It’s a Real Challenge Going Online In China!

WE ALL KNOW about how difficult it must be for Chinese Internet surfers, especially with the recent news items about how their browsing and searching is censored and controlled by Government influence, but have you ever wondered what it’s like for those lucky few who do manage to use the Internet? Well - not surprisingly, it’s quite risky at the best of times.

I happened to be reading an article today about how many sites the average Internet surfer visits on a daily basis (the answer is 6 by the way) and then I started to wonder what it was actually like on the ground in China for those who were trying to use the ‘net. Two different stories pretty much confirmed how tough it is.

The first concerns the plight of online Chinese gamers who are getting a raw deal when they try to play World of Warcraft. It seems the speed of the servers and connections is shite, as is the level of support available to them. This results in many gamers resorting to ‘goldfarming’ within the game in order to get some chance at playing it at a decent level, since their connectivity is so bad they can’t get the required duration of play to build up credability in the normal way. The service is so bad that Chinese online gamers are threatening to revolt!

Then at the other end of the spectrum we have a Chinese journalist who managed to use a hotmail account to publish articles in the West. Unfortunately the Chinese Governement tracked him down and had him arrested. The jury is still out on whether or not Microsoft had anything to do with this (e.g. handing over data on the account).

All in all, it’s a pretty bleak existence for the online surfer or gamer in China, even when you get past the censorship!