North China University?

Anyone have any experience with the North China University of Water Conservancy and Electric Power, Zhengzhou city, Henan province?

No one?

Here's the contract I was given to peruse (English and Chinese).
Any feedback is greatly appreciated:

----------------------------------------------------
CONTRACT
I．Party A North China University of Water Conservancy and Electric Power (Zhengzhou) wishes to engage the service of Party B _Mr. [NAME WITHELD] as _English teacher_. The two parties, in a spirit of friendly cooperation, agree to sign this contract and pledge to fulfill conscientiously all the obligations stipulated in it.

Ⅱ．The period of service will be from _Sep, 1, 2008 to _July 20, 2009.
(The school will consider at what time the term will begin and end.)

Ⅲ．The duties of Party B (see attached pages).

Ⅳ．Party B’s monthly salary will be Y= _4500_ Yuan RMB. (Total salary is RMB _45000 Yuan +A NNEX III traveling expense in this term of contract. The payday will be about the 8th of next month because the telephone bill will come out on the 6th of next month. The salary for January (paid holiday) will be provided together with February).

Ⅴ．Party A’s Obligations
1. Party A shall introduce to Party B the laws, decrees, and relevant regulations enacted by the Chinese government, the Party A’s work system, and regulations concerning administration of foreign experts.
2. Party A shall conduct direction, supervision and evaluate Party B’s work regularly.
3. Party A shall provide Party B necessary working and living conditions.
4. Party A shall provide the staff for coordination.
5. Party A shall pay Party B’s salary regularly by the month.
6. Party A shall respect Party B’s customs.

Ⅵ. Party B’s Obligations
1. Party B shall observe the laws, decrees, and relevant regulations enacted by the Chinese government and shall not interfere in China’s internal affairs.
2. Party B shall observe party A’s work system and regulations issued by Foreign Expert Bureau and shall accept Party A’s arrangement, direction, supervision and evaluation in regard to Party B’s work. Without Party A’s consent, Party B shall not render service elsewhere or hold concurrently any post unrelated to the work agreed on with Party A.
3. Party B shall complete the tasks agreed on schedule and guarantee the quality of work.
4. Party B shall respect China’s religious policy, and shall not conduct religious activities incompatible with the status of an expert.
5. Party B shall respect the Chinese people’s moral standards and customs.

Ⅶ. Revision, Cancellation, and Termination of the Contract
1. Both parties should abide by the contract and should refrain from revising, canceling, or terminating the contract without mutual consent.
2. The contract can be revised, canceled, or terminated with mutual consent. Before both parties have reached an agreement, the contract should be strictly observed.
3. Party A has the right to cancel the contract with a written notice to Party B under the following conditions:
(1)   Party B does not fulfill the contract or does not fulfill the contract obligations according to the terms stipulated.
(2)   According to the doctor’s diagnosis, Party B cannot resume normal work after a continued 30-day sick leave.
4. Party B has the right to cancel the contract with a written notice to Party A under the following conditions:
(1) Party A has not provided Party B with necessary working and living conditions as stipulated in the contract and in the annex.
(2) Party A has not paid Party B salary as scheduled.
5. Parties wishing to terminate the contract shall make notice in written form 30 days in advance and the contract can be terminated 30 days afterwards with mutual consent.

Ⅷ.Breach Penalty
When either of the two parties fails to fulfill the contract or fails to fulfill the contract obligations according to the terms stipulated, that is, breaks the contract, it must pay a breach penalty of US $ 500 to 2,000(or the equivalent in RMB).
If Party B asks to cancel the contract due to events beyond control, it should produce certifications by the department concerned, obtain Party A’s consent, and pay its own return expenses; if Party B cancels the contract without valid reason, it should pay its own return expenses and pay a breach penalty to Party A.
If Party A asks to cancel the contract due to events beyond control, with the consent of Party B, it should pay Party B’s return expenses; if Party A cancels the contract without valid reason, it should pay Party B’s return expenses and pay a breach penalty to Party B.

Ⅸ.The annex of this contract is an inseparable part of the contract and has equal effect.

