Washers and dryers yeah, the washers arent great and break down too often. This is annoying, not end-of-the-world annoying. The dryers are close to useless. Most teachers hang clothes on a line in one of the courtyards, or on the roof, or on drying racks theyve purchased and hang them in their room

Thank you for trying to be so honest, certainly enough to make me run a mile. What is the most important part of a job in foreign parts? It has to be the standard of your accommodation, your freedom to come and go whenever you please, and the same for your guests no matter what sex they may be. It beggars belief how any FT working in China can put up with living in a 'teachers' compound' sharing facilities that do not work with other FT's.
Having your very own washing machine, cooker, TV, etceteras is a minimum requirement, a must. The freedom to have visitors at any time of the day or night for whatever reasons essential. You live in a shoddy prison-style teachers' compound with rules and restrictions that any self respecting FT should reject out of hand. If little Lotus Blossom can't call on me in the early hours, why would I want to work there?

You keep on saying "this is China, not London and you should go with the flow"-it sounds nice and enlightened but it is totally untrue, there are many job opportunities in China which come with decent self-contained flats. I don't care what else a school gets right if they offer crap shared facility flats then they have got everything wrong. I only hang clothes on my own enclosed-balcony, not out on the roof collecting the soot and grime that you mention.