how they treat foreign license holders, nor do I know about maintenance. But I do know that Chinese pilots don't hold any licenses - the company holds their license. If they want to move to another company, they need to "buy" the license for a very reasonable fee!
Not entirely true: this applies only to chinese pilots whose ab initio and operational training have been paid by the airline. Many FO are now following the "self sponsored" route and they are able to change airline without big problems; for expats it depends: my license is mine, and I changed airline after the first contract. I leave now in a so called sheet 2nd tier city, where I live very confortable wasting less than one third of the money I needed in Shanghai; my pay is top scale for 4/4 and when I have days off either I grab my motorcycle for sightseeing around or I go to the beach in summertime.