Browsing Posts published in January, 2007
In China a lot of websites are blocked, still in 2007. Censorship is sadly present in Thailand too, but here is taken to the extreme. The number of websites blocked is overwhelming.
It’s funny to see how akward it is the way the site is blocked without providing a reason. The message says “The connection was reset”. The connection to the server was reset while the page as loading. As there was some sort of technical difficulty with the connection.
Blocked sites include bbc news http://news.bbc.co.uk/ wikipedia (free encyclopedia) http://www.wikipedia.org wordpress (blogging) http://www.wordpress.com/ and many many others.
How did I overcome this? I installed a Squid proxy cache on my server in Germany and I set up a crypted SSH tunnel using putty. It works very well, the data transit from China to Germany as an encrypted terminal session and the actual requests to the websites are done from Germany which has no censorship at all.
Going to Shenzhen from Hong Kong is as easy as taking a train to Lo Wu that is nearly as frequent as an underground. I took it in the ground floor of Grand Century Place shopping centrer in Mong Kok, near my home.
The ride takes about 40 minutes and costs 33 HK$.
In Lo Wu, the train stops just before the border, and on the other side it’s Shenzhen already, just besides an underground stop.
Shenzhen is one of the special economic zones of China and knew an exceptional growth, also helped by the fact that hong kong is so near.
Golden computer arcade is located by the MTR stop of Sham Shui Po.
Outside is busy, inside is more busy. The corridors are narrow. I was looking for an electronic dictionary but they didn’t have any there.
Just outside the computer arcade there is a shop selling computers and accessories on the street!
Fa Yuen Street market is a good place to buy cheap clothes. It’s located between Prince Edward and MongKok MTR stations.
Nathan Road is a very long road in Hong Kong from Tsim Sha Tsui to Mong Kok.
It’s quite busy and polluted, but nevertheless it’s the great, one and only Nathan Road.
