These people should just move to the countries they are pretending to be from then. $200 goes a lot farther in the Philippines than it does in the U.S.
That's one of the reasons I'm moving to southwestern China this fall. Making freelance/telecommute USD will enable me to live quite nicely in Kunming.
(PS if anyone needs an experienced Rails/Java/Python/whatever-you-need-me-to-learn coder and can deal with a 9-12hr time difference, my contact info is in my profile)
I lived in Suzhou, China in 2008 and did freelance work through oDesk. I found it worthwhile to always mention that English was my native language. Other than an initial interview, none of my work required telephone (Skype) communication so the timezone was not a factor. My first job on oDesk was only $8/hr as I just wanted to try it out but after that my rate jumped to over $20/hr and I never really had a tough time getting work. I have found going above $30 to be tougher to find work but then I haven't actively been looking for freelance work since being back. It should be a great experience for you!
Sounds like fun! Kunming is a beautiful city. Be sure to take a train up to Dali sometime, and hike down Tiger Leaping Gorge. If you want suggestions on what to do, feel free to contact me.
We chose Kunming primarily because of my wife's work-- she is going to document the foodways of the many minority communities in Yunnan before they all disappear via migration or assimilation.
I am learning Mandarin, albeit in my spare time. My wife speaks it well enough to function.
To the other posters: am definitely planning to visit Dali-- in fact we might end up moving there after a year or so if Kunming proves a bit too much like every other Chinese city (crowded, polluted, charmless).
I visited Suzhou 2 years ago -- very pretty city with many of the older sections in the center of town well-preserved, but they were just building the new subway, and SIP and the surrounding suburbs made it feel like the old ways were quite literally under seige from all sides (literally as well as figuratively).
The real challenge (besides finding work that pays USD and includes health insurance, learning Mandarin, etc.) will be to figure out a way to get Z visas so we can take our cats with us! ;) Will need some kind of nominal Chinese employer.
Re: pointing out a negative-- let's just say that this is a very different audience than any other place I'd be looking for work.
If anyone has specific tips for finding FT remote/telecommute jobs (not oDesk/rentacoder/etc), I'd love to hear them!
Around that time, I will be in the Shenzhen area to setup shop, and if my trajectory remains the same as it is now, I will most certainly love to have a remote HN news software developer on doing our projects, but who is near enough to visit once in a while. Pay would not be $200, but will be very very good. So please get in contact with me close to the time you are about to go, maybe I will have something.
I've been in Kunming, I liked it, but it is quite laid back compared to Chongqing or central china. There is no bustle like in other parts of china.
The wife of my friend is a Yi minority from Yunnan, so if your wife would like to live with and talk to some of the original Yi up in the mountains (about 3 or 4 hours from Kunming), I can arrange that for you. The name of the village is something like laomon, but I must be spelling it wrong because I can't find it on google maps.
You can bring pets into China with a normal visa. Get a 6 month business visa, when you are in china you can get a z-visa through local contacts. If you can't you can just go to hong kong after 6 months, step out, renew it and be back in china in one day.
