I disageee that Turnoi is right. Often he is not right, he has not lived in China for a long time. Living on campus is OK if you have a decent apartment and you can invite anyone to your apartment whenever you like. At my former university I came home drunk many times, even brought young women home to my apartment sometimes, nobody ever said or did anything about it. One of the Philippines teachers was living with her boyfriend there, another FT was living there with his Chinese girlfriend. And there was a police station next door, but I never saw any police ever come into the uni. I agree that an FT should never become romantically involved with his own female students, and if you bring girls back to your place for the night it is better if they are not from your own university, and also better if they are women over 25 or so.

I invite people to my apartment all the time also, nobody cares who I invite there. The place is "guarded" ( sort of ) from Monday-Friday 7am to 5pm, after 5pm there is no security, on weekends there is none at all. Turnoi seems to think that a curfew at a uni will stop a student from having a sexual encounter with a teacher ( FT or otherwise )
Most girls dormotories are not locked until 10.30pm, plenty of time between about 6.30pm and 10pm for a pretty young Chinese student and an FT to have an erotic encounter.

As for the gate staff, I never had any problem with them, they never took much interest in me. But of course, if you are an FT with a young Chinese girlfriend from your own campus you should not hold hands with her inside the uni grounds or put your arm around her or kiss her in public. Yes, people will talk. Physical contact is better left for when you are inside your apartment. You must be discreet. Some universities have no policy in regard to student-teacher relationships. The uni I was employed at in 2008 had no such policy. However,like another poster said, the Chinese love to gossip, if I had a Chinese girlfriend at my own uni( a teacher or student ), I would prefer if nobody else knew about it,it is called privacy.

Turnoi is right on this one. I am also in my early 30s and unrequired of any night life, been there done that. I live in an apartment at my senior middle school and frankly nobody cares who comes and goes from my apartment. So my life situation is similar to yours. However, that does stop people from gossipping about me and branding me a criminal. In China a foreigner is guilty of something until proven guilty of something. Take this to heart, someone is always watching you, and even if you do nothing wrong someone will think you did. A few examples, some weeks ago my FAO confronted me that someone told him (the men watching the gate) that I came home drunk. I told him that yes I was drunk and then I reminded him that he was the one who invited me out to drink and the both of us became drunk. When he remembered, then it was o.k. One of my students was helping me home with my groceries, he was first stopped by one of the teachers and interrogated and then by one of the gatekeepers as to what, who, why,etc. At the present moment for you it might be o.k., but then in gets annoying. Take it from me and Turnoi that it is better to live outside of campus. But now that you are stuck on campus: never invite any of your students to your house, never meet anyone at the school gate for you should do it in town, and absolutely under no circumstances spend too much time talking to girls alone. Try to make friends with all the workers, staff, and especially the guys at the school gate. The teachers can take a hike for all I care. I had to bribe my gatekeepers with an expensive pack of cigarrettes each during the Spring Festival to show them than I was not the pedophile they thought I was. Once the Chinese people get to know you, they are very loyal; but they will still talk about you. In China when you say something just imagine that you told all of China in fluent Mandarin and if you are o.k. with that, then say it.
At my school, everyone knows that I don't eat rice with my meals, that I don't tolerate bai jiu well, that I don't smoke, etc. how do you think they know? I hope this helps.

I've just started teaching at a public college in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province. My schedule is just 16 lessons a week, which I think is very much on the light side. Each lesson is only of 50 minutes' duration. I only have to prepare two lessons a week. But I was surprised when I was asked by two of my Chinese colleagues separately how tired I felt because of my heavy schedule. At first, I thought they were pulling my leg, but it turns out that they were being serious! The college employs many Chinese teachers, most of whom teach only 8 lessons a week. Now I can appreciate why my salary is more than double theirs. My apartment is more luxurious and bigger than that of many of my colleagues, and it is rent-free. My salary is such that I will always have plenty of money in my pocket, even at the end of each month. Teaching in China is just great. My students are respectful, so there are no discipline problems. I'm teaching spoken English, so there's no homework to mark. I would describe myself as a part-timer on a full-time salary. I wish I'd come here a decade ago - my new job is much more enjoyable and less arduous than anything I could ever snag back home in Canada.