Ⅹ. This contract takes effect on the date signed by both parties (on the basis that all the papers concerning Party B or Party B provides are authentic and effective) and will automatically expire when the contract ends. If either of the two parties asks for a new contract, it should put forward its request to another party 90 days prior to the expirations of the contract, and sign the new contract with mutual consent. Party B shall bear all expenses incurred when staying on after the contract expires.
Ⅺ.Arbitration
The two parties shall consult with each other and mediate any disputes, which may arise about the contract. If all attempts fail, the two parties can appeal to the Organization of Arbitration for Foreign Experts’ Affairs in the State Bureau of Foreign Experts and ask for a final arbitration.
This contract is signed at Zhengzhou city, Henan province, China           (Place),_June，2008_, in the Chinese and English languages, both texts being equally authentic.



Party A                                   Party B
(Signature)                               (Signature)


Date                                      Date
 
ANNEX
Ⅰ. Regulations concerning the teaching

1. The working time is five days per week with Saturday and Sunday off (except for the rescheduling of national holidays and school holidays).
2. Party B’s teaching duties are as follows:
(1) Average workload: 16 hours a week. Courses arranged by the institute.
(2) Each academic hour is for the duration of 50 minutes.

Ⅱ. Party B is expected to attend some relevant activities including but not limited to campus activities.

Ⅲ. Party B shall have the medical examination once a year, and Party A will pay the charges.

Ⅳ. Traveling expense:
1.   Traveling allowance of 2,200 Yuan RMB, paid half at the end of each term. (Receipts will be required.)
2.   A round trip economic ticket from Zhengzhou city to ( ) is provided for this contract or 8000RMB as an alternative. The flight tickets will be refunded a month before the end of the contract in () (the official currency of the ()).

Ⅴ. Living conditions:
1. Party B is provided with an apartment on campus during the working period, with necessary living facilities included computer, TV, refrigerator, air conditioner, washing machine, microwave, cooking utensils, etc. The charges for water, electricity, gas for cooking, heating, and internet (school connection) are provided by Party A. Party B must pay for any personal phone and meals.
2. Medicare: Party A will buy Party B the personal accident insurance, and Party B will be provided assistance in buying China’s Medicare. Any accidents occurring on campus and outside campus are under the responsibility of Insurance Company.
3. Vacation and holiday: entitled to vacation as: scheduled legal holidays, school holidays, one day off for Thanksgiving Day, and two days off for Christmas. Vacation and holidays are defined as days off needing a rescheduling of classes.
4. All the costs for the expert certificate and visa during the contract period will be paid by Party A.

Party A                                   Party B
(Signature)                               (Signature)
Date                                      Date










合    同

一、华北水利水电学院（郑州）聘请 美 籍  [NAME WITHELD] 先生  为 外籍教师 。双方本着友好合作精神，自愿签订本合同并保证认真履行合同中约定的各项义务。
二、合同期 2008 年 9月  1  日起至 200 年  7  月 20 日止。（要考虑学期的起止时间）
三、受聘方的工作任务（另附页）。
四、受聘方的月薪为合计人民币 4200  元。本合同期内总薪水为 42000  元人民币+附件3的交通费用。工资发放日为次月8号。一月份为寒假（带薪假），工资与二月份的一起发放。
五、聘方的义务：
1．向受聘方介绍中国有关法律、法规和有关工作制度以及有关外国专家的管理规定。
2．对受聘方的工作进行指导、检查和评估。
3．向受聘方提供必要的工作和生活条件。
4．配备合作共事人员。
5．按时支付受聘方的工资。
6. 尊重受聘方的风俗习惯。
六、受聘方的义务：
1．遵守中国的法律、法规，不干预中国的内部事务。
2．遵守聘方的工作制度和有关外国专家的管理规定，接受聘方的工作安排、业务指导、检查和评估。未经聘方同意，不得兼任与聘方无关的其他劳务。
3．按期完成工作任务，保证工作质量。
4．尊重中国的宗教政策，不从事与专家身份不符的活动。
5．尊重中国人民的道德规范和风俗习惯。
6. 配合聘方参加每年一次的体检。
七、合同的变更、解除和终止：
1、双方应信守合同，未经双方一致同意，任何一方不得擅自更改、解除和终止合同。
2、经当事人双方协商同意后，可以变更、解除和终止合同。在未达成一致意见前，仍应当严格履行合同。
3、 聘方在下述条件下，有权以书面形式通知受聘方解除合同：
(1) 受聘方不履行合同或者履行合同义务不符合约定条件，经聘方指出后，仍不改正的。
(2) 根据医生诊断，聘方在病假连续30天后不能恢复正常工作的。
4、受聘方在下述情况下，有权以书面形式通知聘方解除合同：
（1）聘方未按合同约定提供受聘方必要的工作和生活条件；
（2）聘方未按时支付受聘方报酬。
5、当事人一方要求解除合同，应提前30天以书面形式向另一方提出，30天后经双方同意方可解除合同。
八、违约金：
当事人一方不履行合同或者履行合同义务不符合约定条件，即违反合同时，应当向另一方支付500~2000美元（或相当数额的人民币）的违约金。
受聘方因不可抗力事件要求解除合同，需出具有关机构证明，经聘方同意后，离华的费用自理；受聘方若无故解除合同，除离华费用自理外，还应当向聘方支付违约金。
聘方因不可抗力事件要求解除合同，经受聘方同意后，离华费用由聘方负担；聘方若无故解除合同，除负担受聘方离华费用外，还应当向受聘方支付违约金。
九. 合同附件是合同的一部分，与合同具有同等法律效力。
十、本合同自双方签字之日起生效（须以受聘方相关材料的真实有效为前提），合同期满即自行失效。当事人一方要求签订新合同，必须在本合同期满90天前向另一方提出，经双方协商同意后签订新合同。受聘方合同期满后，在华逗留期间的一切费用自理。
十一、仲裁
当事人双方发生合同纠纷时，尽可能通过协商或者调解解决。若协商、调解无效，可向国家外国专家局设立的外国文教专家事务仲裁机构申请仲裁。
本合同于2008 年_6_月在中华人民共和国河南省郑州市 华北水利水电学院（地点）签订，一式两份，每份都用中文和  英  文写成，两种文本具有同等法律效力。

