Chinese Pilot Shortage
Ignition Overide is right about the shortage of pilot in China. Currently I know of about 200 foreign captains flying for Chinese airlines. It is not uncommon to hear a foreign voice using English operating a Chinese airliner. They are from everywhere, the Far East, Europe and the Americas. On arrival they are permitted to fly for a short time on a validation of their foreign licence and then they have to get a Chinese one. This is the usual air law exams etc but you also have to do the CAAC English Proficiency and RT Test. This is the exam that Chinese pilots need to pass to go international and you need it as well. The fact that you may be English and flying for donkey's years doesn't matter. Non English foreign pilots fail it regularly. One of the limitations of a foreigner's Chinese licence is that he is not allowed to use the Chinese language whilst operating the aircraft.
Contracts, in my case, are witten in both English and Chinese and the English version is the master copy. They tend to be followed very rigidly by your employers, if it's not written in its your problem. Medicals are slightly different, to put it mildly, but apart from that the rules and regs are much the same as in the West. There are lots and lots of horror stories about flying in China but most of that is in the past. 100hrs/month is the limit and they tend to hit that because of the shortage. Chinese Aviation has had a massive shakeup in the last decade and its a fascinating country to work in. I love it, I'v been working here for some time.