Well my feelings have swung heavily and gone both ways, from one extreme to the other over the years (eight now), so I guess you might say i'm a swinger and I go both ways. Ok, ok, enough of the gay jokes, one day my wife's gonna get curious about what I write on here and then i'll really have some explaining to do. But yeh, major extremes over the years but I can honestly say that I become more and more fond of the country as the years go by. It's easy to focus on negatives but my old Nan always told me "If you ain't got nothing good to say, then don't say nothing at all. Now take off that dress, that's your sister's."

  On my way home from this morning's lesson I saw a guy stamp on a rat, and being as soft as a bag of warm shite I felt genuinely sad for the poor little thing, but then whilst sitting waiting for my bike to be charged (I forgot to plug it in last night) I watched the ladies practising swordplay in the square and listened to the people chatting and reflected on the way so many refer to each other as family (uncle, auntie, little brother, etc) and I found myself thinking (not for the first time) that there is a great deal of elegance and grace here. It didn't last long as on riding away I past a row of brothels and could swear I picked up the wafted scent of semen, but still, it was a nice moment.

As you were saying I think it comes in spurts, and is also largely based on the weather, your city, ex-pat community, salary, English level of your students, etc.

For example if you are in say Hangzhou (where I lived before and loved China) the Chinese there are a bit more educated and open to the West, speak a slightly higher level of English than other cities.  The city itself also contains some natural beauty.  The weather patterns are pretty consistent and the ex-pat community is large and for the most part friendly. 

Compared to say Zhengzhou (my current city) the locals are a bit dirtier, less educated, larger population, dirtier, more polluted, less educated, smoggier, more crowded, dirtier.  So one would feel less inclined to love here. 

In general my mood is similar to the initial question asker, love, to love and a great interest in language and culture, to discovery and boredom, to lack of interest, to a feeling a superiority, to despise, to hate.  To be respectful, to accept, to understand, to just let it go and sometimes to hide my face, dont speak to me in any language and if you speak to me in Chinese I will pretend im stupid and say ting bu dong. 

I am spinning around indifference. There is really a lot of things I like in this country, lot of things I dislike. The kicker towards indifference is the indifference I see in the people. 

I love the new subway line that was built saves me a lot of time and money. 

I still hate all the wet stain spots all over the ground that plus the chewing gum that has been stuck their on the ground for probably over a decade or so. 

I love the variety of restaurants they have in my city. 

I hate the stale food they serve during festivals when they are overdoing it by cooking way too many at one time. 

I love the fact that their is access to climbing a mountain in my city. 

I hate the fact that the pollution is so high that it's unbearable.....

i try to be ambivalent like my id , but its mostly hate, 3 years in april , 11 more to go if things stay atable here or off to somewhere else,

It's mostly waves for me too, but with a growing sense of indifference as to what my feelings actually mean to the people who live here. The way I figure it, if something here  pisses me off too much (such as the pollution), I can just leave, while the vast majority of Chinese cannot.

Also, I've recently been feeling really guilty about all of the general statements I've made in the past about my life here, how I perceive China/Chinese or what I think is "going on". I'm increasingly convinced that I don't know anything about this place, that it is way too complicated to explain in broad strokes and that I'm really in no place to try to explain it to others at all.

That being said, I personally like when users on this forum post good/bad answers, such as mArtiAn and 99Silva's above.