Going for business or pleasure to another country for the first time can be a daunting experience, especially if you are going on a long term basis, and have to relocate with your family in order to make that new country your second home. For most foreign people, China is probably not an easy place to adapt to because of cultural differences, language barriers and just the fact that it’s so far away from Europe and the Americas that people automatically fear being remotely isolated. For one British expatriate, the China experience has been nothing short of an adventurous journey. Navjot Singh, a British subject from London, initially went to China in the early part of 2002 for a short one week holiday and describes his experience from then onwards.

For me it was meant to be just a short holiday. I knew nothing about the culture (apart from what you hear and see in the news) and there was no real interest in China for me. It never really occurred to be that I would be coming back to China for a long term basis until I was exposed to the country’s fast paced economic growth and immense beauty.

Upon graduating from Loughborough University in 2004 with a combined Bachelors and Masters Degree in Electronic and Software Engineering, instead of applying for a graduating job in the UK, I decided to take a chance by relocating to mainland China, initially to teach English at the Guangdong University of Technology, in the southern city of Guangzhou.

Teaching English at the university allowed me to get acquainted with the local culture and customs because I knew that once I would be in my corporate job, I would not have too much spare time to travel around as I did when I was a teacher. It goes without saying that during the first few weeks one is just a tourist going around taking pictures of anything, anyone and everything they see or meet. However, from the first day that I had entered China, I decided that I was going to have the mindset of a tourist for the whole of my time in the country and enjoy every moment. It stems from the fact that I always have this thinking at the back of my mind that you may never get the chance to see or try anything ever again, so even with my corporate job I treated everyday as if it was my last day in China.

Once you arrive in China, you can either hate it or love it, and for me personally it has become a lifelong affection. People always ask me the obvious question, “What’s it really like living in China?” – And it’s quite fun to listen to the stereotypes that many people have in their minds. Is it safe to live there? What do people wear? It may sound weird, but with these kinds of questions, people get so worried that they make China sound like some kind of remote place! It’s not like that at all.

In actual fact, China will surprise you more than you would have imagined. To reject the stereotypes: yes, it’s very safe to live in; the country boosts great cuisine from all corners of the world and not just China and the people are the friendliest that you will ever meet.

After the completion of my stint as an English teacher, I started my corporate job with Philips in Shenzhen in 2004. Apart from the colleagues from worldwide Philips offices who came for a short term business trips on an occasional basis, I was the first non-Chinese staff expatriate member that Philips in Shenzhen had. It was rather strange trying to fix or test a Philips DVD player for clients because my colleagues could speak good enough business English, however with almost all of the technical manuals being written in Mandarin, the challenges soon became apparent to me.

Back in the 1980’s the emphasis was made for people to learn Russian or Japanese because of the economic climate and impact that these powerhouses had on the world’s growth. No-one in those days forecasted that come the 21st century, we will all be in a need to learn Chinese or, to a lesser extent, Hindi (India’s national language). Now almost every corporation is giving their staff members the opportunity to learn Mandarin. I jumped at the first chance that Philips gave me to commence my Putonghua lessons- before that I didn’t even know how to say “Nihao”.

It was during my time at Philips that I got head hunted through a networking opportunity by one of the senior managers at Huawei Technologies, China’s multi-billion dollar Telecoms multinational. Huawei provided me with the chance to interact in some truly global projects and gave me an insight into becoming an International Account Manager, so a move away from the technical side into a commercial role. Huawei’s HQ in Bantian, Shenzhen is an extraordinary site that is comparable to be the Milton Keynes of China. The only differences are that you don’t see so many roundabouts and the weather can be ridiculously hot and humid in the summer. It was just a sheer privilege to be witnessing this corporate powerhouse everyday, and most importantly being part of it.

One thing I did realize from my time working and living in China is that no matter how good you may be at mastering the language, the most important challenge which many foreigners may not be able to overcome is one of the culture, and this is irrespective if it’s in the office environment or in personal life.

Ever since Beijing was awarded the 2008 Olympics, the country has been attracting heightened worldwide attention, and also inward investment from foreign enterprises. This is set to grow as the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games were just the start of an array of events that will follow suit in the coming years, such as the Shanghai 2010 Expo, the Asian Games in 2010 (Guangzhou) and the Universiade (Shenzhen 2011).

A country of approximately 1.3 billion people is not easy to administer by all means, and the senior management of China (i.e. the government) is doing a great job, and has done so in the past twenty-eight or so years since the reforms were embarked upon. If someone went to China three decades ago, they would have seen more or less everyone wearing the same navy blue Mao suit and cap, along with lots of bicycles on the roads, little or no international media converge, low salaries and not many foreign businesses or shops (except tourists!). Astonishingly, today’s China is a complete contrast to that as you can purchase almost anything that you would be able to buy in Western societies such as America or Europe.

One thing continues to amaze me is that in my five years in China, I have been fortunate (and unfortunate!) enough to be in so many different type of scenarios, both good and bad, that I have not been in during my whole life in all the other 24 countries that I have been to. In China, everyday there is something good and new happening, maybe a new building is erected or another trade deal may have been signed with a foreign country; and almost every day the skyline changes in the big cities such as Shanghai, Beijing or Guangzhou.

In London we have one Canary Wharf, but in one Chinese city such as Shenzhen, there are at least ten buildings of a similar size, if not bigger. It’s this sheer scale and pace of expansion which attracts me most about China. Personally, I have a strong belief that within the next couple of decades, the way things are progressing; China’s economy is going to overtake that of the USA and even the U.K. It’s a truly magical and remarkable country to live and work in.

Navjot is the author of the “Newcomer’s Handbook Country Guide: China: Including Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen”, aimed at providing detailed advice to expatriates who are relocating to the region on a long term basis and has also written the recently published “China: Business Travelers Handbook” .