I have yet to have any bad experience when travelling in minority areas. Even the drivers in these areas are much more courteous and slow vehicles will even pull over to let you pass. They don't even cut you up. Very helpful and friendly to strangers. No dollar signs in the eyes when they smile at you.

Any opinions on where to find the friendliest - and nastiest - non-Chinese people in China (though obviously 'non-Chinese' and 'foreigner' are pretty broad terms)? I've heard some negative remarks about expats in Shanghai, and Sanlitun in Beijing seems to collect...well, I haven't been there for awhile. There have been a few unpleasant incidents involving foreigners in Kunming, Jinghong and Dali over the years, though for the most part foreigners in these places seem okay, but we've all seen unfriendly remarks, posted by foreigners, about Chinese or about each other here on the forums. What about Lijiang?
Would be particularly interesting to see opinions here from Chinese contributors.
As for friendlieness, I've generally found people in the smaller towns and villages to be more friendly than those in cities. I'm not sure what how this may impact on considerations of people's level of 'civilized'.

@Alien. Try this thread. www.gokunming.com/[...]

ooh! the thread is becoming self referential loop now

@Alien (see post in 'Top 5 Nastiest Expats of All-Time on GoKM' thread)

OK, but considered as a single group - which, I'm afraid, is the way all too many local Chinese see them, as locals tend to do in many places - how do you think 'foreigners' rate? I think it's fair to consider tourists separately - and of course there might be subcategory considerations to be made, based on, perhaps, nationality, or geography, or employment, or gender, or whatever.

I've never heard a bad word said about the Koreans here, even though they fought them in a war.

That speaks volumes.

@Napoleon: I haven't either, though the ones (now aged or dead) Chinese troops (now aged or dead) fought against were almost all from south korea, and there are numerous ethnic Koreans in the Northeast (an official Chinese nationality). It's an interesting point, though, since foreign Koreans here tend not to associate with many foreigners of other nationalities (except, perhaps, among Korean Christians and (largely) US Christians, but I don't know much about that). I wonder how Dongbei people, including Han, Man and Korean, think of North Koreans, and about ethnic-minority Chinese Koreans - friendly, nasty, or what? And vice versa.

I would probably bet they love them. Its almost Korea worship here. With their singers, actors, soap operas and makeup all popular in China.

They see each other often enough. Chinese don't need a visa to visit some areas of Korea. Koreans are the biggest foreign population in China.

The Koreans I have met have all spoke very good Chinese and I know that Chinese is the only language taught in North Korean state schools. North Korea has a university in Liaoning province.

I am aware of a North Korean school in Hangzhou that can be attended by Chinese students as well as a South Korean one in Suzhou.

China is one of the 23 countries that has diplomatic relations with the North, and off all 8 China is closest to it, geographically and in friendship.

There is a certain amount of culture that overlaps, their food is similar to the Manchurian cuisine, even in the 50's the Koreans were still using Han characters to write with.

All this has gone towards forming a pretty close bond, even if they were at war (with the South) in the 50s.

Well, ok, but note that Japanese comix and manga are also pretty popular in China, as are many US singers and actors. It's also the case that a lot of Chinese people have told me that they 'like America' or 'like Americans' and 'hate Japan' or 'hate Japanese', although they don't know many people from either of these places - yet reasonable friendliness seems to be extended to Americans more easily than it is towards Japanese, despite the fact (or my impression) that Japanese behave more politely in China, as a whole.
But it seems the drift of the forum is largely about how (mostly 'western') foreigners feel towards people they meet more or less anonymously on the street in different parts of the country, etc. So how do people feel about foreigners in, say, Shanghai?