聘方（签字）                                   受聘方（签字）


 年    月    日                                 年    月   日



附    件
1、受聘方工作时间为每周5天（周一至周五，要遵从法定假日和学校假日的安排），教学安排如下：
（1）受聘方平均每周工作16学时，由学院安排课程；
（2）每学时时间为50分钟。
2、受聘方参加包括但不限于学校组织的有关活动.
3、受聘方每年须参加一次体检，费用由聘方支付。
4、交通费用：
（1）本合同期内支付受聘方国内旅游补助2,200元人民币，每学期末支付一半。须凭票给予报销。
（2）合同期满聘方提供受聘方一张郑州至      的往返机票（经济仓）或者人民币8000元作为机票补贴。
5、受聘方在中国工作期间，聘方应为受聘方提供以下条件：
（1）在合同期限内，聘方提供受聘方免费住房、必要生活设施计算机、电视、洗衣机、
空调、冰箱、微波炉、厨具等。聘方承担水、电、天然气、供热及校园网络费用。受聘方承担本人的一日三餐及电话费。
（2）保险：在合同期内，聘方为受聘方购买人身意外险，并协助受聘方购买医疗保险。受聘方在合同期内发生的校内或校外意外事件，其责任都由个人承保的保险公司承担。
（3）休假：按照中国法定假日休假。另外，感恩节调休一天，圣诞节可调休两天。
（4）合同期内，受聘方办理专家证及签证所需费用由聘方全部承担。


聘方（签字）                                   受聘方（签字）


              年    月    日                                 年    月   日

This is pretty much the standard SAFEA contract, used by most State schools.

- THE SALARY IN THE CHINESE SIDE OF YOUR CONTRACT IS LOWER THAN IN THE ENGLISH PART! Get this corrected right away!

- I don't see specific mention of a Work and Residence Permit. Probably not a problem if this is a State school, but have this added IN WRITING to the contract Annex. Don't sign without it.

- For your air ticket, add in the city you want to go to before signing.

- Make sure the apartment you get is FULLY PRIVATE, not shared. Try to get this in writing. Negotiating an off-campus apartment is possible but unlikely.

- University classroom hours tend to come with a HUGE load of grading, preparation, and so on. In my opinion, 4500 for 16 hours is not very good...although people will probably again come leaping out of the woodwork to tell you how wonderful their similar salary is. In general, university salaries are fixed by the government and aren't very negotiable...but reduced hours or other benefits may be.

Also, how much do you know about Zhengzhou? Perhaps not the, uh...A-list city to choose. It's very isolated, remote, and dull, without very many other foreigners or foreign goodies. I've known a few folks who lived there; few had much kind to say about it. Still, it's not quite the worst city you could go to...

Good catch on the difference in salary between the two contract versions, Raoul.

