Teaching English without a degree.

[hedwards]

If you want to teach legally you'll need a Z visa, which requires the TESL, CELTA, TEFL or something that's equivalent. AFAICT the only visas that China offers for more than 6 months are Z visas and X visas for work and study respectively.

You might get away with teaching illegally, but if you're caught there would be penalties. The credentials are easy enough to get anyways. Some can be had with just $1k and a week in class. After which you can apply to work legally.

Now, there is the F cultural exchange option, but that's not supposed to be real work. That's basically volunteer time where they might give you a small stipend or living allowance. And you'll want to be really careful about the terms you work under.

Lastly, if you're doing this sort of work without appropriate documentation, there's even fewer protections than there are normally for foreign workers. You might end up unpaid and you would be unable to file a complaint as you'd be in China illegally. Same basic problem as illegal immigrants in the US few rights and a hard time enforcing the ones you do have.

Also, the pay is substantially higher, it's not unheard of to be making over 5000 RMB a month even with room and board covered by the school. And that's part time work, I know of folks making nearly double that for 40 hour work weeks.