My Life Behind China's Great FIREWALL
My VPN has not been working these past few days so I might as well turn it into a positive experience by creating a video about it. I'll show you the type of sites and apps that you can and cannot access while in China.
I can put up with a lot while living in China, but I have to be honest: this issue does get on my nerves sometimes. At the same time, it allows me to find alternatives and other things to do besides being on the computer all the time. It is also shocking thinking about life before the internet was as developed as it was. What did people do back then? Go outside? Jesus.
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Ha ha, bad boom bada... BING? I think you're right, no one uses bing.com in other countries.
Hi @kenanqhd, just stopping by on my PassionSeven77 curation plan to upvote and check out your amazing post.
I had a friend who lived in China with his wife for 15 years and that was one of his complaints, the strict internet control. We used to Skype, and I remember him telling me in an email once not to talk about certain things as the government would be watching lol. The mad thing is he was probably right. Him and his wife made the decision to move back to the UK when his eldest son turned 6 years old because he worked in a school and he said that he didn't want his son growing up with the levels of nationalistic indoctrination that happens, particularly in high school. I'm not sure if he was being a little dramatic and just wanted to move back to UK anyway and that was an excuse.
It's kind of crazy that dtube and other decentralized services work and youtube/twitter doesn't. Good for steem though lol
If you want to read more about what I’m doing with PassionSeven77 curation plan, and why, check out this post:
https://steemit.com/dtube/@raj808/hcu2nbo9
P.s. this isn’t spam, I’m not after votes on that post, it just explains why I’m doing the rounds to vote people who created Znap7 posts for NathanMars project every day 🙂
When you belong to the race or ethnicity that is included in the “nationalistic indoctrination,” its called patriotism. The British Empire and USA werent formed by a bunch of liberal, all-inclusive people. They too were formed by nationalistic ethnocentrics. Since were not Chinese, we may point a finger and call them brainwashed, but we being a bit hypocritical arent we?
I have been working at a Chinese high school for over 4 years. What they do is patriotic and helps unite them with their country so that they can work towards a common goal. All countries that are developing their power and economy need to be nationalistic or else everyone becomes complacent and only looks out for themselves.
Fortunately, dtube and busy are working, but things can change. Reddit and Pintrest used to work for me without a VPN, but they are blocked now.
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I didn't point any fingers. And I wasn't being a hypocrite. I'm not pretending to have any experience of life in China, just recounting something I was told.
As to what you're saying about the US and UK, I completely agree that they weren't formed by liberal... Or all inclusive people.
However, we have fundimentally different outlooks on 'so called' patriotism/nationalism so it's probably not worth a debate.
I'm glad that dtube and busy are at least working and I hope you get the VPN back up and running soon.
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I wasnt referring to you by pointing fingers. I was referring to your friend and the general populace that does so. I know you dont have experience in China so I wasnt directing it towards you but responding as if you were your friend.
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Ok, no worries.
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I want to know really, is there anything wrong in china? Or is it just that it's because it's a communist state? I don't know how I'll subtitute bing for google like you're doing, twitter, telegram, facebook? How else do you cope? This isn't really good if you ask me, obviously if your vpn isn't working then you don't access? I'll say it's really bad in china.
Nothing is really wrong in China. This is just their way of keeping stability in the country. China's population is huge and Western media is usually anti-China. If Chinese people are exposed to a lot of anti-China media, it may cause instability and loss of trust in the government which could severely damage their progress of the country. Blocking these apps also allows Chinese apps to gain higher profits which in turn helps the economy.
When my VPN works, I can cope, but when it doesn't I can't haha. I just have to find other things to do. That's why I have been releasing a lot of videos lately hahaha. If I don't have the chance to visit YouTube, Twitter, etc. then I might as well do something productive like record videos.
Holy cow I didn't imagined that the firewall has got this big impact. Especially the blocking of websites just using Google services is a bit random and yeah .. I think I don't need to mention that this is crime to the people in my opinion. I would never go in the internet without VPN after seeing this.
Of course I knew that there is this big firewall and of course I thought it would block a lot but to see it from the inner of that was kind of eye opening. Thanks for sharing this.
Peace!
P.S. good that you have DTube, busy and so on to surf ;)
Its interesting isn't it?
How open minded would you be to consider that perhaps this isn't a crime to its people?
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Yeah could be - I think it depends on the perspective and how you can learn guitar chords instead of using the internet.. in my own perspective a proactive censorship is a crime
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Its a constant game of cat and mouse.
There are still many ways to get around the GFW though.
China Mobile and China telecom are the two major ISPs. Almost every other ISP piggybacks on China telecom.
Deep packet inspection is in full effect, keywords are monitored, and all internet traffic is logged.
I have a 100M fiber line, which slows to dialup speeds during peak times.
Its quite ridiculous, in some ways it was better 10 years ago, everything was slow, yet still usable if you had patience.
These days I've been stuck. VPN hasn't been working for a few days but I guess they did something at the beginning of the Chinese New Year.
If its important, always have a backup plan, any service can be blocked, or go down at any time.
I have switched between dozens of services over the years, none of them are perfect.
What has kept you in Mainland China for so long? Do you think a place like Taiwan would suit you better?
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Taiwan, seems to be very similar to Japan, high cost of living, yet the income is just enough to get by.
China has relatively low cost of living for me, although food prices are getting crazy.
As much as I complain about China, much has improved, except the internet.
Eventually the gravy train will end, its just a question of when?
Taiwan's cost of living is actually very affordable. Definitely lower than Japan's. I am pretty sure it is lower than Shanghai's.