What caught my attention was they are paying you for 10 months, yet your contract is for almost 11 months.  If you aren't teaching during July, I guess this is okay, but you could get them to add a clause about prorating July's salary. 

Also, try to get an idea of what

some relevant activities including but not limited to campus activities

actually means.  There should be an upper limit as to what you are required to do.  Get it in writing if you can.  This may not be possible as some activities will be planned by the students and admin will not have this information now.  You could ask for something like 'not to exceed 18 hours in any given week when combined with teaching hours' or 'not to exceed 30 hours during a semester'.  My uni combines the extra duties with the teaching hours and I shouldn't exceed 16 a week.  They came up with a formula to average it out over the semester and I ended up doing 1.7 hours overtime a week, for which I will be compensated with extra salary.

Sorry, I'm not familiar with the school or the city, so can't add anything helpful there.

What about Sick Leave days?  Heaven forbid you should come down with the 'Flu, or  Chicken Pox.  How many days can you take off? and do you have to make them up?

Yeah, the contract was vague in my opinion. I have told them I tenitevely accepted but wanted to run it past "some friends" hehe.

Good catch on the Chinese salary deal, thanks.
I'll ask about the "relevant activities including but not limited to campus activities" as well, because that could be anything.

They had originally offered me 4k/mo, but I told them no, so they came back with 4200. I mulled it over and then told them I had found a position in Guangdong for 6k/mo, so they countered with 4500/mo and a huge dissertation about the economic differences between Zhengzhou and Guangdong. She (the recruiter) told me 4500 in Zhengzhou is a damn good salary (of course she told me that...).

I was a little worried about Zhengzhou being 'foreignerless' with regard to my sanity. I have heard it's a lonely place to be for foreigners. From what I gather, not many people there speak English.
@ Raoul: do you know anyone that's lived there that I could correspond with?

Thanks for the help guys and gals.

Thanks, guys...I'd meant to question the "extra events" and the sick days too and they slipped my mind.

A certain amount of horseshit when talking about money is inevitable in China. Don't buy into it too much... And especially don't buy into the "the average person here only makes 800 RMB a month" nonsense...the average person here has a standard of living that will send you screaming for the next plane home.

4500 is probably kinda adequate for Zhengzhou or any other lower-tier city. Plain and simple.

And...PLEEZE tell me you aren't using a recruiter. They can too easily very, very bad news indeed. If you can't deal directly with a principal of the school you're considering, bail out and run. There's lots of stuff in here about the dark and sordid history of EFL teacher recruiters in China....

I'm not really currently in touch with anyone who lived in Zhengzhou. I have the e-mail of an old Australian friend who lived there a year; I'll see if I can raise him for you. But I do know he hated Zhengzhou with a purple passion....

Thanks, Raoul. I appreciate the help.

This woman doesn't work for an agency, she's a university employee.

Zhengzhou is a smaller city with its agricultural roots still evident. In recent years it has experienced its share of China's strong growth and development, helping make the city a little more attractive as a place to live. Being the countries transport hub also makes getting to and from other cities easy and relatively convenient.

Foreigners are still a little bit of a novelty, though they do exist, so you shouldn't find yourself foreigner-less and may meet some of the locals who speak (reasonably) fluent English. 

4500RMB would be an average teaching income in Zhengzhou, so should provide a reasonable living standard.

Thanks a lot, Eternalkiwi, I appreciate the info, and makes me feel a little bit better about moving there.

I'm hoping they'll bump up the pay after I get a year under my belt to 5500 or higher. If they don't, well, there's always another teaching job down the street

How much Zhengzhou meets your needs I guess will depend a little on what you are used to (big city / small city / rural / provincial area) and what your expectations are. Zhengzhou is definitely not Beijing or Shanghai though with a over 5 million people it is not too quiet either.

There are a large number of education providers in the city, so if you enjoy living there you will have a range of other places to work.

Since I speak 4 words of Chinese (three of which are foods), I was a little worried about English support there.

There are other foreigners there.  Zhengzhou is also reasonably close to Shaolin Temple and that place gets a LOT of tourist trade.

Since I speak 4 words of Chinese (three of which are foods), I was a little worried about English support there.

If one of those words is chicken, you might have more fun than you expect.

There are an increasing number of foreigners studying at the universities in and around Zhengzhou which may offer another opportunity to meet with English speakers.