I am curious as I hear different cities have different attitude towards foreigners.
For example, I heard that Zhengzhou generally isn't too kind to foreigners. I also used to live in a city near Shanghai called Changzhou and they weren't very nice to foreigners overall. Tianjin is pretty good for a larger city.
I am in a smaller city (Yuncheng, Shanxi) and people here are actually quite nice to foreigners. Yuncheng is a lower tier city but has things like Wal-Mart, Pizza Hut, the speed train goes through here from Beijing and luxuries that a larger city offers.
However, there are not many foreigners so you still kind of get the star treatment but it is more curiosity and admiration than anything. Locals are generally quite nice and go a bit further to be helpful to foreigners. There are jerks but generally I would say this is a foreigner friendly city, however... the level of people that speak English here is quite low.
In this city, there are foreigners from all places but because a group of South African guys came here early on they sort of tainted the reputation of black people. Drugs and sleeping with students that circulated through the city... nice guys but had a little too much fun.
How about the city where you live? What is the general attitude towards foreigners and does it change based on nationality or skin color?
Chengdu ren are wonderful, by and large. Most people smile and are quite willing to chat you up on the street. You get the occasional jackass who tries to work you over because you are laowai, but a lot of people will also go out of their way to help you. I was just moving apartments and was touched by people offering to help me lug my stuff.
I used to live in Beijing. That city was miserable. . People there are unbelievably xenophobic. Every apartment I lived in there had someone who had to accuse laowai of anything and everything. .