Authors

April 20, 2006: China’s Internet Craze

I first came to China in the fall of 2002 on a study abroad trip to Chongqing, a city in southwest China on the banks of the Yangtze River.  Throughout the course of the semester, we studied and learned, not so much in a classroom sense, but more through the experience of being dropped in a city of 30 million people on the other side of the world. Throughout this time, one of our main sources of information about back home, and the rest of the world outside Chongqing, was the Internet.

At that time, it was uncommon for Chinese people to have Internet access in their homes, so most of the access came from Internet cafes.  The Internet cafes were often full of Chinese students chatting with friends, playing games and surfing the net 24 hours a day.  I remember going to an Internet cafe at 2 AM with some of my classmates in order to register online for our next semester classes, and we had trouble finding one that wasn’t full.

April 11, 2006: An American Dollar in Beijing

This afternoon after my morning Chinese class, I ventured out with two of my classmates to grab a quick lunch.  Grabbing a “quick” lunch in China is very different than picking up a “quick” lunch in the U.S.  Yes, we have the typical options such as McDonald’s and KFC; however, the more popular choice is to head to one of the many restaurants serving various types of Chinese cuisine.

There are many things that separate lunch here from your average lunch in The States.  First off, the food is obviously different (I won’t get into the major differences at this time, because that could be an entry by itself).  Second, the atmosphere contrasts with a typical restaurant lunch in the U.S.  Lunches here are almost always eaten family style, where you order a few dishes and let everyone share.  The last and probably most important difference is that the price is usually relatively low.

For example, today’s lunch cost the three of us about 38 Yuan—also known as the Ren min bi (RMB), which came out to about $5 dollars total!  The meal consisted of four dishes: two meat dishes, one vegetable dish, and, of course, fried rice.  We were also able to enjoy three Beijing beers, which usually are about 24 oz. and cost only 3-5 Yuan (36¢-60¢ U.S.) each.

March 30, 2006: China’s Crackdown on IPR Violations: Permanent or Temporary?

According to the China Daily, the Chinese government is trying to move swift and hard against intellectual property right (IPR) infringements. The government is planning on imposing stricter, quicker penalties on violators, or shutting down illegal operations completely. The immediate plan is to focus on DVDs and the software industry.

Over the last year, the government has destroyed over 106 million pirated discs and books. Based on the story, they have also shut down 223 illegal disc production lines since 1996—including six so far this year. The government is increasing incentives by offering rewards of up to 300,000 Yuan (US$37,000) to anyone providing information that leads to the detection of an underground production line.

I can readily observe the effects of the crackdown on the streets of the city.