In addition to salary and housing, most schools offer some sort of nominal health-related insurance as well as travel benefits to their foreign teachers. It is customary, at private English language schools, to reimburse foreign teachers for their one-way airfare to China upon completion of a six-month contract (or after completion of the initial six months of a one-year contract) and, then, to reimburse them for their return airfare home at the completion of a one-year contract. Some schools offer straight reimbursement, others offer fixed amounts irrespective of actual costs (and the fixed amount is often less than the actual costs). In some cases, especially at government universities, the travel allowance is simply deferred income that is paid irrespective of whether one travels or not (usually 1,100 to 2,200 yuan paid just before the Spring Festival and an additional 5,000 to 10,000 yuan paid at the end of the contract). Of course, if one is credentialed and experienced, benefits such as plane fare and travel allowance can often be successfully negotiated before signing the contract. If you have a master's degree in any field, but especially English or linguistics (or a related discipline), you should be able to successfully arrange for a 12-month contract (up front and not contingent upon renewal) and 10,000 yuan per year as a bonus paid semi-annually (in lieu of travel compensation), when negotiating with a public or private university.
As a rule, medical or health benefits are limited to accidental injury insurance, and foreign teachers are advised to either extend their current health benefits (to cover them in China) or to look into supplementing their health benefits with insurance plans designed specifically for foreign teachers (see, for example, Globasurance and Goodhealth Worldwide).
Standard "health benefits" at government universities typically include coverage of up to 80% of 2,000 RMB, maximum, for outpatient services and 80% of 10,000 RMB, maximum, for inpatient services related to accidental injuries only. If, for example, you develop a respiratory infection or contract the flu, visits to the hospital and the cost of your medication will not be covered by the school's accidental injury insurance policy. However, the cost of a hospital visit is typically no more than six to eight yuan (less than $1.12 USD), and medication costs tend to be considerably less than they would be for similar medications in the West (assuming the medication is real).
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