Blogging Hiatus

As my last two posts (read them here and here) indicate, recently there have been a rash of Internet 'problems' plaguing Mainland Chinese netizens. This combined with the fact that finals are quickly approaching again, and that I'll be leaving China in less than a month, means this blog will most likely be on hiatus until I return to the United States.

I know you're all very sad to read that last statement, but don't fret, I will continue to write posts and post them when I can. It's just that recently this has proven to be more and more of challenge with the Internet behaving the way it is.

Also, I have a lot of photos I want to share with you, but considering most days I'm just happy to be able to access my e-mail account, those will definitely have to wait until I return to the US & American high-speed Internet.

So while I'm taking a break now, stay tuned for lots more to come later.

Also, here are three more stories on China's Internet crackdown. Even if you're not that interested in the subject of Internet censorship in China, you should read them for a good laugh at the irony of the situation:

• "Father of Great Firewall" blames cost-cutting measures for recent Internet problems in China
• Shoegate: Students pelt "Father of the Great Firewall" at Wuhan University
• Reaction to 'Shoegate'

Theories abound for overseas web access troubles

Here's another article on the current Internet situation in China, this time from The Global Times.

My favorite portion of the article is on the second page, towards the end. It reads,

"An anonymous official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology declined to explain why foreign websites were frequently inaccessible in a telephone interview with the Global Times, and instead urged users to 'check their own technology problems and with the websites' servers on [sic] the first place'"

Hahaha. Sure, China, whatever you say.

For the record, I have checked every possible source for my Internet problems and every single time I'm lead back to just one possible answer.

Clearly, subtlety has never been China's strong part.

Suspicious Internet issues

Since a week and a half ago, my building has been have some "interesting" Internet issues. If you've been in contact with me this past week, it's likely I told you or even experienced firsthand how unstable my connection has been.

At times, the Internet connection would just shut itself down completely. Other times, the Internet connection was fine (it was even fast), but all I could go on were the major Chinese websites, such as Tabao, Baidu and Youku, but no international websites whatsoever. Even more perplexingly, there were even times where it seemed completely normal (for China).

It has been so fickle, that I have come up with my own eight-level system of classifying my Internet connectivity based on what programs can connect and what websites I can log on to. (I won't bore you you with the actual eight levels I came up with though.)

Obviously, the most annoying thing about not having a reliable Internet connection was not being able to get into my e-mail. Though Gmail has been blocked several times before, normally I had other ways to access it. However, last week proved to be a real challenge.

So far this week (knock on wood), the Internet seems a bit better. It's still rather slow and finicky when I try to gone on some international websites and particularly Gmail, but I can deal with it. Hopefully it stays this way. That's all I ask for.

For some more information on the Internet issues currently facing Internet users in China, take a look at the below article form the China Digital Times. Pay special attention to the latter half of the article, since that's what largely seems to be what's happening in my my case.

Unfortunately, I could only give you a screen print of the article, so it maybe a bit blurry. Click on the image to enlarge & read.

Click to enlarge
Article courtesy of the China Digital Times

For more information, there seem to be many other articles on the topic currently on the China Digital Times. I'd normally post the links myself, however my Internet seems to go down for several minutes each time I try to log on to the CDT website.

That's not obviously suspicious at all. Ha.

Sidenote: In attempt to inform students about what is going on with our Internet connections, BNU actually posted notices in the international student dorms. Normally, notices are only posted in Chinese (after all, you are here to study Chinese), but this time it's actually in Chinese, Korea and English. In the notice it informs students that the connectivity issues are beyond the scope of BNU's tech support and that we should always comply with China's Internet laws and not visit illegal websites. Clearly BNU wanted to get the word out to all students regardless of our the level of our Chinese comprehension and discourage us from bypassing the Great Firewall.

China, why must you make my life difficult?

Fine China. Block Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Blogger and other random sites you deem as a "threat." I don't agree with you, but I'm in your country, I'll play by your rules.

But, don't block my e-mail. That's unnecessary. Or make it practically impossible to load. That's just obnoxious.

Good thing there are ways around the Great Firewall.