in Guangzhou
So far I cannot reach Facebook, Blogspot, the primary Google.com, and many other Google sites like Google Reader and Google Language Tools which I often use to translate Chinese. I used an SSH tunnel for 10 minutes through my home machine to access those sites, and now I can't reach that either. I thought it may have just been a crappy internet connection but I connected through another machine and the home machine is still up. This means my home machine was accessible and then blocked. I am not sure how this could be unless they are blocking it because of SSH traffic or something like that. If that is the case, then that's freakin' nuts. Although I experienced this years ago when I was here and I read articles about it periodically, the reality of experiencing it firsthand is still shocking.
I'm in Guangzhou for 4 nights. Yesterday I came on the train from Hong Kong. I talked the whole way with this guy from New Zealand. Nice guy. We talked about Flight of the Conchords a lot. I wonder if New Zealanders are tired of hearing that, but he didn't seem to mind. I guess it makes a change from Lord of the Rings and "Oh, I hear New Zealand is really beautiful." I have been speaking a decent amount of Chinese. I suppose I won't know til a month has passed whether improvement is occurring. I have some new words in my arsenal for the moment at least.
Went to the CS meetup in Guangzhou last night with Carrie and her boyfriend Nick. Smallish group, maybe 20 or so. Talked to a few interesting folks. The cafe where they hold it is in the neighborhood Tian He where I stayed last time I was here. I don't think the cafe was here at that time though Guangzhou has seemingly changed a lot in the 3 years since my last visit. I was pretty hungry after a day of traveling which should've been easy but turned a bit more difficult after a couple of wrong numbers, some difficult Chinese conversations, a long wait at the bank to exchange money while innumerable forms were stamped, and about an hour and a half of me trying and failing to get 3g working on my new Chinese SIM card. It works now thankfully and ultimately I made it to Carrie's old apartment where I am staying. She lives elsewhere now and this apartment is still owned by her parents and therefore vacant. The neighborhod is what I would call "authentic." Anyway, being hungry I was concerned about lack of options at the cafe but was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was owned by a former New Yorker and there was red lentil hummus on the menu. Total score. I've been eating quite a lot of Chinese food and was aching for some variation.
Worth mentioning also was my second CS meetup in HK on Thursday night before leaving. They have a nice group there and a pretty big meetup in a cool and somewhat hidden bar in an otherwise chaotic and drunk-foreigner-filled neighborhood. My last few days in HK I also quite successfully met up with various CSers for nice vegetarian meals. I could've stayed longer in HK actually. I find it to be a pretty comfortable city with enough international influence to feel diverse. It also runs amazingly well. I noticed that especially in the last 24 hours in Guangzhou where the subway was built by the same people but just lacks the little details. In Hong Kong the subway you want always seems to be across the tracks when you get off your train. Everything is immaculate. The Octopus cards are just incredible and easy and fast. It is at least slightly embarassing how much better the HK subway is than ours in NYC, although we still run 24 hours which trumps cleanliness. Also, the walkways always seem to put people in the right place so that the sheer volume of traffic never seems to overwhelm. Maybe the people play some role here. In New York when people try to get on the train before people get off, it always annoys me. In China, they have really taken that to the next level. There is virtually no pretense of creating space for the people to debark. Just two masses trying to mush their way past each other. I wonder about the thought processes of the groups involved but I don't suppose I'll ever know.
I wonder if other people talk to the mosquitos when hunting them in a room in some other country. Now it's still early, but last night I was up a few times in the middle of the night trying to track mosquitos somewhere in this room with a towel or some other killing implement. Little bastards.
There were a few other things I'd made a note to write about when the opportunity next arose. I think the main one was that a few nights before leaving HK, I'd been hit on by a prostitute. This happens somewhat regularly in bars in Hong Kong but what was unusual about this occasion was that I was in 7-11 at the time, looking at the Chinese stomach medication. She initially asked if I needed help choosing medicine before asking where I was staying. So rarely do you find a doctor these days willing to make housecalls.
I hope I like Shanghai cause I'd like to stay still for a while an settle in. I moved hotels 3 times in Hong Kong and I'm only in Guangzhou for 4 days. It all feels like too much uprooting for a short period. The hostel I booked in Shanghai for the first 6 days got impossibly good reviews, is in a good neighborhood, and is very reasonably-priced. If it is as good as it sounds, hopefully I will just feel like extending and stay there for a while. Hangzhou is near to Shanghai and is by all accounts a beautiful and relaxing city which also sounds like an appealing place to pass time. I'm still deciding on Beijing. On one hand I'd like to see what has become of it since I have not been since before the Olympics. On the other hand, maybe just too much to deal with. These decisions will be made later. That's when all the best decisions are made.
