Does China get any easier outside of Beijing?

I visited Beijing earlier this year for a five day stop over on the way back from Japan. I really did love it, and I'm looking to plan another trip, probably visiting places like Xi'an, Chengdu and Shanghai. Itinerary ideas are always welcome. However, compared with other places I've visited, especially in Asia, I found it really quite difficult. Every day felt like it required a lot of significant planning and left little room for spontaneity. That might have been okay for four days, but two or three weeks of this would be too exhausting, I think. Was this a Beijing-specific problem, or is it country-wide?

Walkability: In Beijing we stayed in the second ring road, only 15 minutes' walk from Wangfujing Street, but we found that walk, and all others like it, uncomfortable with the huge amount of traffic and frankly not much to see at street level. It was perfectly safe, but it just wasn't very pleasant or fun. Even streets like Wangfujing and some malls felt a bit dead and lifeless. We ended up taking lots of taxis to little hubs like Qianmen, Nanluoguxiang or mall areas like Sanlitun. That was fine enough, but compared with Tokyo, Seoul, KL, Hanoi, where we have had fun walking directionless for hours and nibbling along the way, Beijing felt a bit dead and required careful planning and taxiing between hotspots, with not much to do in between.

Main attractions: The Forbidden City, Great Wall, Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace were obviously great. But navigating the WeChat booking systems for places like the Forbidden City added layers of friction. We managed to use the same-day ticket system at the Forbidden City, but had no such luck at Tiananmen and had to miss it. We like a bit of spontaneity in our trips, and needing to book all key attractions well in advance takes a lot of fun out.

Finding restaurants: The lack of Google Maps became a real challenge. My wife is vegetarian, and I will try to eat every local dish possible. We don't want to eat in vegetarian restaurants, but prefer local places that have at least one vegetarian option. Normally we are fine searching “vegetarian” in Busan and finding a menu line or a review praising vegetarian options. Obviously this was not an option in China, and I didn't know enough Chinese to reliably search Dianping. I generally avoid main tourist streets and shopping malls, but it did not feel possible here because one street over from a tourist spot was completely dead. We ended up eating in malls a few times because that felt like the most happening place, but also felt like we were missing locally owned places.

I hope my post does not sound too negative. We had a great time and even the mall food — shout out to Fei Da Chu (费大厨) — was some of the best food I have had on our travels. We'd love to return for a two- or three-week trip, but not if it is going to be as exhausting and difficult as our five days in Beijing. Are these Beijing-specific problems, or are other places more easy-going and vibrant?