Getting Around the Great Firewall and Other Frustrations in China

The “Sleeping Dragon” is wide awake and on the alert. After settling in to my hostel in Shanghai, I tried to connect to my blog. The connection was abysmally slow, but it was infinitely better than the connections to Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, which were nonexistent. To my chagrin, I soon discovered that social media in China has been totally blocked by the government.

I knew communications might be difficult from China, so I had taken some steps in preparation. One of my cousins, Len, with whom I will be traveling for a couple of weeks in China, set up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) on his home server, and sent me instructions how to set it up it on my Macbook Pro. A very simplified explanation of this setup is that China blocks access to sites based on ip addresses, the numerical equivalent of website names (urls). So if I try to access Facebook.com, China sees that as an ip address like 69.63.184.142, and they don’t allow Internet traffic to get to that site. However, by setting up the VPN, when I type Facebook.com into my browser address field, I actually go to my cousin’s server back in Los Angeles first, and it redirects to Facebook, so China can’t see that I am trying to access a social network.

Len set up what is known as a PPTP VPN, which worked fine when we tested it from the U.S. Unfortunately, neither of us were aware that China has figured out a way to block select traffic being rerouted through PPTP VPN’s; the only kind of VPN that works in China is an SSL. Frantic emails back and forth between Len and I ensued; thank God China hasn’t (yet) blocked access to Google and my gmail account. He found a company, WiTopia, that offers subscriptions to a VPN SSL service that provides “secure, unblocked, encrypted access to the Internet and VoIP services from anywhere on the globe.” I had a little trouble with setup; the first two days it simply didn’t work for me. That may have had something to do with the fact that I was using Len’s configuration, which was setup to allow access by both Windows and Macs (the company does allow sharing of one connection, as long as both users are not accessing the service simultaneously). Eventually, I wiped his configuration off my Macbook and bought my own subscription for $59.99 per year. Once I did that, I connected with no problem and I have had seamless, fast access to all the blocked sites. I have to send a BIG thanks to the WiTopia tech support team, who never stopped trying until we got it working.

With one hurdle cleared, I was on to the next set of problems. My cousins would be arriving in just a few days, so I needed to purchase train tickets from Shanghai to Beijing, where I would meet up with them. The front desk clerk at my hostel directed me to a train ticket office two blocks away, but when I arrived none of the signs were in English and no one behind the counter spoke English. I returned to the hostel,where one of the employees wrote out what I needed: a soft seat to Beijing on September 5th.

Back at the train ticket office, I handed my scrap of paper containing Chinese hieroglyphics to the agent. Click, click, click on the computer, followed by a head shake. Click, click some more, and she threw her hands up in the air, saying something that sounded like like “may ow.” “English?” I asked. “May ow,” she repeated, throwing her hands up in the air and shaking her head. I turned to leave and a Buddha-bellied Chinese man sitting on a low slung chair along the wall beckoned to me. He whipped out a packet of tickets and shoved one at me, seemingly indicating it was what I needed, but the ticket was all in Chinese. I couldn’t even see a date and time, much less a route or seat type. No, I shook my head, and headed back to the hostel once again.

“May ow,” I explained to the front desk clerk, flinging my hands into the air like the ticket agent. “Ah, they are sold out, he explained. Perhaps on the night train.” Armed with yet another scrap of paper filled with indecipherable characters, I hoofed it back to the ticket office. She took one look and just shook her head. Frustrated, I went to Plan B. I would walk to People’s Square and use the services of a travel agent, or find a concierge in one of the big hotels that could arrange for tickets for me. Three hotels (Sofitel, Radisson, and Howard Johnson’s), four travel agents (one of which told me that to travel independently in China I must speak Chinese), and two more train ticket windows later, I finally found an available ticket for $660 RMB, which is slightly less than $100 USD. I whipped out my credit card, anxious to complete the transaction. “No credit, must cash,” the agent said in broken English. I don’t carry that much cash around with me on a daily basis when I travel internationally, so my only option was to walk the mile and a half back to the hostel to get more money. By the time I returned, the remaining ticket had been sold.

