I'd say Stage 3

I know they are fishing for a positive "yes"

when i'm asked the question, i always answer:

"this is my 3rd year here. If there wasn't something i liked, i wouldn't still be here"

This silences anyone who asks as they are probably trying to decode any underlying meaning i have. (if any )

Since the beginning of year 2 : "huuuu... it's.... huuu... not too bad ?", while looking a bit embarrassed, with a "sorry, you're a nice person, I don't mean to hurt your feelings" look

I have no patience for small talk and stupid questions. Never had, never will.

If asked, I keep the subject on something else or I simply give a "whatever" answer, while simply avoiding talking to morons in general.

I've been in China for three years. My first year, I started in the typical, naïve, Stage I bliss. That got nixed in short order after I started working for a Chinese company, and I shot through 2 and 3 during the remainder of the year. I even studied Chinese, but quit when I got sick of actually understanding what the locals were yapping about me right in front of my face. I came to a new city, started my second year thinking that a change of location would make me happier, so I rebooted to a 2. I realized the new city has less shit than the old, but still has got the same old crap. Now, I am pure stage 5. I have no inhibitions at all. I will doggedly harass lazy people do their damn jobs, instead of casually accepting that they want to play Candy Crush or Angry Birds the way I used to. I have been losing my temper more and bluntly calling people out on their rudeness more, instead of just assuming that I don't understand something. I am grouchy...and if someone wants to fish insecurely for 'china compliments', they will get the litany. This country is definitely making me a worse, but scrappier person. I am on sticking around one more year because it makes finical sense, and that I can't wait to go to Vietnam once my sentence...err...contract...is up.

I'm on the bonus level between stage 3 and 4.  "Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't"

Im at the stage where I want to point out the absurdity of their question, usually answer with "if I didn't, why would I still be here..?" or "Ive been here a long time, what do you think?" I think most pretty much get it. 

Stage 1 after 4-5 years. I still enjoy chatting with run-of-the-mill Chinese people, and I love so much about  China.

I'm just not afraid to bitch about the things that piss me off. They always ask me about stage 3, and I state my mind.

I'm in year 5 now but already at Stage 5.  Ahead of the game, I am!

Your scales are terrific, Mike.  They really sum up things, the way I see them, perfectly.

But, like you, I can't really leave here just yet.  I know I will have to leave eventually but when...not sure.

In some ways I want to be here to see what goes down when the shit really starts to hit the fan.  

That the people just keep on keeping on, without any challenge to what life in China dishes up to them, for so long seems incredible to me.  I mean, I'm in charge of my own destiny here....I do what I like and answer to no Brother directing my every move/thought....but very few Chinese can (honestly) say the same thing.

Just studystudystudy....workah workah workah....buy house ah, car, watch ah....order too much food ah...get pissed ah on baijiu go home ah and beat ah wife ah.

Yep, the shit is going to hit the fan.  But, in truth, I think that'll happen after I've taken my leave ah...

I just say something neutral like "I'm used to life here now" and if they are obviously fishing for a compliment I say either I like the food here which I usually do. Yeah there's a lot of shit here but I don't bother antagonizing some local stranger. However if they are on the level and I can have discussion withen yeah then I'd point out some problems (sometimes they do as well) but that dosen't happen too often.

I just say something neutral like "I'm used to life here now" and if they are obviously fishing for a compliment I say either I like the food here which I usually do. Yeah there's a lot of shit here but I don't bother antagonizing some local stranger. However if they are on the level and I can have discussion withen yeah then I'd point out some problems (sometimes they do as well) but that dosen't happen too often.

I have given up on all intellectual conversation with 99% of the natives after my second year. What stage is that?

Stage 2,3,4 seems made up or just there for blind indecisive people. I skipped these, year 3 is at stage 5. 

I usually split the difference and say, "yi ban ban".  Chinese people usually take this as a no, but while saving face.

Year 8 - stage 6: heyyyy, don't you see red light , idiot ?!?!?

Im at the forefitt  stage

I am at the "I hate here, I can't wait to leave" stage

Stage X - Reply by saying "I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE CHINA!" in a super high exaggerated, mocking Mickey Mouse voice like they use when they say "HARRROOOOOO!"

This usually leaves them confused but that's when you start ordering the most expensive food (cause I am usually at a dinner when this is asked) and they KNOW they are paying for it. 

Stage Y - If a family member asks, I just go... "Meh.... Do YOOOU like China?"

