Tourist Visa into a Working Visa & Adding Dependents to Visas

Ok...here is my situation. I am Canadian. I live in Indonesia with my husband & daughter (both Indonesian citizens). I want to move to Guangdong province in China to work as a teacher. If we all enter the country on tourist visas so I can look for a good school & then when I find something we want to change my visa into a working visa & add them as my dependents how would I need to do that. I've got mixed information so far about whether I could apply for the visa in Surabaya or Bangkok (I know that HK won't process working visas anymore but I've heard that you can do it in Thailand) or if I would HAVE TO fly back to Canada. If I had to fly back to Canada to apply would my family have to come with me or could I go by myself and apply for all of our visas (from what I understand I would have the visa & they would be included on mine). Also, will it matter that I am Canadian and they are Indonesian (Indonesia is one of the countries that have to apply for visas from within their own country only...but I'm not sure if it would be considered applying for a visa if they were just added as dependents to mine). Also, if we apply for 6 month tourist visas with multiple entries, are we allowed to stay in China for the 6 months straight or do we have to leave and re-enter during that time? Thanks for any help :)