Sean Wall lives in Beijing and is the deputy managing director of DHL-Sinotrans. His son Brendon, 10, attends the Western Academy of Beijing (WAB), chosen because it is close to home. Mr Wall, whose firm pays for his son's schooling, thinks school fees in the mainland are among the highest in Asia.
Fees in Beijing and Shanghai, for instance, can run as high as 180,000 yuan a year at secondary level.
'We used to live in Indonesia, and the value for money there compared with China was much better,' Mr Wall said. 'There are many new schools here now but it seems they are mostly run as businesses. The general feeling is that standards are lower than at the WAB or International School of Beijing (ISB). And some schools have long waiting lists, which reduces quality.'
But schools say their fees reflect the level of education being offered and are fair. They have to have high fees to pay high salaries to attract the best teachers.
While foreigners, many of whom do not receive expatriate packages and may not necessarily be earning high salaries, struggle to find affordable education, the number of schools is growing.
But the talk among schools is not only about serving the foreign community. Like numerous other foreign enterprises before them, they have their eyes on the local market, when it opens. 'It is a frontier right now,' said John Stadler, editor-in-chief of the recently launched Stadler's Education Guide to Beijing and Shanghai. 'China is a real hotspot. The growth rate for international schools is about 15 per cent a year.'