This is the first of a new line of entries that will be categorized under free association, If your seeking fluency of thought and coherent arguments you may do better to venture elsewhere fellow netizen! Happy reading

Text wrestling – I always kind of liked the idea. Sitting down and fighting with the thoughts in your head – trying to get the same message conveyed with the words you choose. Perhaps that’s impossible, no two people think alike and as accommodating as one can be there will always be a degree of variance in understanding. I suppose it’s no mystery therefore that good listening skills and real understanding aren’t as easy to come by as we all would like them to be – and in turn why it’s so valuable when we find them.

Free association was my first introduction to the concept of free writing. I guess that made sense in that your thoughts were allowed to freely intertwine and the resulting garble was regurgitated onto paper.. or, more likely nowadays – a digital document. Then again it also may inspire an artificial degree of extravagant association whereas I prefer to write simply as my mind moves – not to push it to move and associate in odd ways for the sake of novelty. Maybe that’s just me.

I’ve been really cold the last 3 days, I’m not sure why but I’m beginning to believe my haircut has something to do with it. I cut it as I normally do – short – but perhaps I should have taken the unseasonably cold weather into account when choosing the time to cut. Anyway I managed to get back into my office today where I had stashed my beanie and gloves after I returned from the states. I was relatively certain at the time that both A. I was never going to use them in China and B. I was a numskull for bringing them all the way over here. The powers at be however seem to have a different opinion on the matter. I guess I’ll have to add this to the list of small lessons I’ve learned about surviving here – I’ll file it next to… dammit I had something clever to say… lost it.

Hey that reminds me I’ve yet to write about the improvements with my “train of thought” problems I’ve been having in the last year or so. I reflected on my experiences in China the two years prior and my life overall and made a simple but important decision. I deserve to be happy. Of course its more complex than that in action however the fundamental principle is what’s important. I suppose it’s not so much that I’ve never made this decision before but rather life has shown me from various positions just how necessary this belief is and more importantly how wrong lives can go if we do not adhere to, and build upon, this confidence.

My decision is not a made in a vacuum but rather in context – I see it as a culmination of my experience – a necessary and undeniable conclusion about life and how to live it. It makes things at once clear and simple – which is nice in a world where most of the things around me are anything but.

I believe I still suffer from a degree of cognitive dissonance as I have for much of my life. A part of me desires a simple life, simple pleasures, normal achievements and levels of success, a wife I love beautifully, and children I cherish and treasure. Taking pride in the emotional success and development of those around me as I traverse a humble path at a comfortable pace. A part of me desires disgusting sums of money and power so that I may experience a world very different from the real one. A world defined by ourselves, each acquiring the same flaws as it’s creator. Master of your own fate with your strengths and deviser of your own demise through your failings. I imagine it would be an incredibly enlightening experience – If I don’t lose myself in it.

A part of me is unshakably confident and resolute about the rights and wrongs of life, as if there where no other way. He acknowledges his points of weakness as he is inexperienced but is particularly confident when it comes to managing relationships – more particularly personal relationships. Friendships, family relations, romantic partnerships, acquaintances, etc. To him the decisions that boggle those around him at times are so obvious he needn’t wait for them to finish explaining their conundrum before offering the solution.

As with most those relationships that are closest to me are the most troublesome to deal with properly and objectively – as one ought to. It is hard to harness the confidence found through loving oneself to do the hard and right things when it concerns those that are – very much – a part of you. I try though, and though I’m very rarely satisfied, I am proud of myself when I take a moments to look back at my triumphs in those small intimate arenas of my life.

What’s Dongmen (chinese)

Now for those of you that don’t know Dongmen is somewhat of a famous area in Shenzhen. Allow wikipedia to express itself: ne of the oldest parts of Shenzhen, the Dongmen area was established about 300 years ago, leading it to be alternatively known as “Laojie” (or “Old Street”).
The variety of shopping in Dongmen is wider than Luohu Commercial City, but has a similar focus on Chinese-made and counterfeit goods. Beauty parlor services are very popular in Dongmen and the department store Maoye has locations on both ends of the road. Despite being limited to pedestrian traffic, Dongmen can become very crowded on nights, weekends, and holidays, giving it a similar feel to Nanjing Road in Shanghai. Suffice to say it’s a hot spot for everything and anything fake especially clothing items – you purchase by weight not by peice. Now back to the bag!

