Signed a contract, should I have?

[newtoit]

So I signed a contract to teach at a college in Beijing. Salary is 10k/mo and includes an apartment or 2500 for housing, 500 for food, and the agent says I am only required to work a 15 hour week.

The contract though states that I need to "fully participate in student extra-curricular activities" (Which I was told means assemblies and group presentations/projects), and has a bunch of conditions about how I must "adhere to Chinese cultural norms, such as no excessive drinking, practicing religion, criticizing the government etc. etc.", and it also includes an exclusivity contract, so no private tutoring unless I break the rules.

The most worrisome factor for me though are the breach penalties for violating the contract. It states that both parties can be fined like up to $3k(USD) or 3-10 month's salary, and I'm confused as to which one they would enforce, would they try to corner me and say I owe them like 100k? (~$15,400usd?) I am worried I could get accused of breaching one of the many conditions of this deal and be told I have to fork up up to a year's wages. Could it be that the 3-10 month's salary clause pertains mostly to the latter party's (school's) breach, and the fore-stated $3k amount pertains to my breaching the contract? Was the document was just poorly written in English? There is a chinese version of the the contract that I was told to sign too, and I am having a close Chinese friend cross-check it with the English version to make sure they are the same.

I know that contracts in China are usually pretty extreme like this, but I would be interested to hear what some of the more experienced TEFL teachers think of this, and also what they think of the deal overall.

I heard about the job through a reply to my resume posting on Dave's ESL cafe, and was contacted through an agent.

Finally, in the event I do get hit with some ridiculous breach penalty that I don't even have the money to cover, what do I do? Would most teachers just cut and run back home?

[Grizzly]

Which university is this? Most all universities in China are pretty honorable places to work, but a handful have a bad rep. Check the China school and university blacklists. The compensation package you received is on target. Web sites that can get you up to speed on pay issues:

http://chinascamwatch.org

http://EslWatch.info/forum/china

http://www.chinaforeignteachersunion.org