That is actually kind of scary. There must be nice Chinese people, but I guess businesswise unless you already know that they will fuck you over if the have the chance, it's better not to go there. I don't know anything about Chinese laws, but it is really fucked up and scary that they can scam you so badly and get away with little to no consequences.
Once upon a time there was a cute little baby called Qidian. Then it grew bigger and cuter and Shanda (盛大) was like, "mmm... I'd like a piece of that." So then Shanda bribed Qidian with some money and adopted him Qidian grew and grew and grew until one day, evil penguin Tencent (腾讯) was like, "mmm... I'd like a piece of that." So then evil penguin Tencent bribed Qidian with a lot of money and adopted him Evil penguin Tencent took one look his cute little slave Qidian and started flogging the whip So then Qidian had to jack up the prices on everything Qidian: You want to be VIP member? That'll be $500 Reader: But I thought it was $30. What happened? Qidian: Evil penguin Tencent happened And that folks, is the story of how Qidian fell into the clutches of greedy grimy evil penguin Tencent
Lol I gotta say... its pretty accurate. (The first few posts anyway, I didn't read everything.) I have tons of stories from my mum and her peeps about going to China and getting scammed when not careful. Chinese people scam everyone including other chinese. That said, it's still a pretty nice place with good view and rich history, and when you're not dealing with the money hungry ones, you meet really nice Chinese people. Some of them are really nice. I'm referring to the mainland ones in this post.
There are lots of sources for you to learn Mandarin online, just search and pick the right ones for you by yourself. If you have any problem during learning, feel free to ask.
When learning Mandarin, make sure you don't go 6 hours at a time trying to learn. Give yourself breaks, otherwise you'll think it's just work. Feel free to ask anyone if you have trouble.
You can try https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hellochinese&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chineseskill these two are basically mandarin counterparts to duolingo. I also use memrise. and for listening purposes I listen to learning podcasts and watch dramas. I hope this helps
Or... you could learn Chinese and not use it for work???? I speak Chinese and can read a decent amount, but I have never been paid for my Chinese skills nor does my employer care if I speak Chinese or not.