It used to be hostile. Back when ATC standards were dodgy with even dodgyer (?) English, no radar, qfe, NPAs, no deicing etc. now though I'm not so sure. ATC has improved up to a tolerable if not international standard and it's pretty much ILS to ILS. Sure flying in China is as frustrating AF and there is minimal support from the company at outports, but it's not that bad. The only hostility is from the pax when we get a 5 hrs delay to Wuhan for no good reason. ( They should write to their local member and complain. )
Ive said this before and it was met with a fair bit of derision by our CX colleagues. It's crazy we employ DEFOs here with the aim of making them captains in 18 months when there are a huge pool of FOs at CX. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea to bash around China in a 320, but some might like the idea. If you were faced with the prospect of another 10 years in the right seat to get a 330 command or jump now to a 320 command I know what I'd do. The extra $30K a month can't be sniffed at either. (It seems though the only reason I'm suggesting this is because I want to fly a 777 for 15 hours through the night and take 5 years off my life with chronic fatigue).