I do have some wonderful Chinese male friends, but they are not in their 20'a, but into their 40's.  I have two rules with them, no religious and no political talks, everything else is a welcome topic.  It is my guess they are using me to practice their English, but since I do enjoy our chats and games, I do not mind. 

With them, I feel I have passed from "laowai" like I was at first, to a stage that may be called "one of the guys" by now.  The only thing to watch out for is their rule of "if you loose a hand must drink your glass empty".  Headaches next morning !

I hear you dude....this a big problem for me too.  Most of my friends here are Chinese women...they seem to me more interested in western people...for alot of reasons.  
But it is fun drinking with the local men....even if you can't talk to them.
In my experience I have more in common with local females, and I am not gay, "not that there is anything wrong with that".

I have a few. But up in BJ it's probably easier to meet some that are cool. 

Good question. Made me think. Nope I don't have any male Chinese friends but lots of women!! I was talking to a female teacher from the USA last week and this subject came up. She said it's okay for us foreign guys here in China because we seem to be able to find lots of women who at least speak a bit of English. She has not, as yet, been able to find a Chinese guy that can string a reasonable sentence together. I think she's right. It seems the gals have more of a desire to learn the language while the guys don't give a toss. It's actually the same in my adult English classes. The women are far, far better than the guys in conversational English. Sounds like a warning sign!!

My problem is that there are so few boys who major in English and the few that do, most of them just want to play computer games or read "magna".  That said, I have made some male friends but it is almost "1 per year".

I have some, wanna rent one? 300Y per hour special rate for you. ,,joking

I have a few, but well, I guess they're not really anything more than aquaintences.   I've met a lot of foreigners that have become really close frineds, but no locals.  And that's not for a lack of trying.  I don't think there is the same sort of idea of friendship here.  It's more about making contacts and guanxi. 

I have several male Chinese friends.  However, their English is as limited as my Chinese and their wives keep them on a much shorter leash.  So we don't get to see each other as much as I would like.

On the opposite side of the coin, I don't have too many foreigner friends either.  A combination of being a family man and working 12+ hours a day really tends to kill the social life.

Although I would like to make friends with guys, it's a bit more difficult since I am a girl. All the guys I know are sort of acquaintances more than friends. Most of them I have met either don't speak English, or their English is very poor. Even out of my students, only one of the boys in any of my classes is ok at English. Isn't that sort of...depressing? Are girls just more motivated to learn English? Out of the guys I've met, a music major was the most interesting, which I don't find surprising.

I think the biggest problem is that guys and girls don't hang out as much in China one on one, and I like hanging out with only one or two people at a time so it doesn't really work out. Such a shame.

Most of my male friends here are in their 30's and up. No young guys. They're all busy with school, work or just screwing around and so there's no time to hang out or meet funny gwailo. 

I am wondering if there are any party restrictions on having foreign friends outside of business dealings.  It is quite possible this does have something to do with it.  I know for a fact that there are restrictions like that in place for people who work for some government agencies, the military, and the like.  Of course that makes sense (so not to leak classified info).  Anyone know about this?

A very fair amount of male friends, both colleagues and otherwise.  I belong to the local long-distance cycling club and it has been a great way to meet people.

Well I am a 19y/o Chinese. You know what, there's a strange paradox in China that girls are more talented in learning languages, while boys more talented in science like chemi or physics! Ironically, I can easily deduce this PARADOX from my daily life experience! When I was in an English class in highschool  I just noticed that boys tended to be silence and it seemed they didn't want to have a word with our foreign teacher. Our Chinese English teacher talked to this majority and the answer is just like" oh! I'm just afraid of making mistakes when speaking!","I don't have anything to do with the fucking English which drives me in a state of freezy!"," what can I talk about with her?! Not to mention the linguistical barrier!", "I think we just have different thought pattern, we can't get each other:(" Sad, isn't it?
Now I am a college student whose major is German, and that PARADOX still exist---the most of students who learn foreign languages are... girls??!!
And the poor minority of boys who are definetly proficient in their major, most of them are... gays...!!! OMG!

i think the answer is women are more natural at communicating than men.  Anyone whose been  married knows this.  Speaking a different language makes communication more difficult and this is a definite turnoff for most men, who are not prone to communicating vocally even in their native language.  Women, on the other hand, are active communicators and don't let a small thing like language barriers shut them up (in fact, have we invented anything that can shut them up yet?)
Kidding aside, I have a few male friends but no close relationships but ironically, the person who has the best English I know is male.

For me it's the other way round. I'm a girl, but I can't find any interesting girls to talk to. They only wanna paint their nails, go shopping, watch TV soaps etc. I have a bunch of guy friends, we talk about video games, footy, etc. But I miss a decent girly convo. Even my foreign girl friends in China are only into make up and shit. What gives? :(

I have one in my current city. He invited me out to dinner with his wife, so I decided to return the favor and invited him and his wife out to dinner a month later. He brought a different woman. His actual wife...

The first year in China I only had friends that were girls for 2 reasons.  I always relate better to Chinese women than men and as other have pointed out they are far more likely to speak English than men.

But about a year and a half ago I became good friends with a guy and we are like brothers now.  He tells me that friendship with other Chinese males is different and he has never had a good friend like me before as most friendships here are based on guanxi and what you can do for each other rather than real friendship.

But I still have about 20 girls that I am very good friends with but only one guy...but I am friendly with many other guys but it's not the same at all.

BTW I do not have any foreign friends in China...most of the ones I met were nut bars.