There was no difficulty for me. The Chinese people have a different mentality, but quiet quickly you start to understand them. When we came to Wuhan in 2007, for example, there were a few foreigners, and each time we went for a walk, it was a kind of show. Chinese people came up to us, touched hair and asked to take a picture.
When I studied in China, I lived in a dormitory for international students and I mostly communicated with them, so I made more friends among Europeans and Americans rather than Chinese at that time.
Besides, Chinese people have a slightly different model of friendship in comparison to Russian. They wanted to meet us and spent time together almost every day, but we were not used to that. In Russia if we are friends, we can keep in touch, but it is not necessary to see each other every day or every week.
Nowadays, of course I have Chinese friends. We congratulate each other on holidays, send photos. On the one hand, the Chinese people like all Asian people are rather closed, they do not invite you at their home, for example, but on the other hand, they always ask you about your health and always are willing to help you. And from this point of view, I think they are reliable friends.