Some of those people actually think that the third world, uncivilised aspect of it all is liberating. That's what confuses me. Are they not grateful for the freedoms that they already have?

Isn't the freedom to binge drink at weekends without anybody batting an eyelid, enough freedom for them? No, they want to get pissed every single night when in China. If you regularly come into work drunk back home, you'll get fired pretty quickly.

Some think that they have more freedom to openly abuse drugs in China. Only because the local police tend to incompetent and badly trained, not recognising drug types or signs of usage. If you ever end up getting caught by a cop doing his job properly, you'll find that sentences back home are probably far more lenient. If you're carrying a large amount in China, you're pretty screwed indeed.

As for women, back home, you can date before marriage without anybody having issues, you can even legally bang hookers in some places. But if you use a girl just for a sex, when she was expecting something more serious; you can expect your peers to tell you that you're an arsehole and her brick shithouse brother/cousin to give you a good kicking. In China, they don't seem to care about this at all... Because they believe that Chinese women are just useless, cheap sluts (and yes, some are); but even the worst women probably have family friends that care about them.

It's this lack of care and self respect from younger foreigners that can be irritating. Nobody expects an angel, but everybody expects some form of self control. As Silverboy said, even the most hedonistic types need boundaries.