In many ways China is going through a similar process of rapid industrial and social change that Britain went through in the early part of the industrial revolution.
The technology may be different but the process seems very similar
You have the innovation and the big projects (Whatever one may feel about the ecological aspects of the three gorges dam, It is a bloody impressive piece of engineering and the Chinese have every right to be proud of it)
You have the Arkwright mills with the not terribly good and relentless working conditions (Foxconn)
And you, as well as the good stuff undoubtedly being made, have gazillions of little factories turning out the most appalling crap.
They will get a handle on it in due course, but for now we are where we are.
But I concur, it was a good second of discharge into my thumb - certainly gave me a shock!
The real killers are high voltage DC supplies like some big RF amplifiers run. I have a 6kV at 2 Amp DC supply, not only would you almost certainly die, you would also suffer pretty appalling burns and flesh damage. It's volts that jolts but it's lots of volts with lots of mills that kills. A 12V car battery can supply up to a thousand amps but you can hold both terminals and feel nothing. Half an Amp at 500V DC can certainly kill if you are unlucky or have a weak ticker.
Peeing aside, which is not a good idea on cattle fences as your pal found out, if you grasp a cattle fence hard you get far less of a "feeling" as part of the fright is from the first spark, once you ground it well through a good contact they aren't too bad. A lot depends on ground conductivity and your footwear.
