I love it. It's great. Living in China means that you can afford to eat out often and in style. The variety and range of food on offer is fantastic, and there really is something for everyone. One note is that Chinese dining is very much aimed at the group - individual dining is possible, but you won't get the full benefit.
The 'Jiachang Cai'
These are the most common type of restaurant - the 'Homestyle Dishes'. The decor will not be plush, and the service may be somewhat slow off the mark as underpaid waitresses and cooks find flirting with each other much more interesting than getting food onto the tables of hungry patrons, but the food is cheap and good. You can't expect an English menu, and if you get one it probably won't be much help ('Playboy' and 'Murphy's' are just two dishes I recall'). Costs are low - from 8Y upwards per head. A phrasebook will help when ordering, or you can just point randomly and hope. It's a good idea to order random dishes occasionally, you can offer find some real gems. Don't be afraid to ask the staff to recommend something - they might steer you towards something more expensive, but it's unlikely to be prohibitively so. Alternatively, just prowl around and point at anything that grabs your eye on other people's tables.
Ordering
Chinese eating is a much more social affair than a traditional western affair. Rather than one plate with meat and two veg being placed in front of each diner, large portions of each dish are placed in the centre of the table, and everyone helps themselve (or each other, if they are being polite). For this reason, you're better off eating in a group - if you eat alone you will be restricted to one great big portion of one item, which regardless taste, will get boring. There's often a bit of fuss over who will order - the host may insist everyone orders their favourite dish, while the guests insist that the host should have the honour. Pay attention to how the dishes complement each other - be careful you don't order three beef dishes. One dish per person is usually enough, but if you are the host you might want to get another one or two for politeness. However, the old Chinese ideal of over-ordering food to show respect for the guest is rapidly and rightly disappearing in favour of a waste-not want-not attitude.
Eating
If you are the guest of honour (and as a foreigner, you might be) then it is usual to let you have first pick of the food, or
to load up your plate with the tastiest morsels. While it's easy to be overpolite and insist that others go first, this will
just result in the food getting cold. Accept your role, grab the juciest bit of meat, and enjoy.
Having said that, it's considered none too polite to spend too much time choosing the best bits. It's also considered rude to
push your chopsticks into your rice when not using them - it looks too much like the incense sticks Chinese burn for their ancestors
.
Drinking
At low-key affairs, the tea (free, except at more expensive places) and beer usually suffice. Soft drinks are always available, and will potentially double the bill (due to the bill being cheap more than the drinks being expensive). Special occasion dinners will usually involve at least a small amount of drinking.
Settling Up
It's not usual for Chinese to split the bill, and if they do they do so discreetly after leaving the restaurant - the western (or perhaps more accurately, the western student) habit of passing cash over the table while the waiter waits is unusual here. Generally speaking, if you invited, you pay.
Taking out
If there are significant leftovers, you can ask for a doggy bag 
. All restaurants
will do takeaway, just specify you want your food to go