It’s only been a month since BBC’s English-language news website was unblocked by Net Nanny for the first time in the three years that I’ve been in China with regular web access. And now today, more astonishingly, the BBC’s Chinese language news site has also been unblocked, quite possibly for the first time in the [...]
Archive for July, 2008
Using a VPN to beat Chinese Internet Censorship
Those who are in the know in China all say that a Virtual Private Network is the way to go if you want to get around the so-called Great Firewall in China. Most VPNs cost money, but I recently found this free one that works well, and I thought I’d share it with you guys. As you can see from the video, it’s a very quick and easy install and requires no expertise at all (my speciality!) to configure.
Spread the word among your friends in China. Screw proxies. This is friggin’ wonderful.
Watch the Video of the VPN install:
Playing the Mandarin Card in Hong Kong
I recently spent four days in Hong Kong as the final stop of a brief Southeast Asian trip, and as usual I found the language situation there somewhat mystifying. Hong Kong, as we know, has three official languages: Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. Because I don’t speak the former, I was reliant on the latter two [...]
Help a Harvard student, win a trip to Sanya
© James Justin Hey all you fellow laowai in China, Harvard student Wendy Lee is researching how we go about travelling in this big country, and due to the lack of stats about our expat habits available online she’s put together a little survey and asked I tell you about it. Now, personally, I’m always [...]
Olympic fashion (non)sense
Well, everyone and their grandma is calling the 2008 Beijing Olympics China’s coming out party, and they’ve just been given the biggest reason yet, as it doesn’t get any gayer than this.
Sorry, I don’t mean to offend or misrepresent the gay community, <em>Queer Eye</em> teaches us you all have far more fashion sense than this.
This fashion faux pas of the century (and we’re still early into it) is China’s official Olympic opening ceremony uniform.
Driven Mad
I’m slowly developing a phobia for mid-afternoon taxi drivers. I’m not sure if they’re all absolute twats, or if its just me. Can’t possibly be me. I hope not anyhow… Taking a cab between 3:30 and 4pm is easily the biggest pain in my relocated ass right now. My current schedule requires me to commute [...]
How does China Define Terrorism?
When I read about the bus explosions in Kunming on this past Monday I was a little surprised that the local police weren’t calling it terrorism. I don’t believe that it was done by anyone with a political agenda. This was probably done, as the police are saying, by someone with a local grievance. But isn’t [...]
Photo of the Week: Daily Gongfu
There are a few things that no matter how long I’m in China will always bring a pleasant smile to my face – the elderly practicing taiqi, dancing or just walking backwards in parks is one of them. The above photo is by Shanghai-based photographer Stephane Ferrero.
Book Review: I Could Probably Live Without “A Year Without Made in China”
I have to say that I was really surprised when I opened up a Sara Bongiorni’s A Year Without Made in China – the story about one family’s attempt to boycott Chinese products for all of 2005 — there wasn’t much about China in it. The book is subtitled “One Family’s True Life Adventure in the [...]
More Monopoly Money, Please
It’s a damn good thing that I live in a city where the accepted legal tender is basically Monopoly money, because finance gives me the heebie jeebies. It always has. My pre-adolescent lemonade stands went bankrupt, the last time I balanced a checkbook was during a particularly awesome round of hacky-sack, and the merest whiff [...]