Stage Z - If a another foreigner asks... I will actually tell them the truth. Which is:

China sucks overall. The food is pretty good (I like it), stuff is cheap, pollution sucks, people are dumb but in a non-malicious way usually (due to education, my father in law thought Canada was in Africa... WTF) I love eating BBQ outside and drinking cheap beer... people are disorganized and there is no problem prevention here... so in short... to visit China for a few months... I would like it... 

To live here... I don't like it! AT ALL! 

1. The 10 Steps to Your Addiction to China
2.  
3. 1. We admit we are powerless over China - that our lives have become unmanageable but somehow, that makes sense here.
4. 2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. That power is called "going home." Sanity is over-rated.
5. 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of the CCP as we understood them. No one understands them.
6. 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
7. Admitted to the CCP, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. They didn't understand any English so we felt better for the admission and continued on as normal.
8. 5. Were entirely ready to have the CCP remove all these defects of character. As above. Instead, they removed our access to the Internet and all avenues of enjoyment whilst stuck at "home."
9. 6. Humbly asked the CCP to remove our shortcomings. Kind of like asking the poor for money. Instead, we felt superior and lorded over this.
10. 7. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. Except that one damn prick who pushes both the up and down buttons for the elevator and stops at the top and bottom of the escalator. HE should die. Soon.
11. 8. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others, or if they cannot understand English.
12. 9. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. Discovered that no one ever admits when they are wrong, so f**k it. Pee Wee Herman had it right, "I meant to do that!"
13. 10. Sought through beer and swearing at the top of our lungs in the comfort of our own rooms to improve our conscious contact with sanity as we knew it.

Kind of realized that the 12 AA steps actually don't lend themselves well to attempts at humor. Far more religious in nature than I thought. Thank god I'm not in AA!

Although, I certainly don't disparage anyone who is in AA or struggling with alcoholism.

Oh hey! Look! There's a great new kitten video on YouTube...

I am at the stage where I can't even be arsed to hide my disdain or outright anger at the fuckwittery that I encounter every time I step out my front door. 

Roll on august!

Stage V.    

I hate 99% of the things about MainLand.  I do have some great Chinese friends though that  make life here good enuf for now.

things I fkn Hate:

1. blowing horns all the time  (I vote Death Penalty for air-horn use)

2. Sooooooo much of that weird-ass don't-even-cross-my-mind littering.  remote Guangdong looks like I am living at a LandFill.

3. The g'dam Staring!!  what makes it soooooooo gross is it is usually males doing it !!   gag me with a spoon!

4. Why in the Flying Fuck do they 'speak' soooooooo loudly ????  strangest behavior I have ever seen in any country

5. The immense, never-ending crowds.  Idea: Free Rubbers for the taking!  CPC r u listening ???

6. The oddddddd disassociation from any and all that is immediately around u.  stand at top of escalator, walk down middle of sidewalk three abreast....  park car in intersection.

7.  How can they be sooooooooo fkn stupid not to get the idea of how elevator/bus/metro works?  let people disembark first!!   isn't that just Plain common sense???

8. crap they call food.  who the fk would eat all that boiled shit on purpose??

9. those side-walk stickers Everywhere.  Death-penalty I advise.

10.  Unquestioning attitude.  I have never met people sooooooooo uninformed!!   seem to not know shit from shinola,,, and seem not to give a damn about not knowing.

I was at stage 3 after a year already.
I bad-mouth China and the Chinese every reasonable opportunity, and I believe what I say is being diplomatic. Stage 6.

I'm at stage seven, which is where you lose control of your bowel movements, your hair starts falling out and you start calling women two years older than you 'ayi'.

I'm happy I'm not the only one that feels this way. The food is crappy now and wasn't that bad years ago. When I traveled here in the 90's , the food was quite good and street food was fine. It's was one of the few countries I would have stomach problems. Now it isn't the case. Plus I can't stand the shouting. These days I put my hands over my ears if someone is really loud. You should see how embarrassed they get. I was at the gym in my building and some idiot was shouting in his phone walking in my direction, I covered my ears he scurried away. I say make them shy, it's the only way they're going to learn. The spitting and cough on people drive me crazy too. Just venting.

i dont know what this level is but am at the ''MEH'' level

I would agree with your timeline if it were in 6 month intervals.  If I would've left after 6 months, I would have had a positive impression of the place. Onward to year 4 and I'm beyond Stage 5.