Has anyone been an au pair in China?

I want to travel inAsia, but I am on quite a tight budget, I have been an au pair before for families in Europe and was wondering if there were similar opportunities in China?

Is your Chinese fluent enough for Chinese families or would you be limited to expats? I'm sure expat families would love to have you however I think it would be very hard to get a visa as you would not be considered a "foreign expert". Try some of the expat websites such as Asiaexpat.com

I don't see why you need to be considered a foreign expert to get a visa to go to China and stay with families. The only thing is you need to register with the police station.

The challenge is to find a place. Not so sure that many expats would be so keen.

There are a lot of Chinese familes who are interested to find a foreigner as an au pair. They value more about the language and culture exchange than sharing the house work. You don't need to be very fluent in Chinese.

You can apply for a L visa to come to China.

I am establishing a website for foreigners who wants to come to China as an au pair. It's a platform for Chinese families and au pairs to select each other. Please leave me your email address so that I can inform you once it's launched. Moreover, at the beginning I would like to let people like you who are really interested to try my service for free. Thank you! My email is : 

It is illegal to work for a Chinese company if you only have a tourist visa.

Au pairs can visit China and stay with the family like a tourist. It's not necessary for them to "work" in China.

It will be so much fun to deal with immigration officials if they believe you are "working", or the family is paying you for services provided.

Assuming they provide the necessary paperwork it should be ok (usually for a maximium of 6 months). In your OP you said you wanted to travel, though. This kind of thing is more about being based in one city, isn't it? I guess you'd just have weekends off.

A large number of english teachers in China work with tourist visas. Often the school will hire them on that basis and then look after the visa formalities if they like the work being performed.