In the US, I was craving for anything that relates to Chinese ­ songs, books and food. However now in China, I am overwhelmed with too much of Chinese stuff, I am now craving for English radio stations, Italian food, etc.

Singapore has a balance of both the Chinese and Western, it is difficult to feel at home anywhere else. Other than my family, I probably miss the comforts of food courts, kopitiams and hawker centres in Singapore.

But having said that, I enjoy my work very much and am learning a lot.

My traineeship in the US is with Corporate Reporting in Kraft Foods International HQ. Kraft treated us trainees as normal employees, a very good working experience learnt professional skills.

My current position is financial analyst with Kraft Foods International, Greater China HQ. Greater China includes PRC, Taiwan and Hong Kong/Macau.

The traineeship in US was a good cultural experience as the company has around 30 trainees from over 20 countries working together in the same environment. The fact that the traineeship was 18 mths long gave me a realy good opportunity for learning and career development.

US KFI's office was in a six-storey huge building located in the New York Westchester County (sub-urb), with many facilities (including Kraft's Credit Union, health center, gym, company store, mail room, cafeteria, etc). The building was self-sufficient; you didn't have to leave the office at all!

Working in Beijing is surprisingly not much different from working in the US. It’s convenient to get to work with the subway or the taxis. For the Beijing office, we are located just opposite the World Trade Center, a very convenient location (near the subway and the third ring road).

Comparatively it's of course a smaller office but we still occupy an entire level of the building since GC HQ sits together with the PRC office.

Dressing is more formal in the US office, guys are usually required to wear ties. Females are not allowed to wear open-toe shoes, except during casual Fridays in summer. In the GC HQ, jackets are not necessary and jeans are fine for casual Fridays. The atmosphere is more relaxing.

Mandarin is normally spoken in the office but since we are still a US company and with the presence of expatriates who do not speak Mandarin at all, most of the time, the office language is still English. However I do converse in Mandarin with my colleagues during lunch hours. The locals are definitely more comfortable with Mandarin but with more foreigners around, they are also getting used to speaking English with us.

Beijing had changed a lot from what I knew when I was there on a tour 8 years ago. There are many high skyscrapers now and constructions are everywhere.

Beijing is becoming very cosmopolitan and full of foreigners. Since I speak Mandarin, I am not surprised that I settled down in Beijing much easier than in the US with the additional help of the company here. But most of my non-mandarin speaking colleagues told me that beijing is a place that they settled down really easily too.

For example, there are many free english magazines that are specially catered to the foreigners, informing about the latest happening in the city.

The city is also getting more expensive with all these changes going on. However, most foreigners are glad to know that alcohol is not that expensive in beijing.Many of them will hit San Li Tun (a.k.a. Jiu Ba Jie / Bar Street) for the bars and restaurants in the evenings. it is especially crowded on friday nites.

I blend in pretty well in China. I think I look Chinese enough to pass off as a local, esp with my straight hair now and that definitely helps in terms of bargaining and getting cheaper accommodation.

However, people will always look at you shockingly when you speak fluent english or when u hang out with ang-moh/lao-wai. Most of them will assume that Singaporean Chinese dont know much of the Chinese culture, things like du dou, some Chinese history or the fact that i used to play the er-hu.

They are surprised to know that I can read and write Chinese, probably also becos of the fact that at the beginning i wasn't able to speak total fluent mandarin when i first came. Another reason was becos it was natural for me to switch to English whenever i am in the office since that has been the business language i am used to all these years. Some of them actually don’t really consider us as Chinese at all and I usually have a hard time explaining to people (even when I was in US) that I am a Chinese, not a Chinese Chinese but a Singaporean Chinese.

Between US and China, I can't really say which one I like better, as both are really wonderful.

The comforts of the US, in terms of getting things completed faster ­ in terms of daily activities like paying bills online, getting credit cards, banking activities, etc are similar to Singapore’s, if not, better.

The Chinese environment helps with the fact that we celebrate similar Chinese festivals like Mid-Autumn festival, Chinese New Year. There’s always Chinese that can celebrate these festivals with while you are out alone.