A lot of people who come to China as ESL teachers often have many private one-one-one tutoring opportunities thrown their way. In some situations taking on these tutoring jobs is in violation of their current ESL contract, and in other situations it's no problem.

A typical ESL salary here in Dalian, in Northeastern China, ranges anywhere from 3500RMB to 8000RMB (about $450 to $1000 in US funds). If you're taking in over 8000 in this city, you're doin' alright. Of course, those of you reading this from outside China are probably thinking that this is peanuts - and of course, you're right. But keep in mind that the cost of living in China is dirt cheap, and you often get free husing and airfare reimbursement from the English School. Not as lucrative as Japan, Korea, or Taiwan - but China is still supposedly third world, right? (I wonder if they have as many black Audis and BMWs in Africa?)

Anyway, let me tell ya a story about my experiences a friend of mine. Anyway, "my friend" was studying Chinese full time, which means he had classes every weekday morning, but he had evenings and weekend free. After some time he found that all this free time should be taken advantage of. He decided to learn some web design during the afternoons, and take on tutoring class in the evening.
(Note: While his web skills have progressed rapidly, but I hear his website can't hold a candle to this fantastic orange mess that I got going now)

The pay was 100 RMB per hour, which is a little higher than the hourly rate that an English School usually pays. Anyway, eventually the family that he tutored for introduced him to a few other families, so that he was soon up to teaching 3 days a week, total 9 hours. At this point he decided to print out some name cards at the local copy store (with nothing more than his name and phone number) and passed a bunch of them on to these families, and other people that he thought might be interested.

Pretty soon he was doing about 3 hours every weekday evening, plus 10 hours on the weekend, for a total of 25 hours a week. That added up to 10000RMB, which was significantly better pay than many English teaching jobs provided.

The downside:
He didn't have free housing, and had to rent an apartment independently: 1000RMB.

Combined with his Chinese language study, this made for a fairly busy schedule, 45 hours a week in total. Typically an English Teaching position in China requires 15 to 25 hours a week. If you go to Japan or Korea, it's a little more demanding I hear.


The upside:
He was making some bling. (I'm a minority in China, so I feel comfortable saying bling)

He was using his Chinese language skills a lot when dealing with the parents of the kids that he taught. Good practice.

He was spending more time with Chinese people (often Koreans and Japanese people as well) and learning more about their cultures. He wasn't just spending his free time with other western people as he had before.

He avoided the possiblity of endless headaches, because he was his own boss and didn't have to deal with any Chinese management at any English School.

The families often cooked him supper. Score!

Anyway in summary, "my friend" grew to be quite happy with his situation, and thoroughly enjoyed teaching these kids. He did fall behind on a lot of his Chinese homework, but his spoken Chinese improved due his Express Chinese Lessons. What are those you ask? That's when he would take a cab to and from his tutoring classes, and have about minutes of Chinese conversation with the taxi driver.

What I'm trying to say by writing all this is that this is one of many opportunites that you can pursue in China. This is a less-obvious one, so I decided that I'd share it in hopes that someone might benefit from it. Feel free to give it a try. But make sure that your host in China (be it an ESL school, a company, or a Chinese Language School) gives you the ok. Or, if they don't give you the ok, buy yourself some camouflage gear or possible some ninja-wear.

Best of luck! Happy moonlighting!