I only liked southern China because of the warmer weather and proximity to SE-Asia. In fact, I prefer to eat Dongbei ( north east ) Chinese food.

You can get mantou even in a culinary wasteland like Nanning. It is not good. Agree that bread in northern China is ten times better than in the south. Changchun has great bakeries and you can get real coffee.

In Nanning you can't. And no people, Starbucks does not count.

Also, when I was in Nanning there were only two or three places in the entire city where you can get really good jiaozi. Unlike in the north where it is all over the place.

Nanning and Guilin is mostly just rubbish noodle shops. Also, dongbei girls are tall and pretty and leggy and have really long hair. I also thought they were much more friendly and better educated.

If I was going to look for a Chinese wife ( I'm not ) I'd go straight to somewhere like Hangzhou or Shenyang. However, that terrible TV show "If You Are The One" on Jiangsu TV gives dongbei women a bad reputation.

Surely they can't all be like the hideous young women on that dating show.