You'll need to get a job before you come, it's the way the visa system works.

I consider all provinces from Fujian toward HK as warm spots. ... I've never been on Hainan, but I was reading some very negative reviews on Hainan Training mills.

You can most likely get an English (part-time) teaching job on arrival, but if you change your mind later and want to be employed legally with Z visa, you will be required to return home and apply for visa at Chinese Embassy.

I think, it's much wiser to start with proper visa in China from the start .... since you are still home.

You won't find cheap housing on Hainan 'cause that is an island full of tourists.

Have a look at the housing at nearest island to your home. It isn't (supply/demand) any different in China.

It is illegal to work on any visa other than a work visa. You could probably get an illegal PT gig in a training center somewhere, but it really isn't worth the risk of fines/deportation/ban from entering china if caught. Also, be aware that there are unscrupulous recruiters who get people jobs and then immediately turn them in for the reward (it happened to a guy that my previous school had hired. He was in HK to change his business visa to a work visa and tried to pick up some PT work while he was there; they were waiting for him at the job site)

Check the job boards and apply. Simple as that. Then scan the forums for visa requirements. All easy and straight forward.

But be aware... Guangdong climate looks good on paper. But fuck me, when its hot, its fucking hot.

Hot, sticky, humid. Very very unpleasant in summer.

Good luck.

If you wanted to work and still stay legal (at least I assume it's legal) you could look at online teaching. There are companies that pay you to do classes via skype or something similar.

Also, don't count on being able to rent an apartment short term, most leases are long term and you usually need to pay six months to a year rent up front. Coming in on a tourist visa means you'd have about a month in China, you might be able to find a hostel or something for that time.

Thanks everyone for the responses. Much easier to just ask a question on here rather than dig through the internet for answers. I'll consider everything and perhaps maybe just go on a short holiday to Hainan when I'm there. 

Never mind all the litter!  

Sanya housing price is close to sixth ring road in Beijing 

hi,   rent house in hainan is quite cheap than beijing or shanghai.

but, find the teacher job in hainan maybe not easy. because hainan economical data not very good.

anyway, hainan is realy a nice place to live, you can enjoy sunshine and seaside anytimes.

I know housing price in Hainan is much cheaper than beijing, cheaper than 5th ring road.

Haikou s like any smaller Chinese city, Sanya is okay and different, but not, in my opinion, good.

there was a scam with hainan involving Chinese only about 5 years ago

The mayor of Jinan took a tour group to the island and discovered a restaurant had 3 menus. local paid 20 rmb for a bowl of noodles, chinese tourist 40 rmb, foreigner 80 rmb and apparently this was prevalent everywhere.

The review of hainan for me is some areas are clean and maintained but the majority of the areas are like taking hawaii and filling it with too many people and too much trash and garbage and clean out only 90 percent of the trash and do this over and over for years and years and then get the result. The place is gradually going down, so see it before it becomes a ghetto in 30 years.

Travel agencies in Jinan don't promote Hainan anymore and the mayor is still pissed off 5 years later.

Wait Wait Wait, I am the best person here to answer this question.

Why? My wife is from Hainan, I have to go there every year and I hate it, Hainan is boring, but Sanya is nice like others said, but didn't you know that Sanya only allow foreigners to stay at 5 Star hotels? Thats like 3000RMB, its gov deal to help keep top hotels in Business. Renting will cost you a lot in Sanya, now Haikou, the 3rd generational city in Hainan as I call it, I feel like I step into a time machine each time I go from Shenzhen to Hainan, so in short Haikou the main city is old baby, and I mean old, at least in my eyes.

Now here's where you are making the biggest mistake, you wanna study Chinese speaking? Impossible in Hainan! Impossible! Why? They speak "Haka" dialect in Hainan, a native dialect, seldom do they speak mandarin unless required, but like my mother in law she can't speak mandarin, she can only speak Haka.

Now Its best to just head on over to good and new Shenzhen, get a job and study, teach kids because kids are perfect to start learning how to speak mandarin.