China's Rise: A Transformative Force Reshaping the World

Degree of control over content. Singapore imports water, over 90 per cent of its food supplies, and nearly all its energy needs and consumer goods.

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China, the factory of the world, is so highly self-sufficient that your life and everything you consume can and often will be domestically produced — from the food you eat, the clothes and shoes you wear, the car you drive, the phone and laptop you use, to the movies and TV shows you watch.

China's ecosystem is so vast and varied — wealthy sprawling megacities like Shanghai and Shenzhen, poor rural villages in Guizhou and Guangxi, and everything in between. It's a place where the past and future collide, where thousand-year-old temples stand in the shadows of gleaming glass towers, and where the Chinese Communist Party's omnipresence is felt in every facet of life; most notably in propaganda slogans displayed in public spaces or shouting from billboards.

Organized chaos radiates from most Chinese cities and towns, a consequence of a nation in perpetual motion, driven by intense ambition, cut-throat competition and unbelievable scale.

There is an uncomfortably high threshold for bad behaviour because no one has time to be judgmental; they're too busy making money, fulfilling their bosses' demands, making sure their children get the best life.

The lack of regard for rules and absence of pressure for social etiquette can be as liberating as it is offensive to a Singaporean sensibility. So as much as I love zipping around on my electric scooter to beat Beijing's notoriously bad traffic, I find myself constantly blowing up at reckless drivers and self-absorbed pedestrians, while the law-abiding part of me never got comfortable riding against the flow like everyone else.

It's early days and the reintegration has just begun, but I'm appreciating the orderliness afforded by this well-calibrated machine that has kept Singapore going, the quietness on the public buses, the lush but meticulously-pruned greenery that drapes the entire city.