China (BBC2): 'There are two Chinas. The familiar one, the one that is Beijing and Shanghai - and the other China."

It was the 'other' China that was revealed in this enlightening documentary - the under-developed, almost backward China, where poverty and suicide rates are both highest.

And it was women who were the focus, and how the female subordination in rural China is like something more commonly associated with medieval England than a modern-day superpower.

The opening scene was of men playing drinking games, while one lone female stood among them, looking thoroughly ashamed at her presence, barely daring to look at the alcohol, let alone touch it.

From that moment, it was obvious that a Western woman such as myself was about to discover a lifestyle thoroughly different to my own.

And the picture painted was a bleak one - while this documentary was surprising, eye-opening, if the evidence presented is to be wholly believed, the existence of many women seems a thoroughly miserable one.

As one popular male saying goes: "Marrying a woman is like having a horse. You can ride her and beat her whenever you like."

Women in the Chinese and Tibetan countryside were shown often working in the fields (cue lots of arty camera shots of blowing grass) from 4am to 7pm, while their husbands move to cities for employment. So reliant are women on their men that one was shown to be almost broken when her husband had an affair.

Shockingly, the rural mindset is so anti-female that even baby girls cannot be tolerated by many.

As a form of birth control to regulate the ever-increasing 1.3 billion population, if the first born child is a male, the woman cannot have another child. But if it is a girl, the family can continue trying.

Although not endorsed by central government, abortion is condoned in the eyes of many on the grounds of sex alone.

But because of this, by 2020, there will be a shortfall of about 40 million women in China. Only then, perhaps, will the mindset begin the change - a case of you don't know what you've got until it's gone.

There was one - only one - encouraging moment, when a 'suppressed' female did a pretty good impression of being a feisty little madam, quibbling like a good 'un over the amount of cigarettes given as a dowry payment.

And just as it seemed there may be a happy ending, when it was revealed that women could move to a modernised, progressive-thinking city - although "going astray" and working in a bar is forbidden - that glimmer of light was quickly extinguished.

"They move not for emancipation, but for the demand for factory workforce," said the killjoy narrator.

But for the newly-free women, that seemed to hardly matter - for worker Wu Zhaxioa, her £15-a-week wages created dreams of going into business, and she dreamed of daring to try some of the city night-life.

As a woman, watching this made me feel thoroughly lucky I don't come from rural China - but also lucky that I watched this excellent bit of TV.