In an effort to be fair, Gmail/social networking sites aren’t the only thing China targets for bans. Here are other things China has banned in recent days: Luxury advertising (local Beijing policy). Indoor smoking (ban in name only). Illegal additives in pig feed that are toxic to humans (cross your fingers!).
Since those pesky flower-related “protests” a month ago, Gmail has been, let’s say, not working as well as it is in the U.S. What I, and most people who use it, had hoped would be temporary has stretched into a month of frustrating, erratic and worsening load times. Even with a proxy or VPN, Gmail […]
Boyfriend and I moved apartments a couple of weeks ago. Now that I have had time to adjust, settle in and get the amazing dirtiness under control, I would like to say that it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. Cons first: Still pretty dirty. I have to find a carpet cleaner […]
It’s one of those “China sucks” days. To wit: They’ve been fucking with Google for the past week. This means that Gmail randomly goes down while I’m checking or writing e-mails, in the middle of uploading attachments or saving drafts. It also means that Google Maps stalls when I try to search for a specific […]
In addition to elaborate multi-course banquets for every lunch and dinner, as well as private rooms in each city’s best hotels, I received tons of gifts from each local government — and sometimes company — we visited on our Anhui media tour. Actually, I’m not really sure who gave each gift, but anyway, they did […]
This is nice. The Beijing government will start tracking all 20 million people in real-time through their mobile phones. From South China Morning Post: Wireless communication experts said the system would be particularly useful not only for following the whereabouts of individuals but also in detecting any unusual gathering of a large number of people. […]
More to come about my trip to Anhui later, but here was one of the highlights of my trip: It’s chou doufu (stinky tofu), Anhui-style! Delicious. It’s a distinctive charred black, not the usual deep fried tofu brown color, and it’s actually made with dou gan (dried tofu) instead of regular tofu. For those people […]
Apparently, that’s what the Economist thinks. According to its annual survey of the living conditions of world cities, Beijing is 72nd out of 140 cities, higher than Tianjin, Suzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dalian and Qingdao, the other Chinese cities on the list. The rankings are based on 30 indicators in categories of stability, health care, […]