lao wai !!!!!! you are so right its untrue, 9/10 fellow foreigners I pass on the street are either too insecure or stuck up to acknowledge the presence of someone similar to them, like its "THEIR" China, giving you looks of "what are you doing here?!" Like those guys you see sitting outside salvadore's ALL DAY LONG. SO aloof.
People can say its city life but if I smile at ANY Chinese person, they usually smile back or say something. If the so called "uncivilised" Chinese can manage that than it really speaks volumes about our civilisation...