AmericanWriter – are you in Chengdu? If so you can wander around the North/Northeast of Chengdu, and as you get past the train station and avoid big developments you can find some absolutely poor areas, typically represented by dirty red brick walls around a block with tons of semi-rubble-ish huts crammed inside the walls, and when you find the entrance, feel free to wander in – lots of hobbles have no doors, and the people will likely be very curious as to how a foreigner ended up there and if you are able to speak Chinese, may pick up some interesting tidbits to help with your writing. Or – go at night – same area – find some crappy food stands, and hang out, chat to people.