I have a friend who's lived there for 5+ years and loves it, and he is not even a communist, although maybe his experience has changed that. Last I visited him though, he was largely apolitical.

I had an excellent time there and there was really nothing out of the ordinary. It was much as you'd expect. Transit was awesome, paying with WeChat seemed really cool and seamless, and people were super friendly and happy to share their country with a westerner. I felt safe everywhere I went. A few times I went out on my own in a couple of different cities there, and obviously I stuck out like a sore thumb and could hardly speak any Mandarin, but if anything, people saw that and went out of their way to help me. The food also ruined Chinese food here in the west permanently for me, even eating out in general isn't the same. I don't know if everyone there eats out like this, but all our dinners out consisted of a table full of food that everyone filled their plates up with, instead of the usual a la carte style here.

The only negatives for me was traffic and pollution. For some reason it seems like China modeled a lot of it's development after the US, aside from it's transit. I'm talking massive boulevards, huge highways, sprawl, etc. The few times I had to take a car there really sucked, and that's where air quality was most noticeable. Most evenings when the sun was low, it was just a great orange ball hanging there, you could stare straight at it. I could feel the heaviness of the air in my chest when we were stuck in the huge lines of traffic. But maybe that was the Chinese cigs I was smoking, lol.

It was an awesome experience though and I really want to go back someday. It hurts me to see the hate and vitriol towards China here in the West, because I can't reiterate enough how kind the people there were and how they just want to be our friends.