[petermcd]

I've been working in tech in Beijing for 9 years. Many multinational companies will give you a bit of a bump (perhaps in the form of a higher working grade) since you're from overseas, but it's not huge. To earn that, the company might expect you to help with communication/project management.

One tactic I've seen work in professional services (lawyers, accounts I've met here) is to just take whatever job you can find when you show up, and then, after a year, once you've built a bit of a network and have proven you can hack it in China, to move on to something that pays more.

Another option is to do something entrepreneurial. I know folks who source products from China that they then sell online via their own e-commerce sites.