Choosing a place to live has many different requirements (Needs and Wants) for many different people.

For me, warm weather and clean air is a Need.

Based on my travels here are some places I would NEVER live in.

1 - Hunan - Hot as an oven and people are nasty and greedy regardless of what prefecture you go to in Hunan.

2 - Sichuan - I like it for many reasons but just too many people and weather becomes an issue in many prefectures.

3 - Hong Kong - Great place but too crowded and too expensive. Great for a visit but not to live in.

4 - Macau - Same as Hong Kong.

5 - Beijing - Cold in the winter and too expensive. Great for visiting.

6 - Xinjiang - Too cold, too big but great people. Endless possibilities for travel.

7 - Gansu - Not for me - Nothing there.

Provinces I would really consider living in long term.

1 - Guangxi - Love the humid heat. Great place to have a home with garden - Wonderful people, fresh seafood on a daily basis. Women there are awesome - must go if you are single.

2 - Guangdong - Most populated province but has so much to offer. Great people, great food, proximity to HK + Macau, Open minded people, universities, so much to see, the list is endless.

Zhejiang - Hell on earth. Not a kind word can be uttered about the place or people.

I'm quite happy with Yunnan but I would'nt grumble if I was in Fujian so long as it was Xiamen, near the sea. I think Hainan would suit me just fine too.

@Campo: Other thing about Hong Kong is that the mentality of many residents doesn't go much beyond work and money, although it's gotten a bit more interesting since Beijing began to misunderstand the place - I lived there both before and since 1997, visit regularly.
Macau, gambling, idiotic. Some good food.

Beijing: There are intellectuals who speak their minds, in certain circumstances. But a traffic city, big impersonal streets, & bad air.
Gansu: well, great noodles.

I recently visited Guangxi and liked it. Not been to the rural parts of Guangdong, but Guangzhou and surroundings have bad air and a reputation for being money obsessed. I lived in Zhejiang for 15 months and liked it. Not sure why Napoleon hates it so much. Did you live there or just visit Nap?

Hainan?!?
Once a paradise and now an overexploit place where you hardly find a stretch of coast where to see the coral reef not covered by pollution. Even eating wild fish is a challenge down there.
People are nice, but I wouldn't go back there on holiday again!

I Lived in Guangxi many years ago and loved it. Guangxi people are not as money hungry as many other places and the rural areas are very nice. Not much there as far as universities are concerned.

@haali

I had to visit Zhejiang every other month for the best part of 2/3 years. Hangzhou was nice, very picturesque and had some nice restaurants. Aside from that I don't rate the provinvce at all. People were arrogant to the point of being ridiculous. I have never met so many cheap people in all my life, people there would rarther chop their hand off than put it in their pocket. Everything there, registering address, opening a bank account, daily life etc is more difficult than anywhere else I have been, tenfold. People there think about money all the time, how to make it, how not to spend it, to the point where everything evolves around being a cheapskate, even if that attitude comes at the expense of your job, your first impression, your friends or your family. Living on breadcrumbs so you can stuff an extra 10 yuan under the mattress at the end of the day is all that matters.

Drivers there were so bad it's possible they drive blindfolded. Taxis are awful to get, they pick up as many passengers along the way and the drivers seem to know absolutely nowhere in the city (not Hangzhou).

Food is bland, awful, can't get decent portions of anything, yet seems more expensive than elsewhere.

People are rude, quite dirty, boring and seem a bit dim. Uncultured is an understatement, they don't have 10 minutes of culture to rub together. A zhejiang travel guide would probably read like this:

Ningbo - Filthy seaside town miles in land, don't bother visiting.

Wenzhou - Sh*thole filled with the cheapest arseholes you'll ever encounter, thow a penny, cause a stampede. Makes 90% of the worlds buttons.

Jinhua - Diry, Diry truckers town. The residents happen to believe is the centre of the universe.

Taizhou - What a scummy, scummy place. A Syrian migrant would run back to Damascus the second he entered this backwater.

A vile, culture less, moribund, sterile province filled with the nastiest, rudest, beggars with the longest pockets in all the land. Wild horses couldn't drag me back, rarther have a weekend in downtown Bahgdad.

One good thing about Hong Kong is the fine university libraries, uncensored, although you need some kind of connection with a university to get in. City public library, also very good & uncensored, is open to all.
Also, excellent local jazz musicians (Eugene Pao, Ted Lo, probably a few others by now).

ahh, I see Nap, I lived in Hangzhou, and whenever I left Hangzhou it was to go to small towns and villages rather than the other cities. I never went to any of the cities you mentioned except passing through Jinhua to get to some nice villages outside it.