Fuzhou may be located in China's rapidly developing southeast, but it's the "wild, wild west" to American Anne Meredith.

The 23-year-old English teacher has been amused, bemused and sometimes confused since moving to Fujian's provincial capital, a city of about 6.7 million, last August.

She says the city's relative lack of development and cosmopolitanism are both boons and banes. "Fuzhou offers me the chance to learn about a Chinese city that's still developing and to meet people who have been exposed to a lot of Western culture but have never really met a Westerner," she says.

One example of this, she says, is that local bars issue "alien cards" to foreigners that allow them to drink for free, believing overseas patrons' presence will attract locals.

"I have one that actually entitles me to a free bottle of Absolute Vodka every night," she says. "Some foreigners here have a whole stack of the things, so it's possible to go from bar to bar all night and get totally drunk without ever paying a cent."

Meredith sometimes finds it difficult, she says, to convey who she is to local people.

"I don't fit their idea of what a Western woman is supposed to be like," she says, referring to a lack of interest in materialism and fashion.

And she doesn't understand the passive character of the local people, she adds.

"(Fuzhou residents) never get angry about anything and seem to accept everything as it is, which I don't agree with," Meredith says. "I have run into people with more interesting ideas and confrontational viewpoints in Shanghai and Beijing, but not so much here."

But despite such differences, her relationships with the city's residents have nonetheless "almost always been pleasant and friendly", she says.

Her two best friends are a former student who will soon study journalism in the US and her erhu (Chinese fiddle) tutor. "The best thing that's happened to me here is meeting my erhu teacher, who is the absolute man," she says.

"Unfortunately, he doesn't speak English, but that doesn't stop him from being my favorite person here. Surprisingly enough, my teacher and I are able to communicate pretty well, and I can almost always figure out what he wants me to do."