Although familiarized with Chinese lifestyles and business culture, Hashiguchi may not be aware that the first foreigner to obtain a working permit was a Japanese person working in Shanghai.

According to the Shanghai Municipal Government, 54,608 foreigners worked in Shanghai, China's financial and economic center, in 2006, with Japanese expatriates making up the biggest share with a work force of about 20,000.

In recent years, the Japanese and Americans ranked as the top two nations with the largest labor forces in Shanghai, according to Sun Hande, Director of the Shanghai Job Center for Foreigners. While workers from Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries used to fill the third spot, South Korea has since increased its work force presence in China in recent years.

Job opportunities in China seem endless as international business conducted in China continues to expand, Liu said.

American Brian Donohue, Managing Director of Global OEM Systems for Andrew Solutions based in Beijing, arrived in China in 1997, and stayed for three years.

After working in the United States, Argentina and Indonesia for Andrew Solutions, a wireless communication system developer, Donohue requested a reassignment—he wanted to go back to China and eventually returned in 2004.

With the Chinese telecom industry going global, Andrew has assisted top Chinese players like Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (Huawei) and ZTE Corp. to expand its market presence in China, as well as markets such as Brazil, India, Europe and Africa, said Donohue, describing one of the reasons for his decision to return to China.

While expatriates making their bread money in China may find the lifestyle and general atmosphere appealing, adjusting to a different corporate culture can prove to be a difficult obstacle to overcome.

"Obviously China is one of the emerging global players in the world economy, so building business networks has been a big deciding factor in my decision to spend more time in China," said Goodin.

"As everything is harder and takes a little longer in China than in Australia, you have to approach matters with a certain expectation," said Goodin. "You have to have more patience and do everything more philosophically. With this type of attitude you will solve problems quicker."

Teaching as a career

While Goodin and Hashiguchi were the lone-foreigners in their respective offices, the foreign language teaching industry often has a larger number of foreigners working at a single educational institution, Liu said.

Since the demand for foreign language teachers has grown beyond the boundaries of universities and colleges to also incorporate the needs of international and private language schools, the education industry has become the largest employer of foreigners in China, Liu said.

Fifty-year-old Brazilian native Marilia Borges Costa came to China in 2004 to teach Portuguese at Peking University as part of a joint program between the Brazilian Embassy and the university. When her contract expired two years later, she decided to stay and was later introduced to a Beijing-based university to teach English.

Marilia is paid 6,500 yuan ($956) a month (before taxation) for 12 class hours a week. Additional accommodations as part of her teaching package include insurance, an apartment and an air ticket home once a year, a standard at many public schools. For extra teaching hours, the university pays 120 yuan ($17.6) an hour.

"My Chinese colleagues are kind to me and I also get along well with my students," said Marilia.

Since Marilia is fluent in Chinese, she spends most of her time learning the ancient Chinese language.

Teaching salaries vary, but most public schools in larger cities pay foreigners between 5,000 yuan ($735.3) and 8,000 yuan ($1,176.5) for a maximum 20 class hours a week. In secondary cities, the monthly salary is closer to 4,000 yuan ($588.2), Liu said. Private, international and preparatory schools offer higher salaries, ranging from 15,000 yuan ($2,206) to 20,000 yuan ($2,941) a month, but do not offer extra accommodations.

Six months ago, after five years of directing an academic enrichment program and teaching social studies at a private school, American middle school teacher Jeff Ochs decided to move back to China with his Chinese fiancée. After an American friend introduced him to a university in Beijing, Jeff applied and was offered a job. He now teaches academic writing, academic communication, and critical thinking to Chinese students preparing to study abroad in English-speaking countries. "The job fits my skills and I enjoy this program," Ochs said. "I teach classes for 20 hours a week and provide 10 additional office hours. I spend almost four hours with the same class each week, allowing me to get to know my students better. I've heard this is different from many university teaching jobs in China."

Although teaching positions offer the most viable job prospects for foreigners, many require a bachelor's degree and teaching certificate, Liu said. At some public universities, at least two years of teaching experience is also required.