Check it out if you want. If you are employed there for 5 years, you can get permanent residence. However, the economy and development isn't a booming as the mainland. Sometimes, the chaos of Mainland China is what keeps us here.
Having worked for Taiwanese based companies, I'm not really a fan of working there. Japanese companies aren't all that great in my experience either.
Although the opportunities in China, especially for small business owners, are in serious decline.
Wow,that firewall is blocking everything.
Read the comments and understood why the goverment is doing this but damn man that sucks.
Go out there and show us some cool stuff bro until your VPN is fixed.
Cheers.
Its does suck for people like me. But to be honest, what they do is working like a charm.
The long awaited ramen video is coming soon!! Lol
It was Chinese New Year so almost everything has been closed. I have been inside a lot lately lol. Starting tomorrow, everything will change.
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Allright man.I hope that ramen is better than that fruit you tried in your last vlog.Hahaha.
Happy Chinese new year man.
Cheers.
I’ve heard about this, good to see it from your experience!
That’s crappy but they are looking out for their market , can’t tell the Chinese what to do. Glad dtube is working ;)
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If the government did things the way the West wanted them to, they never would have developed as quickly as they did. Even though we may think what they do is bad or unfair, it works damn well for them.
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Eh, I think the opposite is true. There is no way China would have developed as quickly as it has without western influence and technology.
If anything is true, China will become the model state that western countries will be forced to emulate.
Every country is nothing more than a social experiment, combine the worst aspects of every culture and call it globalism.
There is no utopia.
Yes. They have copied quite a bit in terms of technology and intellectual property but at the same time, they do not operate the same way most western countries do. Western media condemns china for the pollution but usa and england used to be polluted when they were developing. China censors the internet and it has allowed anti china propaganda from influencing the vast majority of chinese people whom are not educated enough to decipher between fact and fiction. Likewise, their lax safety standards have allowed their economy to develop quicker despite negative consequences.
Most of what the west condemns china for is a done as a means to destabilize the country and acquire more influence over how china should operate in the USAs best interest. Im not saying this place is utopian, but a lot of the ways china operates is counter intuitive to a western mentality yet has still produced some remarkable results despite the many shortcomings.
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Its more than just copied technology.
It was given to them.
Whole assembly lines, and factories full of western technology.
This was planned decades ago.
The Chinese government, just like almost every other government has multinational interests to cater to.
If these interests are not served, the entire economy can be bankrupted, overnight.
Its not a east versus west paradigm, its the individual against the corporatocracy.
The corporatocracy has had much power in China since opening up its borders, but China is actively trying to develop its own infrastructure that does not heavily rely on foreign corporations. I'm not sure how successful they will be in achieving that. Seems like a big tug of war. The West tries to impose their political and corporate influence in China while the government tries to make sure that they don't end up with too much power and control.
Regardless, the economy and living standards have improved over the years in this country and China has had to circumvent the negative media coming from the West. It can be seen as harsh but that's what they have done to maintain control over their own country. Their next aim is to circumvent the corporatocracy you mentioned.
I wouldn't put any faith in the Chinese government, or any government for that matter.
Its like asking the proverbial fox to guard the hen house.
Follow the money, its clear that most governments were bought off decades ago, almost everything is either state owned or part of a multinational subsidiary at this point.
In China, there have been many periods whereby the people didn't trust their government, history tends to repeat itself, eventually every government abuses its power and the cycle repeats itself.
To think this can't happen again is insanity.
If you need an example of what could happen on a larger scale, just refer to the current situation in northwest China.
Very very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
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Agreed , there are focused and building !
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Agreed , there are focused and building !
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Yay! Busy works in China.. now lets get it to work in the UK 😭😭😭😭
That hat is 100% legit!
Give it a few more years man...
The hat is a chick magnet. The ladies love it.
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I just now watched this video. Man seems like a big struggle for sure. It honestly upsets me. I am going to Thailand and I was going to fly to China first and spend a day there because there was a layover but then there was a $140 fee for a travel visa. I decided to fly the other way and go on Qatar Airways.
Damn, thats gonna be far in that case. How long is the flight with Qatar airlines?
Everyone needs at least a tourist visa in advance to enter China unfortunately. My VPN still isnt working and its really annoying. Cant upload DTube videos or access the sites I want.
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29 hours total. Coming from Chicago.
The good thing about Thailand is you don't even need a travel Visa if you are staying less than 30 days.
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Damn son. Yeah a lot of countries allow canadians and americans to get a visa upon arrival but usual, China always needs to do things their “special” way.
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Do you think you will stay there much longer or peace out?
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I always say this will be my last year but then sign for another year. As much as the internet situation sucks here, life is still very convenient and i have the freedom to essentially do what i want.
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That is cool. I'm glad it is working out for you there. I have always been kind of cautious about going there. Going to Australia was really great and I could see myself living there. Thailand should be fun as well so I will see what is going on there as well and live the dream with all other travelers / expats.
Are you planning on becoming one of those hipster expats and digital nomads in Thailand?
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Wow.. Nice that VPN is a great help to you bro.
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My VPN hasnt been working but at least i can still talk to cool people like @adjedel without one.
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Auh, I thought its working now since you can post here now. :)
I can use DTube, busy.org, partiko, etc. Without a VPN. Hopefully it stays that way in the future.
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And just like that, Steemit.com is now blocked in China: https://twitter.com/joylovesteem/status/1094641441954058240
Yup. You can access busy.org and Dtube, but content doesnt display.
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