I have been here in China for 1 year. Despite reading all the stuff on this forum, and talking with people with first hand experience, I came here anyway. I have to say - I should have listened to people who have been down this path before.
Just getting the job here is so fraught with peril that it is not worth the effort, or the risk to your current job. Once you have the job, it will work out great, until - it doesn't. That might be 1 week, or 5 years.
Please search and read other info on this forum on working in China. There is a great deal.It is all true, including the good stuff! Unfortunately, the difference between good stuff and bad stuff is mostly just timing and dumb luck.
I wouldn't do it again. Ever. Or recommend it to anyone.
Recent examples? I just did a recurrent sim with a local FO that is supposedly ICAO 4. Nice kid actually. He had never used an english FCOM, and couldn't find anything by looking it up. So I handed him the checklist, on my tablet computer, that I looked up. I have it on an IPAD because the airline I work for doesn't provide english language FCOM's in the cockpit. And, get this, their FOM doesn't require it!!!!
He had never used an english FCOM, and couldn't use it. I did the checklists off of my memory, which is not as good as it once........what was I just saying?
Flash forward 3 days. I am flying in central China. Now, all the Chinese planes flying into my destination are diverting because the ATC is out to lunch, and they don't know how to use or interpret a wx radar. My local FO (great guy) is flying and is concerned. I cannot convey to the controller what we want to do. So I take control of the AC, and let the FO talk to the controller in Mandarin. We do a very uneventful approach and landing in light rain and 3 knots of wind, while 10 other aircraft divert.
It just isn't worth the effort to come here. The high paycheck isn't worth it. The paycheck is high because NOBODY is silly enough to come here. Except a retard like me.
I will probably stay and collect my high paycheck until......who knows. Could be one day, or one year till the end of my contract. To be honest, I am rooting for 1 day.