China Internet and Communications Crash

Well, there you have it. Those of us stuck inside the Great Firewall are now even more stuck, as the Taiwan strait that linked China's internet to the outside world has been severed by a massive earthquake. Shanghai Daily & CCTV (Central China Television) reported that it could be down for up to three weeks. This is NOT good for China nor it's aspirations to be a world power.

Billions of dollars have been spent by foreign companies & investors to locate to here in Shanghai and other parts of China, using it as their gateway to the west. These businesses rely on access to the outside world, whether it be their massive customer databases or communications with offices in other countries. What should happen if they're suddenly stricken with no means of internet communication? Let's just say these investors won't be too happy, and the market is bound to show.

IT people (including myself) have been scrambling for ways to get around this new blockage, but so far little to nothing has reared its head in hope. Places like anonymouse.org are out of reach. Other proxies are slow (including the one I'm using just to post this.) My own sites are now inaccessible from China for the time being, and I've suddenly dropped from 200 spam mails to about 5 per day. Though that last bit may not be so bad.

Shanghai Daily is offering this bit of hope now. Though with any news from China, consider the source. Note the quote, "China's Taiwan Island".

The article also mentions "Parallelism" being important in communications routes into China & the rest of Asia.

"People will start to say we can't let this happen again," according to Frank Dzubeck, president of Communications Networks Architects, a DC consultancy. "The issue here is parallelism, you've really got to have multiple paths. You can't lay all the cables in the same place." What I think old Frank is really trying to say is, "Duh! I told you this would happen!"

So for the time being, if you want to say "hi" until this mess is fixed, the one email that IS working but still has no guarantee that your message will get through, is ejones@astonschool.com. This server is based out of Hong Kong and has yet to be affected inside China. Everything else, most likely your emails will be received in about 3 weeks or so, if the amount of spam doesn't crash my entire server.

Welcome to China!!! Happy Everyday!!!

Christmas 2006 in Shanghai

It's Crimbo in Shanghai, and as I write this, I'm stocking up on good Crimbo goodies on KoL. Christmas here is not exactly Christmas back home. It's more of a continuous Black Friday (you know, the day after Thanksgiving?) Multiply that by the entire Advent Calendar & you'll know what Shanghai Christmas is like.

Last Saturday night, Grace & I, along with Alex & Anny (newly married) and Rita (still dating "Napoleon :) ") had a nice Christmas dinner at a Japanese place on Hongmei Road, also called the Hongmei Entertainment street. While the dinner was nice, the service was relatively lacking, as there were two large tables of Koreans there as well, making large demands on the already short-staffed waitresses.

A few days earlier was the WD-40 Christmas dinner, also at a Japanese restaurant near XuJiaHui. "Japanese buffet? For Christmas? Twice?" you say? Well of COURSE! I met Grace's colleagues as well as a couple of WD-40's upper management, including Geoff and Ooi, known in the company as 001 (double-oh one). Geoff, incidentally, was the guy who accompanied Grace to Three on the Bund in downtown Shanghai for a rather exquisite dinner, the day I got back to Shanghai from Xingping (and yes, Grace, you were drunk!) That's okay though, as it was MY idea in the first place. The Company dinner went quite well, and I can tell that Grace is in good company & and with a good company as well. Perhaps someday I'll be able to say that about mine.

Last night, I put on some Christmas music that I downloaded from the net, trying desperately not to end up with all the latest pop-versions of old Bing Crosby & Dean Martin classics. I went to grab the Christmas tree, but found that somewhere between the 3 apartments we've had this tree, the stand went missing. No tree this year. But our goofy Santa Claus decoration is back up by the TV for another holiday season. I managed to mass email the family. Tacky, I know, but when I'm on the road, it's tough to get a decent internet connection. Half the e-birthday cards took about 10 minutes to load in Xingping's internet.

Later today, I'm off to the station to get a train ticket back to Xingping. I'd fly normally, but my passport is now with the company, who now says I don't work for Aston English School, nor Aston Educational Group, but Aston Business Consulting instead. Yet another new visa.

Looks like Roosevelt, the Evil Teddy Bear is done ripping the stuffing out of Rudolphus of Crimborg (Locutus of Borg?) for the day. Time to stock up on pet rocks & Toy Ray Guns!

"I am the beginning. The end. The one who is many. I am Crimborg. Resistance is futile. You will be merry."

Xingping Again

As I stated before, I would get around to posting these things eventually. Dongying is up, and now it's time for Xingping. After my two week stint in Dongying was finished, I shot over to Xingping, about an hour away from Xi'an. Well, it just so happens that much like Dongying, Xingping's city is ALSO built up around a company... this one a Chemical factory. What chemicals, I don't know. The name, beats me, but I'll find out when I get back to Xingping after Christmas.

Xingping is a rather small, dusty city that has about as much to offer as a whackshack does to a Eunich. Regardless, if one wanted to make his or her mark in a certain English school there, that would be the place to do it. No competition & it's bound to grow. What IS appealing is that the food is fantastic and (I know everyone says the following only to suck up...) the people are generally friendly. Unless you work at the computer shop around the corner from Aston.

Xingping is also right near Xianyang, about 20 minutes by bus, and Xi'an, about 50 minutes & 9 RMB by bus. Between Xingping & Xianyang are the Chinese Pyramids I've always been interested in, and that I'll be scoping out up close in about 2 weeks! Most likely tombs of ancient Generals, no one has really ever excavated them, nor explored them. They're pretty much overgrown now, and some of them are even bases for farming. I hope to find out for myself by heading to that part of the countryside for some close-up pics & such. Below is one from http://earthquest.co.uk. Enjoy!

Dongying & the Shengli Oilfields

About 4 weeks ago, I spent about 2 weeks in Dongying. This city is primarily built up around the Sheng Li Oil company, named after the oil fields of the same name. There, you'll find a rather industrial city, complete with large steam pipes up & down the roads. The Aston school there is on Jinan Lu, next to the Sheng Li Park. And incidentally, just about everything in this city is called Sheng Li something. This company runs the whole town.

Dongying's people are generally rich due to the oil company. You wouldn't know it by the looks of the city though. They generally come from places like Xi'an, Beijing, and other cities to come make their mark in Dongying through Sheng Li. Others tend to be born into the work. While most seem pretty content to stay, judging by the reaction of some of the kids there, they want out.

The big expat place there is a small bar called JJ's Bar. You'll find it on Hooker Street with an all-English sign saying, "Lets Get Shitfaced!" Seriously, there's more hookers on that street than there are in the entire city! Every place other than JJ's is a cheezy KTV with the red light on & girls sitting around waiting for a mark. During one evening, one of the girls decided to venture out to find her own mark, and met me. Grabbing my arm & shouting at me, she tried to pull me into one of those places. I'm still not sure if I got the stench off me yet. Pretty bad!

Regardless, the foreign crowd there is pretty happy with JJ's, as they sport cheap beer, a foosball table, and a playstation 2 complete with Dance Dance Revolution-style dance controllers. Afterwards, it's off to 0549 (or sth like that), a run of the mill dance club complete with silly little auctions & DJ's that talk way too much.

Overall, I'm looking to go back, as the foreign manager of Aston there is a big Linux freak, and I'd be interested in comparing notes!