True Quality Revealed

Granted I expected little of a 100RMB bag but what I got was even worse than those already lowered expectations. Before I even left Hong Kong the bag had already lost one of the two feet designed to allow the bag to stand upright on it’s own. The rubber handles attached to the case also smelled chemically. Upon arrival at New York City (JFK) the 2nd foot had also been lost, two zipper tabs were broken off and the telescopic handle mount had come off. That’s the peice that houses the top of the telescopic roller handle thingy. This made the handle unstable when extended but proved a mute point when the entire upper part of the handle popped out of the bottom spitting a ball bearing onto the floor outside of baggage claim an hour or so later.

This morning after pushing the bag around akwardly using the top rubber handle mounted to the case – my lower back! – the rubber handle broke off on the way down some stairs. I managed to catch the bag before it did it’s impression of a slinky the rest of the way down the stairwell. Now I was dealing with a bag that had no means of holding outside of supporting it as if it were a box with wheels on one corner. This was even more uncomfortable on my back not to mention I looked like a jackass babying this thing along in the Port Authority Bus Terminal. After I had purchased my bus ticket for MA and moved down to the gate I had about 30 minutes to sit down and managed to fix the telescopic arm enough to make it useable if handled gingerly. I also noted that the main zipper had some portions where the teeth where wider appart when closed – great…. – so far they have held together – the beast sleeps below me in the bus now. I pray it can make it all the way to my house before I burn it in a ritualistic fire which will culminate with me peeing on the ashes.

Moral of the Story

DON’T BUY LUGGAGE FROM DONGMEN!! I think you get the point. If your looking for trouble and adventure (in terms of stress and aggrevation) then you’ve found your golden ticket. However if your a normal human being in need of something sturdy to cart your personal goodies around the world – look elsewhere. Spend a little more on something of decent quality – the savings arn’t worth the hassle. I still have the stench of the chemically rubber handle on my hands now. I’m not kidding about the peeing part of my planned ritual burning. The Chinese do have a good saying for this and it goes something like “You get what you pay for,” so be sure to take a moment and think through any impulses to purchase an insanely cheap peice of luggage in Dongmen… and anywhere in China for that matter. Quality is worth paying for here in my humble opinion.

How is Air China?

Before I get into it let me lay out the basics for you. I booked a roundtrip flight from Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) to New York (JFK) for just under $800USD. I purchased it through OneTravel.com – for anyone interested I also noted that Airchina.com is currently still running killer special rates to some hub cities in the US out of Asia. I was unable to find the great rate I booked several weeks ago recently through OneTravel – give ChinaAir.com a gander if your in need of a cheap ticket.

Back to the boring stuff! Well I’m still in mid evaluation – I’ll be able to better answer “how good is Air China?” and “Will your plane explode if you take Air China?” when I arrive in New York in the next 20 hours. Assuming I don’t I think you’ll be able to deduce my answer to the second question. I’m still sitting in Beijing after arriving less than 40 minutes ago from Hong Kong. I’m beginning to see you get what you pay for when it comes to China Air. My first flight and this one are being fulfilled by planes on the tarmac – carriers have to rent that terminal space you know!. Passengers are required to trot around the terminal only to find the gate is merely a portal to an extra wide passenger transport bus. The bus will take you speedily along to your plane awaiting somewhere on the vast sea of concrete. Completeing normal boarding proceedures and then stepping onto a bus just doesn’t have the same feeling . Feels like a savings of about 40% on airfare.

China being China

I assume the complaints contained in here have nothing to do with the carrier China Air but rather to do with China. I made my way through the terminal upon arrival here in Beijing to find myself again confronted with an immigration counter. Some folks were filling out arrival cards – a touch of anger fell over me – inquiring further I was instructed to head to another section where a line of international passengers waited for a single customs officer to put yet another stamp on our boarding passes. My flight landed at 11:40, my connecting flight boards at 12:30. It was about 12:11 when I was standing at the back of the line with at least 40 people in front of me wondering what the hell the other people behind me on the same flight were going to do – aren’t we international folk a priority? I flagged down another customs officer and managed to get him to bring me to the front of the line. I then proceeded to run in the direction of the arrows only to find out I would yet again have to stop for stamps and another checking of my carry on baggage. More running and I arrived at my gate in good time.

