Yeah chinese regional cities aren't allot of fun, and as a westerner you stand out and get lots of unwanted attention.
Kunming is the coolest little city in China.
Xi'an is the sharktiest shark hole in sharkland.
We back packed around Heilongjiang province on the way down to Beijing when we left Russia once (down through Blagoveshensk and Heihe). It wasn't allot of fun until we hit Beijing. Even got taken to a police station after getting in an argument with a taxi driver who was following us around harassing us.
Really wanted to see the ice sculptures in Harbin, but there was an earthquake and things were pretty chaotic so never got around to it.
Beijing was cool though.