China - love it, hate it, deal with it.

Having spent seven months of 2009 in China, Singaporean Aaron Chew looks back at his time and writes a commentary from his personal experience and perspective.

CHINA, Asia's rising star, the world's awakening giant, is undoubtedly a country of immense potential. There is no doubt it will be one of the biggest players (if not the biggest) on the world stage in time to come.

Beijing and Shanghai are highly developed. Other cities like Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Nanjing are not far behind. But the vast majority of the country and population are still poor. The government is doing a great job creating jobs for the workers, who will be the labour behind the urbanisation of China. The people are brilliant (remember that us Singaporeans are the descendants of landless peasants from China) and it is no wonder that they have brilliant statesmen, economists, engineers, businessmen.

As for the uneducated people, they are highly resilient. They are able take a train for more than one day to get to another city to seek employment (I got a sleeper ticket, i.e., one with a bed, when I took the train. Some of these people get standing tickets, standing all the way!!). They are willing to work hard in harsh conditions. So it's good for the country really. These peasants make a living by becoming cheap labour and as a result, China is urbanised.

Things in China are really cheap. As an expat, I enjoyed a high standard of living without spending too much money (because I know their language and know how to bargain with them). Beijing, where I spent four months on exchange and Shanghai, where I spent more than two months on internship, are modern and so it is possible to live hygienically (whereas in a lot of the other parts of China, one may find conditions less sanitary).

On the flipside, Chinese people can be rude and abrasive. You constantly hear honking on the roads, fights are common. You need to shout for your waiters because everyone is shouting and so you cannot get their attention otherwise. All these are tolerable.

But Chinese people tend to cheat as well. When they sell you things, they tend to exaggerate and lie to extract a higher price from you. Some unsuspecting tourists may end up paying five or ten times more for their item if they don't know the right price or are inept at bargaining with them. There are also many crooks. I have actually been robbed in broad daylight before!! No passerby actually cares because fights are so commonplace in China.

I lodged a police report twice - once for the robbery, once because my friend lost his wallet. The police don't give you a copy of the police report (I tried asking for one) - isn't this very clearly room for corruption?

The Chinese government also takes a very firm hand on running the country. Stability is prized and hence, human rights are readily infringed. From arresting dissidents readily to something as small as banning youtube - it's an annoyance.

Things were calm in China when I arrived in February. But over the course of the year, a Tibetan documentary appeared on youtube, the first anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake arrived, as did the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Incident, and the Xinjiang riots occured!!

So one by one, youtube, blogger, twitter, facebook were blocked. There were even days that ebay, google, hotmail and MSN messenger were down because the government was so worried of the "negative influences from the West". It was so frustrating trying to keep in touch with the world outside China.

The Financial Times is a fierce critic of the country and I do not blame them. Influenced during my junior college days by eminent educators from the hippies era who marched on the streets against the Vietnam War, I made a trip down to Tiananmen Square on the the 4th of June, the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen incident.

The whole place was eerily quiet. There were soldiers, policemen and even plainclothes policemen (who all had a badge and an umbrella each) were on patrol. I later read in the FT that protesters had been rounded up in the morning. Since I was there only in the afternoon, I had missed the action.

The rich-poor divide in China is very evident. The rich Chinese hence despise the poor. Akin to E.M. Forster's A Passage to India, the expats can generally be divided into two groups. One group mingles among the Chinese, is willing to learn more about their culture and show respect for them. Another group simply despise the Chinese, abuse them verbally, make fun of them.

It's quite sad because these Chinese are not lazy, they just did not have the opportunity back home (in the rural parts) to be educated. Hence, they seek cheap employment in the cities. Hopefully their children will get a chance to be educated and break out of the poverty cycle.

Overall, China leaves one with mixed thoughts and emotions. Sure, problems are coming. Social unrest is inevitable in a diverse land with minorities seeking independence, a severe rich-poor divide, and a government that is more concerned with form than substance and unabashedly rules with an iron fist.

But the land is undeniably rising to take its rightful place on the world stage, economically first, then politically. Ignore China at your own peril.