December 21st, 2009
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.
November 25th, 2009
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 
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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.
- 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!!
- 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!)
- 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
November 24th, 2009
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 .
November 19th, 2009
Sorry I just couldn’t resist. Came across this on a forum bouncing around today
November 16th, 2009
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.