I'm in Guangzhou for 4 nights. Yesterday I came on the train from Hong Kong. I talked the whole way with this guy from New Zealand. Nice guy. We talked about Flight of the Conchords a lot. I wonder if New Zealanders are tired of hearing that, but he didn't seem to mind. I guess it makes a change from Lord of the Rings and "Oh, I hear New Zealand is really beautiful." I have been speaking a decent amount of Chinese. I suppose I won't know til a month has passed whether improvement is occurring. I have some new words in my arsenal for the moment at least.
Went to the CS meetup in Guangzhou last night with Carrie and her boyfriend Nick. Smallish group, maybe 20 or so. Talked to a few interesting folks. The cafe where they hold it is in the neighborhood Tian He where I stayed last time I was here. I don't think the cafe was here at that time though Guangzhou has seemingly changed a lot in the 3 years since my last visit. I was pretty hungry after a day of traveling which should've been easy but turned a bit more difficult after a couple of wrong numbers, some difficult Chinese conversations, a long wait at the bank to exchange money while innumerable forms were stamped, and about an hour and a half of me trying and failing to get 3g working on my new Chinese SIM card. It works now thankfully and ultimately I made it to Carrie's old apartment where I am staying. She lives elsewhere now and this apartment is still owned by her parents and therefore vacant. The neighborhod is what I would call "authentic." Anyway, being hungry I was concerned about lack of options at the cafe but was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was owned by a former New Yorker and there was red lentil hummus on the menu. Total score. I've been eating quite a lot of Chinese food and was aching for some variation.
Worth mentioning also was my second CS meetup in HK on Thursday night before leaving. They have a nice group there and a pretty big meetup in a cool and somewhat hidden bar in an otherwise chaotic and drunk-foreigner-filled neighborhood. My last few days in HK I also quite successfully met up with various CSers for nice vegetarian meals. I could've stayed longer in HK actually. I find it to be a pretty comfortable city with enough international influence to feel diverse. It also runs amazingly well. I noticed that especially in the last 24 hours in Guangzhou where the subway was built by the same people but just lacks the little details. In Hong Kong the subway you want always seems to be across the tracks when you get off your train. Everything is immaculate. The Octopus cards are just incredible and easy and fast. It is at least slightly embarassing how much better the HK subway is than ours in NYC, although we still run 24 hours which trumps cleanliness. Also, the walkways always seem to put people in the right place so that the sheer volume of traffic never seems to overwhelm. Maybe the people play some role here. In New York when people try to get on the train before people get off, it always annoys me. In China, they have really taken that to the next level. There is virtually no pretense of creating space for the people to debark. Just two masses trying to mush their way past each other. I wonder about the thought processes of the groups involved but I don't suppose I'll ever know.
I wonder if other people talk to the mosquitos when hunting them in a room in some other country. Now it's still early, but last night I was up a few times in the middle of the night trying to track mosquitos somewhere in this room with a towel or some other killing implement. Little bastards.
There were a few other things I'd made a note to write about when the opportunity next arose. I think the main one was that a few nights before leaving HK, I'd been hit on by a prostitute. This happens somewhat regularly in bars in Hong Kong but what was unusual about this occasion was that I was in 7-11 at the time, looking at the Chinese stomach medication. She initially asked if I needed help choosing medicine before asking where I was staying. So rarely do you find a doctor these days willing to make housecalls.
I hope I like Shanghai cause I'd like to stay still for a while an settle in. I moved hotels 3 times in Hong Kong and I'm only in Guangzhou for 4 days. It all feels like too much uprooting for a short period. The hostel I booked in Shanghai for the first 6 days got impossibly good reviews, is in a good neighborhood, and is very reasonably-priced. If it is as good as it sounds, hopefully I will just feel like extending and stay there for a while. Hangzhou is near to Shanghai and is by all accounts a beautiful and relaxing city which also sounds like an appealing place to pass time. I'm still deciding on Beijing. On one hand I'd like to see what has become of it since I have not been since before the Olympics. On the other hand, maybe just too much to deal with. These decisions will be made later. That's when all the best decisions are made.
posted by Dan at 7:23 AM
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