Internet access in China proved a lot harder than we imagined - and that's before we found most sites were blocked.
We spent a good part of our first day in Jinghong wandering the streets searching for Internet cafes that would accept us - they all refused us with a long winded no in Chinese.
Eventually we found out, by a Internet patron who called his English speaking friend that access to the Internet required you to swipe your Chinese identity card - which of course we didn't have.
In the end we gave up the notion until we got back to our hotel and asked the receptionist if there was any Internet we could use (hoping she might let us use her computer that she used to communicate to us using a Google like translator).
Using the same tool she then told us we could just pay an additional 20 yuan for a room with a computer! Amazed the simple hotel had these facilities and kicking ourselves for not asking at the start of the day, we accepted.
So you have to be Chinese to cross the Chinese fire wall? It's more effective than the Great Wall! That only kept out Mongolians!
ReplyDelete- Ivan
remember what i told you about my experiences in the Yunnan province? another 5o yuan upgrade at your hotel can get you in a lot of trouble...
ReplyDeleteHenry
yup, even Google mail could be interrupted... and you can forget about Facebook. the thing is, any famous western site, there is a chinese replica, you just need to know the chinese characters :-)
ReplyDelete