Yes, I know there is a thread for smaller cities, so if this needs to go there then feel free to move it.
Nanyang, Henan
I have lived here for 3 months now, and given the size of the town I feel able to give comment.
Nanyang is a smallish town of somewhere around 80,000 people. I can't really say how many because I get different numbers from different people.
TRAVEL
4 hours by bus to the provincial capital Zhengzhou
1 hour by bus to the temple and mountains at Xixia
7 hours by train to Xi'an
14-16 hours by train to Beijing
18 hours by train to Shanghai
Because Nanyang is on a rail cross you can catch trains directly to these places.
There are direct flights to Guangzhou and flights to Beijing and Shanghai via Zhengzhou
WORK
The Universities in Nanyang which currently have foreign teachers are:
Nanyang Institute of Technology (NIT)
Nanyang Medical University
Nanyang Normal/Teaching University
Henan Polytechnic
There is also plenty of scope for teaching privately at playgroups, private language schools and middle schools. I don't know anything about their contracts.
LIFE
Henan Polytechnic has a campus in the middle of town. NIT's campus is south of the city and is an hour walk to downtown (6Y taxi). The medical and normal universities are across the road from one another to the est of the city. About 1.5 hours walk to downtown. All have supermarkets close by. The downtown area has three large supermarkets and a large department store. There is a clothes street with fairly good prices. Also, tailors abound. Not much scope for clothing for larger sizes.
It does snow and get pretty cool here, but nothing too ferocious. They aren't much into heating everywhere, so it can be a bit chilly. Humid in summer and through to September.
There isn't much in the way of a nightlife apart from pool and the like. Us foreigners have to create our own fun. There are 18 foreigners in town, if I counted right!
The locals do shout hello and stare, but it isn't as bad as I have experienced in other places at times. The food is often based around baozi and dumplings with noodles for good measure. There is also a good chunk of Islamic restaurants and Xinjiang food.
A new shopping centre is being built and apartments are going up like crazy. The air is reasonably clean, except when the farmers burn off their crops. It is nice to escape and hike around Xixia, which is an hour away by bus.
The locals do have their own peculiar dialect where they manage to speak without opening their mouth, but this is mostly restricted to the less educated. When people speak to me they use fairly standard putonghua and I have no trouble understanding them (to the extent that I have the vocabulary to understand!).
No cheese, butter, chocolate that is worth eating or alcohol except the standard beer/wine/baijiu. Also, no Metro, Carrefour, Walmart or other western influences. I guess it goes without saying that this ain't Beijing, but I do like living here.