There is a huge demand for translators and “translators”, but not proofreaders. The attitude seems to be more focus on getting the English letters onto the menu (or t-shirt, or sign, etc.) than on making sure it’s correct. There’s definitely a market for more expensive, mistake-free English signs, but in most cases a Babelfish or Google translator job seems to be sufficient. It’ll be interesting to see if that changes after the Olympics.

I especially enjoyed this set of observations because I’m sure your trepidation is well-founded. With so many Westerners living in Beijing, I’m surprised that there isn’t a huge demand for translator/proofers but I suppose it’s simply too decentralized and too huge a task. I suspect you could start a business!