Two Systems, One Country

The situation just got me thinking about the arrangement China has with Hong Kong and how little it means to me as it does nothing to change my experience of the two as entirely seperate entities. They have their own currency, their own system of… boarding!! more later

About 5:30pm now GMT +8 – back to the Two Systems rant. Ahem.. I do bump heads on the issue once in a while – some Chinese I meet are a little sensitive about the issue. I try to imagine something of a similar experience in the states – I can’t though – a single country with the infrastructures of two seperate ones, with the systems, language, and customs all their own. It makes me curious about what the point of it is. I’m not educated in these matters so I won’t speculate in any intelligent way. I can only talk of the pragmatic reality – the two are for all intensive purposes seperate countries. In terms of visas, borders, immigration, currency, language, economic system, political system, customs, right side of the road to drive on, etc – they’re all unique from their respective other. You will gain little comfort in HK from your experiences living in China and vice versa. In fact most of the Hong Kong people I know don’t care much to deal with the mainland – especially when it comes to business. I guess you could say I thoroughly appreciate that .

Speculation on Air China’s Cheapness

I’ve been noticing a few things as I looked around inside the cabin of Boeing 747-400. I’m guestimating it houses somewhere in the neighborhood of 625-650 people. 3 seats on each side 4 in the middle (approximately 60 rows), 4 or 5 rows of biz class (6 to a row), and 4-5 rows of 1st class (4 seats per row) + flight and crew staff (can’t be more than 10 right?). The cabin and seating are a little less modern than some of the newer vessles I’ve been on. Sorry no arm stowed, or back of the headrest mounted lcd screens for your personal viewing pleasure. What I’ve been noticing is advertising in places where you’d usually see the carriers logo plastered. For instance the small disposable fabric they velcro to your seat where the back of your head makes contact with the headrest – it has China Citi Bank plastered all over it. The cups they serve drinks in are sporting some Chinese beer brand logo and slogan. The meals they serve also came with a donation envelope for one organization or another. Perhaps there is something behind these things. Perhaps that is part of how they can offer such an affordable rate.

Arrival in New York (JFK)

Here’s where my luck seemed to run out. After getting through customs I had to wait over 2 and one half hours and ended up with 1 of my two checked bags in my custody. That stacked with the 1+ hour lateness of the planes arrival put me in a bit of a pickle. My bus was at 6:15 and it was already about 10’til 6. No more buses to get back to Massachusetts until tomorrow morning – I found out later over a payphone. I had to wait another hour in line at baggage claim wherein I found out my bag would be delivered tomorrow to NYC and then 2 day fedexed to my home in Mass. Most Carriers do next day fexed – Thanks Air China! At this point it was around 7pm local time. I made my way to the nearby counter where a fellow passanger had already summoned a supervisor from Air China (she missed her connecting flight to Mexico). She probably softened the lady up for me but all the same I managed to get a free pass to the nearby Holiday Inn as well as dinner and breakfast for the trouble.

Final Scores!

Overall I had a good experience minus the baggage troubles at the end. They had proper accomodations in place for the situation so I was properly taken care. Though I must warn you if your not accustomed to long flights and are needy in terms of in flight experience you might want to stick with one of the older more expensive carriers. For example the inflight movie never really worked and replayed a short scene from a couple movies several times throughout the 15 hour period – service was also noticably slower than other flights. I had to wait about 30 minutes between meal drop offs and drink+trash pickup. In the end I got from A to B at a very valuable rate no worse for the ware. I would have no problem recommending Air China to anyone looking for a great deal getting from Asia to the US. Let’s hope the way back is less eventful for me than my trip here .

Breakfast fit for a King

My first buffet breakfast back in the states was nothing short of awesome. Fresh whole & sliced fruit including, apples, oranges, cantalope, honeydue melon, watermelon, pineapple, and blueberries. Granola and dried fruits and nuts. Raisins, dried cranberries, almonds, dried apricots, sunflower seeds, and peanuts. Boxed Cereal – such a pain to find in China – Fruitloops, Corn Flakes, Frosted Flakes. Scrambled eggs, breakfast sausages, a mountain of bacon, skin-on homefries, thick french toast with powdered sugar and cinnamon. Bagles, sliced bread, muffins, croissants, and danishes galore. Maple syrup, butter, philly cream cheese, tabasco sauce, ketchup, and whole milk on ice. Orange Juice and coffee were at the table waiting.

