Yes, Shanghai-ese, and non-Shanghai-ese.

Ok, joking... (sort of).

But, yes, you know there is, and your question is therefore rhetorical! People are looked down upon all over the place, for many different reasons. There is an elite class, that no-one touches, and everyone fears (can't say 'respects'), and then there's the plebs... and even then, there are higher and lower level plebs. Anyone in the government is a class or caste above the rest.

Yesterday, I said "ni hao, meinv" to a girl I know. She said she didn't know how to respond, because that was so "farmer", thus indicating someone 'lower' down, rural, and rustic. So, if I wasn't a foreigner, that would have been really degrading (to me and to her).

yes of course their is. it is very simple to know your place. for example. if ou make 10.000RMB a month and the guy next to you makes 2000. you are 8000 times better than him.thats why you have to make sure to flash your ipad iphone and whatever pricy thing you have on you so everybody can know you have money and are better than them. if you make a million a month, then you  are amillion times better and so on. of course this dosnt apply to high ranking officials. no matter how much money you have they are at the top. 

The two main groups are people from the city and those from the coutryside. Then those places have caste systems and the castes have castes. For example, in a 1st tier city at the top you've got govt officials and big business people, then rich people, then the rest of the business owners, then people with decent office jobs, then factory workers, then migrant workers. That's the deal. 

Yes, the biggest caste system is in Tibet. How do you think the Dalai Lama got to be in his position?