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Kindergartens:
Working full time in a kindergarten is not for the faint-hearted. Young female teachers seem to handle the snot, hyperactivity, and pencil-case politics best.It can be both exhausting and mind-numbingly boring.Warning: if you hate singing don’t apply. However, working with children can also be extremely rewarding. The kids have almost no inhibitions and are very affectionate. Even the most grizzled middle-aged expat barfly will find himself, at least sometimes, getting affected by the innocence and cuteness of the kids. If you have any say in the matter, try to make sure the lessons are short (best for their attention span and your energy span) and that you will always have a Chinese teaching assistant in the classroom to keep the kids herded.

Recommendation: teach kindergarten on a part-time basis while working for a private language school which can give you a working visa. Kindergarten hours (usually mornings) tend to fit well with the hours offered by private language schools (usually evenings and weekends).

Private Language Schools
These schools tend to concentrate on children aged between 4 and 12. The teaching hours are usually whenever elementary school is out (typically weekday evenings from 5pm to 8pm) or on the weekends (daytime hours). The advantages of teaching in a private language school are:

1. Class sizes tend to be small (usually less than 15 kids, as opposed to kindergartens and government schools where classes can be upwards of 40 students). Unless you’ve tried teaching 40 kids in a class, you’ll never know how much easier it is to control just 15.
2. Usually the working hours are concurrent (you won’t have to sit around over long lunch breaks) and you only need to be there while you’re teaching.
3. Most private language schools are franchises, so they have their own syllabus, teachers’ guides, and bilingual Chinese assistants in the classroom to help you.
4. Since you only teach in the evenings on weekdays, you’re left with a lot of time to nurse your hangover, study Chinese, or play with your X-box.

The obvious disadvantage of private language schools is that you have to work on the weekends. This kind of teaching tends to suit young teachers who love to stay up late (since they can sleep in every morning) or those with a serious pursuit, like learning a language, writing a novel or finding an internet wife.

Government Elementary/Middle Schools
This teaching often involves very large class sizes (up to 50 kids), textbooks that don’t make any sense, and a syllabus that might just as well have been made by a monkey randomly typing on a keyboard.Having said that, there are always exceptions, particularly in more remote cities where the students tend to have a real interest in improving their English. Students in big cities often have attitude problems, which get progressively worse as they get older.As a general rule, elementary school students (aged 6 to 11) are much nicer than middle school students (12 to 17). Elementary students should be old enough to get down to some serious work without needing 5 minute singing breaks all the time (see Kindergarten Teaching), but young enough to retain a certain enthusiasm for learning.

It seems safe to say that Chinese children mature (at least mentally) more slowly than those in the west. They're expected to make fewer of their own decisions and are regarded as children almost until they leave home, without ever going through a 'young adult' stage. This is probably most apparent in senior middle school and first year university students.Never try to make your students choose a partner of the opposite sex. You’ll soon see the class forming into two embarrassed single-sex groups, and uttering such risque words as 'kiss' could result in a terminal fit of the giggles.

Adults
Teaching adults is completely different from teaching kids. Teaching kids is like an assembly line: class after class using the same techniques,and even playing the same games. Once you’ve learned the skills you can comfortably get through a day of back to back classes, and usually enjoy it as well (assuming there aren’t too many students in the class).Children enjoy games, and are easily entertained.They love to laugh,throw a ball or dice, run around,jump and sing, and most importantly, they aren’t shy.
Adults, on the other hand, are like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get. Some classes are full of arrogant businessmen full of one-upmanship, others are all 20-year old office girls hoping for a date, and then there’s the killer: 10 introverts with their eyes glued to the desk even though they’ve signed up for a Conversation Class. Many inexperienced teachers assume that teaching adults is going to be easy because they can always wing it.Actually, it’s never easy to make it up as you go. Adults are more discerning.Also, adults have usually paid for the class with their own hard-earned money, so their expectations are higher.You can’t fill in awkward silences by playing paper-scissors-stone or throwing the dice, and you can’t get cheap laughs out of adults by pretending to be a monkey.

Business English Teaching:
Teaching business English usually requires a TEFL/TESOL certification and a heavy workload. Working hours are typically in the evenings and on the weekend. However, the students in this setting are very eager to learn and work hard (due to having paid the fees with their own money).

Universities
Working for universities is not lucrative and often does not pay for airfare, but usually includes room and board and gives you the chance to work with students who often have a fairly high level of English.

Summer and Winter Camps
These are the best way to make some extra money while traveling. Lasting from one week to one month, you can make RMB 5,000 (about $600) for two weeks. Although these are intense work environments, it is well worth it. Not only is it a great experience to interact with kids, but you also get the chance to spend time with Chinese teachers and college students (like camp counselors). You can also consider working at a camp during a holiday from your regular job.

Part-Time Teaching and Tutoring
This is something you can generally do only after living in China for a while. Find students by posting ads on web sites or through personal connections you make while teaching. Students are readily available.