China:::They Ain't All Bad

[Adam Smith]

UR:
We were in Changzhou in February 1996 and July 1998, and also went to Beijing, Nanjing, Wuxi, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. We saw a lot of the tourist sites, along with many local homes, schools, markets, etc. By far the best experience was going bike riding in Beijing.

[mindseye]

How reliable is the internet access over there.

Depends on where you live. Shanghai has an optical-fibre based telecommunications system. so it's quite good. In fact, it's easier to get a POTS connection here than it is in Silicon Valley! You don't need an ISP, you just configure your pc to dial 8888, log in with ID 8888 and password 8888. You internet usage appears on your phone bill. Cool! ISDN, ADSL and cable modems are all available as well.

I don't want to imply anything, but just wondering how widespread it is for the people.

In urban areas, about 1/3 of households now have computers. In Shanghai, it's estimated to be pushing 50% That' s pretty staggering when you consider where China was just five years ago.

For those who don't have a pc, there are zillions of internet cafes. These range from very cool upscale bars to the corner cigarette-n-soda shack that now has a couple of pcs crouching inside. Internet computers are like atms or arcade games here, you can find them inside all sorts of small businesses.

Also, how much is restricted over there. She was able to see many of the sites I could including Yahoo.

There is censorship via the "Great Firewall", but it's very patchy. Examples:

Accessible:
- Yahoo News
- Ana Nova
- New York Times
- MSNBC
- ABC News
- San Francisco Examiner
- Reuters
- Apolyton

Blocked:
- CNN
- BBC
- San Francisco Chronicle
- Washington Post
- Geocities
- many sites advocating Taiwanese independance
- some porn sites (or so I've heard )

For the news sites, I don't understand the criteria, given that the content largely overlaps.

- mindseye

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by mindseye
There is censorship via the "Great Firewall", but it's very patchy. Examples:

Accessible:
- Yahoo News
- Ana Nova
- New York Times
- MSNBC
- ABC News
- San Francisco Examiner
- Reuters
- Apolyton

Blocked:
- CNN
- BBC
- San Francisco Chronicle
- Washington Post
- Geocities
- many sites advocating Taiwanese independance
- some porn sites (or so I've heard )

For the news sites, I don't understand the criteria, given that the content largely overlaps.
- mindseye

Washington Post I can understand.


I have been talking to her a lot and her English is still hard to understand somtimes. She uses a lot of internet abbreviations that get crossed somehow. But like I said before, her English is a damn sight better than my Chinease would be. She asked me about India and Pakistan today. Her sense of India's location was a little off. But no worse than some Americans.