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Category: China

Chinese Hot Water

Chinese Hot Water

The Chinese firmly believe in hot water, or at least warm water. I’m not a great fan. I prefer mine chilled. Thankfully.

Visa for travel?

Looks like the woman at the Chinese embassy didn’t know what she was talking about and I actually DON’T have a valid visa for China.

Luckily, I’m one of those people that doesn’t believe what he’s told, and rather than chance it at the border, I decided to call it a day in SE Asia.

Leaving of Hanoi

Had a good look around this city. Seems a cool place – in many ways, not least because the weather was about 11 °C.

Pork dumplings
Vietnamese street food – Dumplings and egg

I took some photo’s and mooched the streets.

On many days it was raining, at least in the afternoon.

There are many places to eat in Hanoi. Perhaps too many.

Vietnamese Street Food
Vietnamese Street Food – Sausages and other offal

Shopping is also good. There are many nick-nacks to be had. Prices are cheap, bargains can be struck and there is an abundance of other shops to try if the price doesn’t suit.

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Life behind the great firewall of China: VPN in China

Life behind the great firewall of China: VPN in China

Update China internet – January 2015

As of 1st January 2015, the Chinese government further tightened it’s grip on the nation’s internet access.
A rude awakening for many expats hoping to get on the ‘net – nothing worked.

Things have calmed down a little, but the fall-out is as follows:-

1) All foreign sites are throttled.

Regardless of CDN’s, font-libraries, supplementary elements, platforms etc.; foreign sites are subjected to government level ‘throttling’.

2) Mobile VPN’s don’t work.

Astrill, one of China’s largest VPN’s – no longer able to support mobile VPN access.
Hidemyass, the VPN I use, connection is intermittent at best.

This thread on Shaghai expat reports, some are experiencing more luck than others, depending on what VPN you subscribe to.

China’s Internet access – Life behind the great firewall

Since May of last year, when the troubles in Hong Kong first erupted, the Chinese government has been changing the way the internet works inLife behind the great firewall of China China.

We’re all aware of the ‘great wall of China’, the system by which China monitors and prevents sites it doesn’t wish it’s residents to view.

Previously, this would have been Facebook, Twitter, certain searches or selected content would be blocked.

Also Youtube.

Not really a massive problem, you could still update your phone, look at maps and do a quick translation. At home, sites were slow to download, but acceptable.

Since May 2014, that’s all changed

China internet restrictions since May 2014

The following sites have been blocked wholesale.

Twitter, Facebook, Google (all sites), Soundcloud, Instagram.

New York Times, Bloomberg, selected international Wikipedia pages, Wikileaks, BBC news and radio.

Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, iStockPhoto.

Flickr, Change.org and most VPN sites.

China now throttles all foreign websites

Something the government does now is ‘throttle‘ foreign websites. ‘Throttle‘ it, makes elements ‘timeout’ and leaving you with an improperly rendered and unreadable page.

This maybe due to font libraries, or CDN (content distribution networks), such as Google font libraries or Edgecast respectively.

Many sites access these services to serve content in a more efficient manner. When this content is blocked, the whole site fails to work.

As a foreign speaking resident, this causes you problems.

The only way to get around this is –

China VPN

There are a number of companies offering VPN, or Virtual Private Network services

**A VPN is a protocol executed to access the internet through a tunnel, a tunnel where your real IP address and location is never revealed.

to get round these restrictions, and be able to go on the websites and access the services you would at home.

I won’t trawl through them, there are sites which tell you how much and the relative features etc.

I picked the one with the largest network of servers. Hide My Ass!

It’s got services in Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong.

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Taizhou Bilingual – The end is nigh

Taizhou Bilingual – The end is nigh

Bai xing jiao ling Bai xing jiao ling Bai xing jiao ling Bai xing jiao ling Bai xing jiao ling Apartment - Bai xing jiao ling Apartment - Bai xing jiao ling Apartment - Bai xing jiao ling

All things…

Having found my new apartment in my new estate to be a step in the wrong direction, it was a stroke of luck that the school decided they didn’t wish to continue my contract.

Having lived in the place for 2 weeks, it’s still got no TV and I’m confined to one room, in which I sit and watch the internet.

Not what the contract says, I’m supposed to be provided with a TV (minimum requirement for dealing with the boredom).

Bai xing jiao ling

The estate is called Bai xing Jiao ling, or common peoples estate, which is exactly right.

The leafy boulevards of Fengnan Road have been replaced by dumped sofas and bags of building waste.

The apartment itself is lightly furnished, with a wicker sofa, a table some chairs, a washing machine, a fridge, (whose door doesn’t close properly), and a TV (which doesn’t work) – all covered by a layer of plaster dust.

It’s closer to school, but further from the shops, places to eat, supermarkets and general activity.
Out in the sticks you might say.

It’s really not what I’m looking for. I want to be close to town, near the bars, shops and communications. Where I can have a good time. I was relieved when they said they were terminating my contract.

This, I think, won’t be without drama.

In the stitch zone

The guy from the agency that employed me on behalf of the school said they would pay me until 28th January + travel bonus.

I’m getting the distinct feeling they’re going to try and sack me and get out of paying this $500 bonus.

Someone asked me whether I was receiving drugs in the post in the teachers office, which I felt was a strange thing to say.

It’s not unusual to receive packages over Christmas. And like the other outlandish comments, I let it fall on stoney ground, (so to speak).

It’s 10 days to go until I’m free of the contract and paid up. I’m getting the feeling this week I’m going to be stitched up… so watch this space…

Support a fledgling artist for Christmas

Support a fledgling artist for Christmas

So…

Was looking at my favorite websites and discovered this.patreon_site

Support new industries, enterprises and artists.

Yes, if you feel like you have a few quid in your pocket, you can become a benefactor.
All in need of cash, the reward could be a link of their website to offering to write a song for you (that would be nice).

As us in the creative industry know, funding is often a problem to organise and to make consistent.

Choose anything

For $1 per month, you can offer your support.

They have a large database of projects and artists.

I am currently supporting one of my favorite website where the advertisers have pulled out.

You can have a look here http://www.patreon.com/chinasmack.

Christmas is coming

As Christmas is coming up, this may be a new and creative way of sourcing that gift that shows u care (aww).

If you wish to support this site, you can do so here http://www.patreon.com/michaeltyler