This was interesting to read because I was there at GDOU from January '08 to January '09 and my experience was remarkably similar. The other foreigners there were indeed quite difficult to deal with mostly because they were either incompetent or unqualified and were well aware they could never work anywhere else so therefore had a vested interest in seeing others fail and not speaking up when they were screwed, which was often. Me and a British guy were literally the only truly qualified teachers there. (And he, too, left.) There were at least 3 Aussies without degrees, a "Canadian" who was clearly not a native speaker and an American kid with no previous teaching experience. Exactly HOW GDOU got all of them working visas puzzled me at the time and still does. They FAO staff clearly know people in high places. I know for a fact that at least 2 of the aforementioned Aussies are still there. They periodically talked of leaving but never will because there is no other uni in the country that will take them. The "Canadian", a committed Maoist, routinely refuses pay raises, which makes it tough for others to ask for them. The FA Officer I dealt with mostly was a "guanxi" hire who could barely speak or understand English and lost every document I ever gave her at least once and in some cases several times. I, too, was stuck taking cold showers for weeks because I could never get anyone to come fix the water heater. (Fortunately, Zhanjiang never really gets "cold".) I basically had to threaten to rat them out to the authorities in Guangzhou to get any airfare money out of them and when they finally DID pay me it was only a third of what I was really owed. I was also paid 1000 yuan less a month than I was promised.

Zhanjiang is indeed a nice city and the GDOU campus is also nice but I second the original poster's sentiments. Stay away from GDOU.