Order of the feast

I started off with a plate of eggs and a couple breakfast sausages – just had to give them a try, it’s been so long! – a handful of blueberries and 3 slices of thick french toast dosed gleefully with syrup – I’m not kidding about the gleeful part. After that I went for a bagel, o how I have missed thee good sir bagel! They had a handy bagel splitter that I used before toasting it to a golden crisp and smothering it in cream cheese. I savored every bite of the cruchy outside chewy inside creamy covered goodness. At this point I also opted for a 2nd glass of orange juice. I gave myself a moment because my next move was going to be for the granola and dried fruits and nuts – healthy cereal – that meant milk – milk doesn’t go so well with orange juice in my tummy. I gathered the granola, each variety of dried fruit and the nut trail mix in my bowl and added some more of the fresh blueberries at the fruit bar before drowning it all in fresh milk. It only lasted a few moments at the table before I devowered it.

Recovery

I didn’t gorge myself – which took some will power – but I was pretty full when I left. Felt pretty good to hit so many of these foods that I’ve missed while being abroad. Made me eager to catch up on the rest of the edible goodies I’ve been without in China. Just wait till I get my hands on a T.C. Lando’s Philly Cheese Steak – sure the juices from the meat can be so plentiful at times that it reduces the bread to little more than a thin sheet of white paper around an forarm thick cylinder of meat in the center – but the pallet wants what the pallet wants. Moving is of secondary importance when I encounter that bad boy. I guess I should be more greatful for the plentifulness which we receive here in the states – sometimes I forget about it. Then again maybe that’s just the endorphines talking .

Trouble at Huang Gang border

A big unhappy face for the start of my long journey to Massachusetts from the motherland. After getting through something akin to a panic attack (normal for me – triple rechecking my list of things that I packed – knowing full well that I will remember something at some point – at which time I’ll be unable to do anything about it) I hopped on a taxi to the Huang Gang border and was informed at the information counter there that the direct vans that take you across both borders (see my previous post about getting my passport stolen for more fun info about this border) directly to the airport were closed for the evening – so much for my 24hour assumption. The lady behind the counter went on about some smaller car I could take that could arrive in 10 minutes if I would like, she said what I thought was 78rmb. I agreed and then began to ponder how it was possible for an irregular (special) arrangement to drive a single person to the airport would come in at half the price of a scheduled multi-person minivan carting up to 6 people across to the airport at one time during regular business hours. I grabbed one of their flyers and wrote down in Chinese what I believe to be the price she had just said. She proceeded to write in English “seven hundre….” that’s the point when I started with the eye rolling and the frustrated “wayyyy too expensive” faces. I shot my dad a phone call and rerouted myself to Tsuen Wan in Hong Kong where I would take a taxi to the Airport. I still got the counter girl’s name card out of it – all Chinese – going to make the first ice breaker call a little akward. ;-p

The immigration dude gave me a little grief, but I suppose it is to be expected when you hand them two passports – hehe. Then the face masked ladies at customs thought they’d have a look in my large bag. I got noticeably agitated – she complimented my mandarin in an attempt to appease me – I played along. I Should probably be mad at myself – they NEVER check bags there – and faking an important phone call and blathering on in English into your cell phone while marching forward is enough to foil any attempt even the bravest of personnel would try to stop you with. You’ll find Chinese have a difficult time with dealing with non-compliance – think deer in headlights – then mix in the “duh” face – add a little head scratching – there you go!

Hong Kong – Faster, Cleaner.. could you get your arm off my..

The bus and taxi ride weren’t so eventful – save the socially obtuse fellow sitting next to me on the bus who refused to keep his body and person in his own seat. I exerted an akward amount of pressure on his arm until he readjusted. 10 minutes well spent. The taxi driver was refreshingly… personable. Helped me with my bags and seemed to have something of an interest in English brewing – he was listening to some English music in the car and did his best to start up a conversation with me in my mother tongue. His energy me in a good mood but I was lazy to continue the conversation beyond “I’m going to America.” Crime of distraction I suppose. I calculated based on his displayed taxi license card that he had been working as a cabbie for just over 6 and a half years. I wondered what his life must be like in Hong Kong then of how expensive things are here. I started counting the ticks on the meter and quickly valuating it back to what I usually pay in Shenzhen (mind you the most expensive place to take a cab in all of China!). My feelings of wonderment were overturned with the anger-filled disgust that always accompanies unnecessary deductions from my wallet.