As much as I hated the idea, I decided my best bet would be to fly to Beijing, so I started a search on the Internet. One site let me get all the way through the booking process, until it came time to enter my credit card info, then informed me I must use Internet Explorer. Since I work on a Macbook, I don’t have IE; back to square one. I was finally successful at Ctrip.com, the Chinese booking service, which worked fairly seamlessly, but it cost me a whopping $170 for a ticket. Not only am I finding it difficult to travel independently in China, it quite expensive.

I may have to rethink my plans for a month of independent travel around China, but right now I’m going to focus on the present moment. I am in Beijing, have met up with my cousins, and in 24 hours we will be sleeping on the Great Wall of China. And despite the frustrations, it can’t get much better than that.

Image courtesy of WiTopia

16 thoughts on “Getting Around the Great Firewall and Other Frustrations in China”

  1. Surfing
    the internet freely is definitely a privilege that most people in China don’t
    have, and it may be difficult to get used to. Recent attacks on Google and VPN
    companies by the Chinese government have shown that they have no intention to
    let information go in and out of the country. Many websites including Twitter,
    Facebook, WordPress and YouTube are difficult to access due to the restrictions
    placed on Internet usage in the country. The future of Chinese internet
    censorship is still unclear, but if you’re planning on being here for some
    time, you should definitely consider getting a VPN. http://www.superbvpn.com/vpn-uk

    Reply
  2. Ruling political party in India is trying to ban facebook in india and Mark Zuckerberg has given up and bent down in front of indian political parties. He knows that he can’t afford to loose traffic from India. I’m sure in this case Mark Zuckerberg is not Ok at all.

    Reply
  3. When I travel to China I use Super VPN http://www.supervpn.net/ because they offer great services..

    With Chinese VPN account
    you can visit any Internet resources quickly without restriction, download or
    upload anything, play any games online, unblock VoIP and use Skype freely
    and more.

    Reply
  4. I traveled to China a few years back to visit my husband working in Nantong for a year. Quite an experience, and yes, the language barrier and internet access is definitely a challenge! I remember how important it was to have the address of where you wanted to go written in Chinese for the taxi driver.

    If you can get to Nantong which is about a 3 hour drive up the river from Shanghai, it is a sweet little city that give one a much better inside view to China than Beijing, and much less expensive.

    Reply
  5. What a great battle. The effort the government goes to to block the internet up is such a strong comment on the freedoms we take for granted. Sounds like you’ve got that sorted but still face many battles with tickets and more. I look forward to your travelogue of China going forward.

    Reply
  6. The Great Firewall is one of the most advanced pieces of Internet technology ever invented – nothing matches it in terms of censorship – glad you’re got around that annoying (yet large) hurdle!

    Reply
  7. Your experiences sound even more horrific than that of a friend – she managed to book & pay for a train ticket at the booking office, but when she arrived at her destination, was told she only had a one way ticket as she hadn’t specified she wanted return!! I’m SURE we don’t have hassles like this in Australia! I’m sure the wall will make up for it …

    Happy travels!

    Reply
  8. I have a big smile on my face while reading this – and I feel a bit guilty to be smiling at your misfortunes. However – I’m smiling because I’m excited to follow your travels through China/Asia…I’m sadistic that way. Hell, I must be sadistic if I survived living in Vietnam for a year!
    Can’t wait to read more Barbara! Be patient, and be safe!!

    Reply
  9. Ouch, Barbara. Such difficulties but not surprising considering the language barrier and political scheme in China. Grit your teeth and do your best though and I think you’ll find the China outside Beijing worth all the trouble.

    Reply
  10. So, “the joys of travel” as the English often say in sarcasm, are alive and living in China.

    Hope it doesn’t get so bad as to spoil anything. Am hugely looking forward to reading about sleeping on the wall!

    Reply
  11. You’re just learned two of the most useful words in Mandarin! ‘Mei you’ translates directly into ‘I don’t have’. I hope you’re enjoying your time in China so far!

    Reply

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