Thanks everyone for the replies. I read "Flying Upside Down," seems like it's the wild wild west out there. I had kind of assumed quality of life would be bad and that it would be part of the trade off. Can't have it all. Don't get to have high cruise speeds and keep the stall speed of a c172.
Looks like the answer will be to stay doing what I'm doing and upgrade in about a year. I was hoping scheduled air carrier is scheduled air carrier, but if it doesn't count as 121 time my U.S. career would be stuck in neutral.
Looks like PIC will provide the best bang for buck. 15k a month for 6 wks on, 3 off.
Sparkle Roll Airlines Legacy 650 Captains | VOR Holdings
Hopefully I could take time off work to try to jump thru the medical hoops and make it thru sims/whatever training. If so then if I didn't make it I could go back to work and wouldn't have lost anything except time, the money I could have made during that time, and the blow to my ego.
A320 captains get 16k a month for 4 on, 4 off. They only want captains though. So I would have to get hired by a LCC, wait years to upgrade, and by then make a decent wage/QOL so the total benefit differential in China wouldn't be nearly as staggering.
There's also the cost of giving up seniority and assuming I was able to get a job coming back, having to come back at the bottom of the seniority list again. This cost would be minimized by going to China as soon as eligible. Not much seniority to lose if I go as a very junior captain, and for me it's a LOT faster to junior CA of a E145 than an A320.
Guess I'll stick it out for a year and see. I just hate the idea of putting it off. It's too easy to say "oh, I'll do it next year" and get complacent where I'm at, or have life get in the way and for whatever reason not be willing to make the jump.
The tax is the kicker though. Having to pay tax vs not having to pay tax in the U.S. is really a big deal. For me that would be the tie breaker of where I would draw the line of being willing to sell my soul. Hopefully I can get a solid answer on that.
Thanks again all, and here's hoping the big bucks are within sight by the end of next year.