Chinese steel is extremely hard.
I owned up to 4 Norinco handguns and have trimmed down to two. I regret selling the 1911.
If you are handy with your hands, Norinco is a fine platform to work on. On earlier Norincos, the finish was rough and required some hand finishing to smooth it out. New Norincos are much better finished.
Their 1911 will accept any after market part which will allow you to customize it to your hearts content. That being said, if you decide to buy a .45, then you should also consider to reload as ammo gets expensive.
.22's are fun, but tend to get boring. A 9mm packs a nice punch and is more affordable. Again, if you start shooting a lot, consider reloading unless you have a lot of disposable income.
A Norinco is approximately half the price of the "original brand name". I still have my CZ knockoffs in 9mm and 40 S&W. They shoot every bit as accurately as the original CZ's. The CZ has a much nicer trigger "out of the box", but like I said, Norcs can be smoothed out if you are mechanically inclined. If you must have the work done by a gunsmith then your price advantage is lowered.
BTW, the 1911 platform is very very very simple to work on. If you can tie your own shoes, you should be able to work on a 1911. The CZ platform is more complex.
Don't let yourself be influenced by the nay sayers. If Norinco was such a piece of crap, there would not be so many of them in the hands of shooters.
Welcome to the hobby.