Well, I am from Hong Kong, which has one of the highest "qualities of life" in the world, and an HDI ranking above all the Western European nations like Britain/Germany/France.
And I can say, in my own opinion, that the quality of life in the big mainland cities like Shanghai/Beijing is just as good as here.
Nightclub life is great, we don't have any restrictions on alcohol or anything like that. Foreigners tend to socialize with other foreigners, due to the difficulty of speaking Chinese, though in your line of work you will be bound to run into a lot of Chinese people who can speak English.
Generally a very friendly environment for tourists and foreigners, provided you are not looking to cause trouble of course.