I’m now sitting in the airport contemplating which direction would most likely house a vending machine or small 24 hour shop where I could purchase some water. The man whistling the Christmas song on the intercom strolling down the walkway to my left isn’t helping. I’ve been parched the last two hours. I’ll report more later!

O, almost forgot, about the “Homeward Bound” movie reference. I just thought of that movie when I wrote the blog post name . I did like that movie though! – give me a break ok I was young – ger than I am now. Talking well-trained animals had an effect on me – what can I say.

Enter the Great Firewall of China

It’s the kind of problem you usually run into in the office place or in your university when the powers at will are seeking to keep you focused on productive things like… not giggling at Facebook pictures. Well for those of you that are unfamiliar its an everyday occurrence for all netizens residing within the boards of good mother China. The blockage of Facebook began several months back after an incident in western China where after some folk decided to write some not-so-agreeable / controversial things about the uprising. A similar event took you tube off the list almost a year ago – for those of you that have a decent memory (unlike me) it had to do with events in Tibet at the time. If your unfortunate enough to have a site hosted in China that would dare host such controversial content (anything anti-chinese government will do – take your pic) the troops will simply parade your business and shut you down no questions asked. Being unable to extend the same courtesy to sites outside their borders they’re solution is to block domains containing said content – for the sake of their o so childlike citizens. Whatever would they do if they were held responsible for deciding for themselves what to believe and what not to!?

Knocking holes in the GFWC

So I’ve been asked time and time again – “hey Dave! How the heck are you getting on facebook in China!” “Hey Dave can you show me how to get on facebook?” or the less common “Can you help me get on facebook I’ll do anything *wink wink*” Ok so I’ve never actually been asked that way but hey I can dream right?. Basically these are the ways I’ve employed over the past year or so.

Freegate – Currently Being Blocked

I’ll let wikipedia take the lead on this one:
Freegate is software that enables internet users from mainland China, Iran, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and United Arab Emirates, among others, to view websites blocked by their governments. The program takes advantage of a range of open proxies, which allow users to penetrate firewalls used to block web sites.[1] Developer Dynamic Internet Technology (DIT) estimates Freegate has 200,000[1] users. The maintainer and CEO of DIT is Bill Xia.

You can download freegate from my server if you would like to play around with it yourself. Interestingly enough it was funded by the US Government… let’s not dig too far in that direction. Anyway you’ll see that I’ve noted in the previous title that this method is currently blocked. Several months back I noticed Freegate was intermittently allowing me uninhibited access – my fears were confirmed shortly thereafter by fellow users I’d brought into the know about this o so useful bit of software. For now I wouldn’t keep your hopes up for this being a reliable source to get through to the other side of the wall but it may be worth holding onto once the big heads behind this nugget find out a way to outwit the knuckleheads behind the great wall here. Just an FYI for those of you with more… single handed browsing needs – pornographic sites are blocked by Freegate as well – sad faces all around I know

Update: There are a few pseudo-Freegate’s floating around that are now working in China. FreeU10 and u96f I’ve been using FreeU10 for the past week with no problems – I recommend giving it a try!!

Update 1/18/10 – FreeU10 also is no longer working – I’m going to try paying for Black VPN for a little bit and see how that goes. Getting on Facebook in China for free is becoming more of a dream than a reality to me nowadays .

Black VPN – Partially blocked

Black VPN was beta testing for a while and during that period of time they issued free access logins, as far as I know this period has now ended – making it difficult for me to share this method of enabling my fellow web users to access their beloved facebook. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and is essentially having your computer log onto another computer somewhere in the world – that isn’t blocked by China – and then using that machines IP to go about accessing the world wide web. Black VPN is one of several open VPNS *cough* well not so open anymore since free beta testers are no longer being recruited. Here’s a short list of some other free VPN’s you may want to try using to provide you with the same GFWC cracking options:AlonWeb, PacketiX.NET, UltraVPN, CyberGhost, and the slightly less popular AceVPN.com, JAP VPN, andAnchorFree Hotspot VPN. You can read a bit more about these free vpn services on this blog article I found.

