Very hard for legal reasons: i.e. you go to a hotel, but they can't accept you because they have to blanks for police registration of foreigners, or PSB not being able to register your household simply because they have no computer system to do so, and there are no option for a foreigner to file for a residence registration on paper. Not to say, your Mandarin should be as good as that of locals, along the knowledge of local dialect if you venture far inland.
Unless you're fluent in chinese, it will be extremely difficult to get around in these tier 3 cities like chengdu. Shanghai and beijing are a bit more international, but even stilll, english is relatively scarely spoken. Just imagine having to go to the doctors', that would be extremely traumatic.
