The following information was gathered from http://middlekingdomlife.com/guide/english-teaching-jobs-china.htm.

As a rule, public schools and universities hire foreign teachers on 10-month contracts commencing sometime in late August, which means they start reviewing applications during the preceding March and April of that academic year (see China’s Educational System for more information). If you are interested in working for a government school or university, your application should reach them about a week or two following the commencement of the spring semester (sometime in February or March, and certainly no later than early April, depending on the lunar calendar). Although a few universities do post advertisements on EFL job websites, most do not, so you will have to be proactive in finding listings and contact information for universities that hire foreign English teachers. Please check our EFL Teacher Resources page for a listing of EFL websites that provide such information.

Although many private English language schools are organized across the same two-semester system that public schools adhere to, just as many do hire foreign English teachers all year round, especially those that have very successful adult and corporate training departments.

However, you need to carefully consider that although a private school can provide you with the flexibility to start teaching in China at just about any time during the year you care to, doing so can be extremely self-limiting in terms of future employment. That is, if your six-month or one-year contract anniversary date falls after or significantly before August or February, you will either have to continue to work at private language schools for as long as you are in China or face the extremely troublesome necessity of having to break your contract and pay a considerable breach penalty in order to later seek employment at a public school or university (assuming the private school even agrees to let you go on good terms and most will not). Consequently, if you are a qualified foreign teacher, i.e., you have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree and two years of teaching experience, you should coordinate your commencement date at a private school so that it corresponds closely to the academic calendar followed by the public school system.

Exercise Extreme Caution When Choosing Your First School

By far, most people find English teaching jobs in China by reading and responding to advertisements posted on TEFL websites on the Internet. Please bear in mind, though, that acceptance of an advertisement should never be construed as an endorsement of the credibility of that employer by that website: Ads are accepted strictly because they generate income for the website owner and not necessarily because the employer is reputable (even when there is strong anecdotal evidence that, in fact, the employer is not reputable). Job advertisements are a very profitable business for China EFL websites, not a foreign teacher public service.

Although many foreigners do have rewarding experiences teaching English in China, there are more than a few teachers who have suffered horrendous ordeals. Due to the vast differences in culture, and no less so to the enormous language barrier, it is absolutely imperative you exercise extreme caution when choosing your first school in China. The reason for this is that a newcomer—who is still disoriented from his long trip with no Chinese language skills or knowledge of the local laws and customs—is entirely at the mercy of that school's integrity and legitimacy. In essence, one becomes either supported and protected or, conversely, desperately entrapped and menaced by whatever circumstances he or she just happens to encounter at that first position.