Saturday, April 25, 2009

Slow Internet

The Internet in China is soooo slow - well, just how slow is it? It depends on whether you are trying to access a website inside China or outside of China. I tested my Internet speeds today using Speedtest.net and found that if I am looking at a website in China I have download speeds of .45 Mb/s and upload speeds of .44 Mb/s. If I look at a website in Taiwan (outside China's control) I have download speeds of .39 Mb/s and upload speeds of .37 Mb/s - significantly slower. Worse yet, if I use a VPN service to tunnel through the Great Fire Wall to access a website in Britain I have incredibly slow download speeds of .20 Mb/s and upload speeds of .26 Mb/s. Obviously the filters China puts on the three gateways that the Internet uses to get into China are slowing down service tremendously. So even if you use a VPN to access banned websites outside of China they are able to slow down the transmission to a point that it becomes very inconvenient and hardly worthwhile. Today, it's actually slower than average speeds in Africa.

To put this in perspective the average speeds in North America are 5.53 ands speeds in South Korea average a blazing 17.83 So while China is trying to become a technological giant it has one of the slowest Internets in the world - due in large part to their attempts to control information their citizens can see.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Take me to the Crowne Plaza(s)

When I arrived in Hangzhou one late night last week I was tired and ready to get to my hotel for a rest. I hopped into a taxi and asked to be taken to the Crowne Plaza Hotel. When the taxi pulled up to the hotel I didn't take a close look until after I got out of the car and turned to go in. It was then that I noticed that the entrance and lobby were oddly dark. The doorman was lurking in the shadows and as I approached him I could see that he appeared to be dressed in a stained bandmajor's uniform. His eyelids could manage only a half salute. As I asked him in Chinese if this was the Crowne Plaza I could see the "Crown Plaza" name and logo over his shoulder but he could not or would not answer me. This didn't look like any Crowne Plaza I'd ever seen and it suddenly dawned on me that I had been dropped off at a fake Crowne Plaza.

I got back in another cab and was promptly taken to another fake Crowne Plaza. It wasn't until my third try that a taxi driver took me to the real thing.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

China Blocks Susan Boyle

While the rest of the world is talking about Susan Boyle, the Simon Cowell-slayer from Scotland we here in China are unable to see the video of her stunning performance on You Tube because the Chinese censors have blocked You Tube again. Is the CCP afraid that Chinese citizens will be inspired to get up and sing without the benefit of makeovers? Are they afraid that the laobaixing (ordinary people) will get ideas? Well yes, but not about striking a blow against ageism - rather they don't want their citizens to see a recent video on You Tube of some Tibetans being beaten by Chinese police. So the rest of us have to just read about Ms. Boyle.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

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Friday, April 17, 2009

Night Train to Hangzhou

On the train from Ningbo to Hangzhou about 80% of the passengers were male. Most of them wore an expression of desperation on their faces. The youngest ones reminded me of abused animals, constantly alert to their surroundings and trying hard to avoid anyone’s attention. These were migrant workers or wannabe migrant workers returning to Anhui Province from job-hunting in the coastal cities of Zhejiang Province. I imagine that many of them had been laid-off as many of China’s export-fuelled factories closed in recent months. I felt sorry for them. I could feel their desperation and hopelessness. This is what most of China is still like. Those of us who live in prosperous Shanghai or Beijing often forget this.

I was traveling “hard seat” on this 2.5 hour, 29 yuan ride from the port city of Ningbo to the old Southern Song capital of Hangzhou. The train was crowded and uncomfortable and made many stops. After Hangzhou it was headed on to Hefei, the capital of poor Anhui Province and the source of most of Shanghai’s millions of migrant workers. Many of the cars were given over to dormitory-style bunk beds for those that could afford them for the long trip to Hefei.

A rough-looking woman in a uniform rolled a cart down the aisle selling instant noodles for 6 yuan (about US 90 cents). When the noodle customers tried to fill their instant noodle bowl with hot water from the hot water boiler they found that it didn’t work. When they complained the noodle seller brushed them off with a brusque “it’s not my responsibility”. An attractive woman asked the male conductor for hot water and he promptly fetched some for her. A male migrant behind her asked the conductor for the same thing and was refused. He just accepted the treatment without protest. I suppose he’s used to this sort of thing.

As I write this I’m on a much nicer train going from Hangzhou to Nanjing – a four hour trip at speeds ranging from 150-200 km per hour. This train is modern, with comfortable seats, electric outlets for laptop users, and at 187 yuan, much too expensive for migrants. This train is spacious and filled with college students and middle-class white-collar types. My only problem here is that the elderly couple seated in front of me are burping so much I wonder where they are getting all that gas. They’ve kept at it for the last hour. Maybe they are talking to each other in some strange burp-based dialect. Whatever it is, I don’t like their tone.

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Sliding Doors and Sliding Phones

I've been pretty lucky so far that I haven't lost my wallet in the crowds here (knock on virtual wood). Pickpockets love crowds and there are crowds in China. I have had a mobile phone lifted but I think it fell out of my pocket in a taxi. More about that in a minute. James Fallows blog today is about his most unfortunate experience of being pick pocketed on Beijing's subway yesterday. His experience highlights the dangers of packed subways and the common technique of gangs of pickpockets crowding around the subway doors to force riders who are trying to get off to transit what I call "the wedge". As the evil-doers block the doors passengers get squeezed between gang members and valuables start disappearing. I keep my wallet in my front pocket and my hand on it as I elbow through the phalanx of jerks (wangba).

As Mr. Fallows recounts in his post his stolen credit card was used minutes later at a Starbucks in Beijing - before he could call his credit card company. This is not the first place I would expect a pickpocket to head to after a heist. Maybe his nerves needed calming.

Back to my mobile phone. I've actually lost two phones in Shanghai, both of which had my contact information on the back. Neither of them were returned. I think they slid out of my trouser pockets in taxis because the VW taxis in Shanghai are built so that long-legged passengers have their knees up in the air and their pockets thus pointed downwards. I've had coins slide out of my pockets in this situation and some I've been able to recover. The other thing I've noticed is that the back seats in taxis are sloped backwards and covered with slick, tight, white cotton covers. There is also usually a one-inch gap between the seat bottom and the back - making a perfect trap for coins, phones and other detritus sliding around in taxis. It all seems so contrived.

An explanation is in order for those of you in the States. Phones here in China have SIM cards in them and as long as you move the SIM card from phone to phone one can use any phone. Its not like in the States where someone else's phone is useless once deactivated. A $200 mobile phone in China can easily be sold and used by anyone that has a SIM card - the phone itself cannot be deactivated.

The only solution to the taxi phone traps in Shanghai are phones with non-skid surfaces that will cling to ones pockets. I'm thinking Velcro.