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Q: Does anyone have any good experiences with Chinese coffee?
Both Hainan and Yunnan produces coffee. Some of it must be drinkable.
I am looking from ground coffee for drip-brewing. Has any Westerners tried some coffee that tasted like the real thing
(and of course, where to buy, e.g. a taobao link would be superb)
It is "hit and miss".
I have had some pretty good blends, and I have had stuff that almost drove me to drink tea. Almost. For me, a bad cup of coffee is better than a "good" cup of tea, but that is just me.
I have had some better luck with Vietnamese coffee. Sadly, one just has to "shop around".
Good luck.
i tried yunan coffee but honestly it sucks. But again im italian, so i might be rather picky...
I tried some coffee from Yunnan that actually tasted pretty good. But this is China and the locals probably just put Brazilian or Colombian beans into Yunnan coffee packaging. 
Agree with Kaiwen. The coffee here in Yunnan is good.
I drink this stuff:
http://www.season-coffee.com.tw/English/index.asp
I buy the beans from a local Chinese publican for 50 RMB for 1 lb or 454 g.
Espresso beans with the right amount of sweat at room temp.
Hunan, Yunnan, YesMaam, NoMaam, doesn't make a diff to me. This java is delicious. Do they "pollute" it with beans from other exotic places? Maybe. Might even be a bonus if the extras are Blue Mountain or Italian espresso or supremo colombiano. But I don't care.
I get a good mug of turbo-charged coffee every morning at home without having to shell out precious beer money for Starfucks crap.
Give em a go. 
I love coffee. The first thing I did when when arriving was buy a bean roaster with 220 voltage. Yunnan beans are the best in China! I don't even miss my usual African and Columbian beans since I came to China, although I drink them from time to time. Yay Yunnan! They have the best things in China.
Red_Fox:
How much did you pay for a bean roaster? (Didn't know you could buy a domestic roaster...)
xinyuren:
The most common good quality roasters on Taobao are from Korea (Gene Cafe) and America (Behmor 1600). There was also a domestic drum roaster that looked promising. I got the Behmor because I followed it's development on the online forums. Lots of love and thought was put into that machine. It was about 3500 yuan
Shangri-la coffee is the best and consistent. It's really good stuff.
Have been going to the various local kafei ting in Anhui, Hefei and they all have very good coffee, that really 'knocks off your socks'. When I ask what kind they serve they all tell me it is grown in China, mostly in Yunnan.
I should clarify that I am looking for ground coffee beans for home brewing, not cafe chains to drain my wallet.
Rin:
Try the doctor java link I posted up there. They source the beans from there own plantation here in Yunnan and do home delivery. The prices are reasonable.
This is one of the things I stock up on my return visits back to the US. On one of my longer stays in China, I ran out. So I bought a bag of coffee beans from a local Starbucks and had them grind it for me. The taste/quality was ok, but the price was more than double what I would expect to pay at an American supermarket.
I buy the Yunnan breakfast coffee for around 20RMB per bag. I use it in my stove top for espresso and think it's pretty good. It's not as fresh and strong as stuff I've had elsewhere but it does the job and I'm certainly not going to complain.
Try www.arabicaroasters.com a wholly foreign owned gourmet coffee roaster in Beijing whose customers include Element Fresh, Blue Frog, as well as the Hilton Hotels in China.
