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Hi Chinese Podfolks! (or should I say, Ni Hao???)
I just “got into” podstuff a month ago, and it’s already changing my life. I’m sure you know the feeling. Now I’m working on my own podcast, which will be about chinese cooking, from homestyle to restaurant style, with tricks, tech, resources, philosophy, and a lot more. I’ve owned a Chinese restaurant for 27 years and have been a chef for 30 years. All Chinese food, of course. And I’m a non-chinese American. How’d that happen? Studied Chinese in the 1970s, lived in Taipei, married a Chinese lady, and things just happened….
My biz partner and I have combined 50 years experience with the stuff, so we’re fairly qualified to talk about it. And we have a “revenue model” to hook into the podcast. Anyway, enough about background…here’s the question:
I’ll be in China in Spring ‘06 and will be doing podcasts from China for about a month; going into kitchens in restaurants and talking about what they’re doing, visiting country places and talking about home cooking outside the metropolis, perhaps also doing casts from wedding banquets in the countryside and other celebrations. And of course touring markets, stores, food production sites of interest, etc.
The last time I was in China was ‘02 and I didn’t carry a laptop, just used the netbars which seemed to be available everywhere. I was on a 2+ month bicycle tour from Guizhou to Chengdu, and spent most of the time away from major metro areas. Even these little towns had several netbars. I only used them for email, so didn’t tax their capabilities.
But for maintaining my blog, uploading flickr pics and uploading my podcasts I’ll need some decent bandwidth and either direct connect to a network or wifi. In 2002 I didn’t see a whole lot of that available outside of large cities.
What’s the situation now? Are the internet standards for hooking up my laptop the same as the US? What about wifi standards?
I hope you, or some acquaintance of yours can give me some input regarding this!!!! I’d like to feel secure that I can get reasonable connectivity when I need it. Is there a wireless network in China which I can subscribe to and get “anywhere connectivity” with adequate bandwidth and reliability to do what I need to do? What about in-country filtering that may make it difficult to connect with USA isps?? I’m really flying blind here!!! Yes I can speak Chinese, and I can cook and talk and have fun introducing “laowai” to neat culinary things in China, but really don’t want to get over there and feel net-stranded!!!!
I’ve already downloaded all your lessons, which are probably still at the elementry level for me, but will listen to them all because I’m ALWAYS learning better ways of saying things or improving my tones. It’s a never-ending task if you’re not living in China full-time! So a great big THANKS for what you’ve done!! I’ve invited my niece to go to China with me this spring, and now I can give her a way to learn some Chinese before we go. Otherwise this would be impossible!
Also, once my podcast is up, I’ll be mentioning you guys and maybe we can cross-link. But for now, help with my questions would be much appreciated!
Yilupingan!
Roger
The goverment run CNNIC publishes bi-yearly reports on the general state of the internet in China: http://www.cnnic.net.cn/en/index/0O/02/index.htm
Danwei has a list of WIFI hotspots: http://www.danwei.org/China-Gu.....anghai.htm
Personally, my favorite is the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf at Xintiandi.
As far as it concerns Beijing, this place is full of HotSpots! I was surprised that almost every western style cafe or bar offers you highspeed internet access for free! That is really great, especially because you will find you personal favourite as I found mine - I am sure (keep an eye out on Sculpting in Time cafes, they are fantastic!!!).
When I was in Shanghai, it was almost the same. Free WLAN almost everywhere and often there is a Starbucks around somewhere - just drop in, have a Rhumba Frappuccino (which we don’t have here in Germany…) and upload your Podcasts.
Make sure to tell us the adress…I am looking forward to listening!
I think you’re fine in Shanghai and Beijing as there are hotspots and Starbucks everywhere. However, outside of those cities you’ll still have quite a challenge. There are net-bars everywhere but the problem is speed. They have good speeds for servers within China but trying to reach a US or outside server can bring back memories of dial-up speeds.
I would recommend you get a USB data key (those small keychain sized flash memory drives) that is large enough to hold a days worth or more of your MP3 recordings. You can then go to a net-ba and plug it in to upload.
If you can hook up with a friend that has a China-based FTP server, your first upload would be to that server, then they can transfer it to a US-based server that serves up your podcast.
About being totally wireless, yes, you can sign up for that with ChinaTelecom and theoretically be roaming anywhere. But it’s not particularly affordable or reliable, though you might inquire more about it. Once you get here you can buy a wireless card for the laptop and sign up for the service, hmm, you’ll probably need a local person’s name to use for the account, not sure the wireless can go prepaid.
Good luck!
BTW: regarding filtering and reaching non-Chinese servers. Yes, you’ll run into some glitches, especially outside of Shanghai, Beijing. It’s not so much filtering that is done, it’s that local providers cache the DNS info on local machines and don’t necessarily update it regularly for non-China sites. I occassionally have trouble reaching sites such as the WSJ, BBC, and smaller servers. I can’t even get to my website hosted on Geocities most of the time. If you have the servers you’d like to reach in mind already, I’d recommend sending it to a local person in China to see if they can reach it.
Four great replies so far. Thanks!
I’ll be in the Guangzhou / Kunming / Chengdu areas on this trip and will probably have to save my stuff on my laptop until I arrive at those areas. Any info out there from someone who’s lived in or gotten good hi-speed access from there?
You input is really appreciated!
Roger
I am using free WiFi now at The Hump in Kunming.
What’s the situation in apartment buildings in Beijing CBD? Is there a bunch of wifi signals to connect too? In New York City, there is unlimited amounts of wifi signals creeping everywhere, even into peoples apartments who are not paying.
Is that true in Beijing?
Thanks!
Boston Ring,
Not in any practical sense, not yet anyway. Plus a lot of cement between apts.