Well as an american "buddy" once told me, and in american spelling, ass-holes are like opinions, everybody has one.

Just because the streets are quieter does not mean they are any safer. Don't let that facade fool you. Like everything in China, there is smoke and mirrors. There have been a lot of stabbings recently in Shenzhen. I personally saw a guy get attacked with a piece of broken copper pipe in Shenzhen, lots of people hurriedly walked by with their none of my business face, others stopped still too scared to move, in that case, I don't blame anyone for trying to get involved, the two guys who were doing the attacking did not look like two guys who could be reasoned with. There is crime and a underbelly, the streets may well be quieter, does not mean that it is not there though, the sewers flow through chinese cities too.