UPDATE 1/18/10: BlackVPN is no longer free however if you would like to tried their paid service (which I recommend) using this code will give you two extra months for free: QCYVZMB. I believe the fee is 5 Euros for one server or 13 if you would like access to all 3.

Four your reference here’s the procedure for signing up for Black VPN.

1. Navigate to Black VPN.com and fill out the form as listed in the first picture below (with your own info of course) the Invite Code in the picture will not work as it was discontinued. Hope you can find a new one and share it here if you do!!
2. You’ll then receive your log in information that I would recommend you copy&paste to a notepad or word file as you like (see 2nd image below – actually the logon listed should work as long as no one else in the world is using it!)
3. Lastly you’ll need to add a new VPN connection to your computer – the instructions are linked conveniently on the blackvpn website

Image 1

Image 2

I marked this method off as partially blocked because the only server offered by black vpn that has been working lately has been the one located in the Netherlands. I wouldn’t mind much but getting Google results in Dutch does tend to turn my smile upside down after several searches. It constantly reminds me of how aggravating IP sensoring location specific auto language selecting sites tend to make me – I think the world is ready for drop down menu’s to select your language of choice on multilingual sites don’t you? Is it so much to ask for that to be standard? Anyway if you do manage to get one of these Free VPN’s set up correctly you should be readily able to access Facebook and Twitter and Youtube and anything else that is getting moderated by China.

UPDATE 1/18/10 – this path for signing up is no longer valid as Black VPN is no longer free – you’ll have to follow their order flow from their homepage in order to obtain a username and password which you’ll get in an adobe document attached to your follow up e-mail after you process payment through paypal. Again if your signing up use this code to get a couple months free: QCYVZMB

Proxy Servers – Mild degree of maintenance – a little more technical

A step up from proxy sites this tends to be a little bit more technical than simply logging onto a proxy site and browsing through their search bar. I use Foxyproxy with Mozilla Firefox when I dabble with this option. This option requires you to surf the web for free proxy servers (Thanks Google) and copy their IP’s and ports to the proxy handler on your computer. That would typically be your browser in most cases. [Internet Explorer >> Tools >> Internet Options >> Connections] in the case of Internet Explorer. [Tools >> Options >> Advanced >> Connections >> Settings] for Mozilla Firefox. If you don’t already know how to configure your connection in your browser I would suggest finding a nerdier person around you to help you out a bit. If your a little more geeky like me I would heartily suggest picking up FoxyProxy and configuring it to your liking with proxies of your choice. The browser add-on lets you select when to use certain proxies for certain sites allowing you to optimize connection speed while also easily being able to access forbidden sites without having to manually switch proxies when you navigate to them. One way or another setting up a Proxy server correctly on your system should grant you access to Facebook in China.

Proxy Sites – High Maintenance but always a faithful if not tiresome last resort

I won’t bore you with going into any great detail about the various options out there for free VPN sites offering you freedom to surf the web. Basically the idea is very similar to VPN servers. You log onto a site and you are thereafter allowed to use that sites IP to surf the web. You can do a simple search on Google to find a sleu of Proxy site options. The biggest problem with these, hence the labeling of high maintenance, is the fact that they are always being blocked so there is a constant stream of new ones produced daily. There is also the considerable risk that your running your data through a medium that may not be trustworthy. Careful when logging into your banking and other personal/sensitive information carrying sites – more often than not your in the clear but when you do get taken advantage of it’s a nightmare. I would even be slightly concerned with accessing Facebook through these – I’ve been hereing of more and more hacking occurrences. It’s 2nd on the internet in terms of traffic as ranked by Alexa so I suppose we should expect as much

That’s all Folks!

