Guangxi is beautiful as for its nature, although for foreigners quite tough to adjust due to exactly what has been said by our OP. This autonomous region of China has some really poor education and even in Nanning, the region's capital, you will see the naive approach in all public schools. The local educational issues reflect on most of the youngsters and so they usually are dull when it comes to socializing or offering a reasonable point of view on any topics given. Guangxi uni is supposedly the best uni of the region, but you'll find its sutdents pretty difficult to socialize with.

Now, I have spent 4 years between 2005 and 2009 in Nanning and I could see the progress there. Young people are increasingly more aware of what they need to socialize with outsiders/foreigners, especially in the unis there. Guilin, another Guangxi city that is much fuller of foreigners than Nanning, has got probably more to offer in a sense of socializing.

Cheers and beers to our abilities to adjust to local cultures