Thoughts on women's safety in China

China's streets are famously safe for women, including foreign women.

Adult females of all ages can be seen walking, driving cars and riding bicycles by themselves, even late into the night.

Such sightings aren't restricted to the country's big cities as personal accounts of women from smaller towns suggest.

The all-girl group at bars and pubs is a common feature in China; something that is greeted by surprising glances from foreigners, especially if the visitors come from culturally conservative societies.

Chinese women can largely afford both actual safety and its perception, luxuries that women in many parts of the world don't have.

Some of the most dangerous countries for females are marked by war, ethnic conflicts and religious intolerance, making women and children the permanent "collateral".

But barring those, if we were to talk about random street crimes, then there's India, the United States and the United Kingdom, among places that witness some of the world's highest incidents of sex attacks. In India's case, the brutality of a 23-year-old woman's gang rape in 2012 left the world outraged.

At the time I was in New Delhi, where the assault had taken place, and you could sense the fear that gripped the city - women were scared, really scared.

Perhaps that's why my Indian, other Asian and Western friends, who live in China frequently talk about "how safe it is to be a woman here".