Those are the primary channels I’ve used to access Facebook whilst in China. There are more involved ways such as having a remote system in a unmoderated part of the world enabled to accept remote control from your terminal in China. For example having a box in the US that allowed your computer in China to log onto it and use run it remotely. That’s kinda neat the first time you do it but the lag time can become and issue depending on distance and system configurations. More advanced techniques are out there I’m sure but I’m not one to talk about those. Unfortunately like many in my position I’m a jack of all trades – master of none. I’ll look to you geekier folks for guidance beyond these simpler methods
]]> http://www.blog.daviddho.com/2009/11/how-to-access-facebook-in-china/feed/ 1 http://www.blog.daviddho.com/2009/11/chinese-corner-social-media-in-china/ http://www.blog.daviddho.com/2009/11/chinese-corner-social-media-in-china/#comments Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:05:39 +0000 David http://www.blog.daviddho.com/2009/11/chinese-corner-social-media-in-china/

Yep so I’ve been working on developing this event as attendance has been dwindling lately. That, and the fact that it now has potential to net me some money in the long run. I’ve been learning a lot the past several months promoting through various avenues. Little things like… not to take for granted how easily someone can get lost even with clear directions in picture, text, and video format – as well as bigger things like the general relative ineffectiveness of impersonal invitations and mass marketed ad’s.

The more I’ve been using online means to generate traffic and eventually warm bodies to different events in the area the more I’ve felt a connection to the appeals of social media in the Chinese marketplace. As I’ve mentioned before mass marketing, at least initially, for anyone results in far less returns here than it would in western countries. People here need to know your brand name well, gaining a consumers trust is an incredibly challenging task in a world where business law, customs, and infrastructure are based on non-trust.

Using social media you can interact with your target customer’s on a human level. This may not get you sales right away but it will grant you access to people that you can then make further contact with face-to-face. Without making those phone calls and meetings where you meet potential clients, partners, etc. you wouldn’t get anything done through the internet here in China. Not on any reasonable time line anyway. The appeals I’m talking about are even more useful in western countries – however I find their effectiveness particularly attractive in this market where so many other tactics that work well in the west fail miserably.

Seems I’ve drifted off away from the subject of my Chinese corner event but hopefully it will be beneficial for some of you that take the time to read it. If not, you can forgive me right? Hope to see you guys reading this from the Shenzhen area at my event this weekend I promise the wine will be good, the cheese fresh and the fruit sweet and ripe as always. Plus if its not you can always try to convince me to cook something for you instead .

Sorry I just couldn’t resist. Came across this on a forum bouncing around today

Allium sativum, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion family Alliaceae. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, and chive. Garlic has been used throughout recorded history for both culinary and medicinal purposes. It has a characteristic pungent, spicy flavor that mellows and sweetens considerably with cooking.[1] A bulb of garlic, the most commonly used part of the plant, is divided into numerous fleshy sections called cloves. Single clove garlic (also called Pearl garlic or Solo garlic) also exists—it originates in the Yunnan province of China. The cloves are used as seed, for consumption (raw or cooked), and for medicinal purposes. The leaves, stems (scape), and flowers (bulbils) on the head (spathe) are also edible and are most often consumed while immature and still tender. The papery, protective layers of “skin” over various parts of the plant and the roots attached to the bulb are the only parts not considered palatable. Thanks Wikipedia!!

O! and another fun fact China produces over 12million tons of garlic a year compared to America’s measly 221,000 tons. China makes about 24 times as much garlic a year compared to it’s closest garlic competitor India. Not bad if you ask me.

Enough of the wikipedia – the reason I’m sharing these gems of information about this lovely edible wonder is because of it’s impact on my life as of late. Aside from the noteworthy advantages it affords me in battles against Asian vampires it also seems to have granted me immunity from many of my skin troubles.

It all started about a month or so ago when I found this nice noodle shop at the bottom of my office building that has a nice bowl of beef noodles for a mere 8rmb + raw garlic cloves in a small cup on the side of the table which I gorge myself on. By the way this is the base unit I now valuate any purchase I make with – by the number of bowls of noodle I can purchase for the amount of RMB being requested for a product or service. Is this book worth 20 bowls of noodles? Is that bike really worth 150 bowls of noodles?? Silly perhaps, but hey it keeps my boat afloat in low times

Anyway ever since I’ve been eating garlic regularly I’ve notice my skin is reluctant to break out. Miraculous! I notice similar results when I consumed lemons several months however lemons aren’t cheap and I got tired of spending post meal times puckered up like a sour patch kid. Vinegar is next on the list of ingredients to include regularly in my diet – methinks my hypothesis about an overgrowth of yeast in my digestive track is beginning to make more sense. I’ll have to look into that again.