I agree that China has a cash based economy but this is changing more and more. Ecommerce has grown exponentially in the past few years which means both credit card payments and ecommerce payment processors (like alipay and tenpay) have also grown very fast.
I trust if either one of the mega ecommerce/internet companies such as Alibaba or Tencent were to accept bitcoin there would be a tremendous growth in bitcoin usage in China. 
These are some numbers I have noted from a recent webinar I participated to and organized by Kapronasia and which I believe will be included in a report they are producing called 'Bitcoin in China' :
- 134 accounts on Tabao and 2 on Paipai accept bitcoin for bitcoin exchange;
- 10 product merchants on Taobao accept bitcoin;
- Yesbtc.co accepts third party Bitcoin transaction guarantees;
- Huanle 95 allows bitcoin to buy phone credit.
Offline only one cafe in beijing accepts bitcoin (but I know of a restaurant accepting bitcoin in Chengdu).

There are 11 transaction platforms in China, most known and used one being BTC China.

I think we'll see these numbers evolving rapidly, China is the second country in the world in terms of bitcoin wallets
84000 wallets in China (still according to kapronasia)

and 14000 bitnodes -> 11.3 % of the world's total.
These numbers being lower than in an article on Coindesk published back in June where China was #1 for bitnodes:
http://www.coindesk.com/chinas-romance-with-bitcoin-continues/

I am based in Hong Kong and often in China so I follow the bitcoin market in China quite closely. If I hear of exciting news I'll let you know and I'll post it on the bitcoinHK twitter account.

fyi I am also organizing Bitcoin Singapore 2013 (www.bitcoinsingapore2013.com) on November 15. If you are in Asia at that time you can come by and meet several Asian cryptocurrency entrepreneurs.

Perhaps in the future, BTC retailers in those countries will start to be listed on that site.

Bitcoin cannot be legally used as a currency to buy goods and service in China. The Big Brother says so. Individuals can get away with small scale trading (as in trading bottle caps) but business cannot accept it as a currency without risking running into problems with the authority.

There are hundreds or thousands of hostels throughout China which have international tourists as their primary customer base. These would be ideal businesses to accept bitcoins. One of its primary advantages is the ability to take it anywhere with total security. That is something that anyone who travels wants. I know I plan to travel using bitcoins to pay as many of my expenses as possible, and I am sure as bitcoin grows more and more people will do the same.

I am not sure there is a specific law addressing this issue in China yet, of course the only government legal tender is RMB but that would be similar to any other country where legal tender is equally the country's own printed fiat. I know some Chinese suppliers of electronics, for example circuit boards, RAM etc currently accept to sell in BTC, after the transaction they may or may not change BTC into RMB or another currency (if they did convert BTC into RMB which is quite easy in China, the authorities would probably not be aware of the preceding BTC transaction unless the supplier reported it), that is up to the supplier at this point but I am not sure it is considered illegal, I would assume it is one of those issues in a legal grey area for now, tolerated until banned or encouraged, let's hope for the latter...

If anyone in Taipei is interested in bitcoin, feel free to contact me. We can talk about bitcoin developments, exchange bitcoins, and hopefully get some meetups started.

It's not true that Thailand banned bitcoin. That was a rumor. Also, no one mentioned Thailand.

There are fairly strict capital controls in China (although they have significantly loosened up in the last few years). To be honest, I don't think bitcoins are even on the radar with China's financial regulators. Total market cap of BTC is 1.5 billions USD, give or take - a drop in the bucket. Yes, there may have been an anti e-currency edict, but if this was issued a few years back, it was likely done at a time when it was much harder for people to do forex and/or move currency out of the country. Also, if I recall correctly, most of the e-currencies before bitcoin's time were also shut down in the western world.

China is very much a cash society (seeing people buy iPhones with cash and being impressed is laughable, I've seen cars purchased in cash, big bundles of cash). I don't think this is barrier to BTC in China. In fact, I think it is very much conducive to BTC in China. Its not just a fiat cash society, people like to hold wealth in gold/silver, jewelry, art, jade, and other precious commodities. If BTC price volatility decreases, so it becomes more of a store of wealth then a wild west investment, I can see BTC be added to that list of cash equivalents.

I think the primary actual use of large volumes of BTC in China at the moment is taking ill gotten money and either storing it safely or moving it offshore without triggering any red flags. This, however, is purely speculation.

Well, Tokyo/Singapore have bitcoin meetup groups. Here's one for Taipei. Join up if you're in Taiwan or nearby.

http://www.meetup.com/Taipei-Bitcoin-Meetup-Group/

maybe the problem is, that nobody knows Coinmap.org 

i dont think that there are so less retailers out there.