Blog Birthday

Today is a special day of sorts. Isidor's Fugue has now been in existence for exactly 1 year. The first post was mostly an "I think therefore I am" proof of existence. That reminds me of a night when I was a teenager and briefly convinced myself that "I think therefore I am" was not necessarily true. This greatly worried me for a few moments until I realized the flaw in my logic. I was quite relieved. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I have no memory of how I originally reached the erroneous and bizarre conclusion. I will just say that I was very tired at the time.

Anyways, this blog most certainly exists (at least in my mind). But I'm not sure I would have gotten started when I did without a most wondrous opportunity offered by James Fallows to be a guest blogger on his blog at The Atlantic. As he noted in his introduction, we had corresponded frequently about a variety of mutual interests including China, technology, and beer and first met each other in person at the World Expo in Shanghai. When he invited me to guest blog I was surprised, honored, and very excited.

So, for one week I was able to put my words and photos on The Atlantic. Some of my posts went  in directions I had not expected, and the week culminated in one of the most sleep-deprived states of my life. It was great, and I learned a tremendous amount from the experience. And while there are some posts I would especially love to rewrite, there are others that I still enjoy -- one is my first post there, which was my first blog post anywhere and posted the day before my first post here. It thanked Fallows and a family in Wuzhou, Guangxi for their very different, but both very special, invitations. You can read it here. Another post I wrote explained some of the motivation for this blog's name. You can read the post about fugues here. Finally, one of the photos I shared particularly caught the attention of my host and you can find his worthy comments on a photo that may look familiar to you here.

Of course all of that is not on this blog, but it was certainly the start of my blogging and helped attract some initial readers here.

I am going to avoid yammering on about the past year of blogging. Instead, I want to address a question that I am sure many of you are asking yourselves at this very moment, "What can I do to celebrate this exciting birthday?!?"

And now a few of you may be thinking, "Yippee! Here comes the PayPal link!"

Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you. There will be no PayPal link today. I do not even have ads for you to click.

Instead, my suggestion is simpler (and cheaper).

Share a link to this blog or a specific post you like to some of your friends, coworkers, family, or whoever. It should only take a minute unless you want to do it by stone tablet. If you do it that way, please send a photo.

If you can not think of what you would like to share, how about cats, monkeys, frogs, or a dog that served as a tour guide for me one afternoon in Taiwan? Or if you are more interested in technology how about a post on a Chinese lady's opinion of the problems Google was facing in China last year or a comparison of Google Maps and the surprisingly flashy-at-times Baidu Map? Interested in censorship in China? Maybe a post about a waitress's opinion regarding her inability to access Facebook or another comparing students in mainland China and Taiwan would do the trick. Want to share some scenes from China instead? How about photos of the city of Hengyang, Hunan province, the beautiful villages of minority cultures around Kaili, Guizhou province, or the fascinating Islamic culture I saw in Zhaotong, Yunnan province? Food your thing? Well, then how about tasty items from Hanoi, Vietnam or a comparison of Italian and Taiwanese food culture? And of course there are the recent posts about Xiaoxin such as the story of her first payday in Shanghai.

Whatever floats your boat. Easy, eh?

And if nothing else, it may help convince me that I exist if my thinking about my thinking ever goes awry once more.

Yes, it's late again.

Thanks for reading, commenting, and sharing. More of course is on the way.

Edit Notes to "A Most Spectacular View for Royalty"

After some reflection, I decided to remove the section about eating a fish head in the post "A Most Spectacular View for Royalty". I did this because I felt that the account did not support the main themes I hope to highlight in the that post and the other connected posts. While I like the fish head story, I was concerned it was more of a distraction. Given the nature of the post, I thought it was best to make the edit while appropriately noting it.

So, I of course noted the change on the post and placed the fish head story in its own special post here. It's only slightly modified from its original version. I did, however, note my later change of heart regarding fish heads and provided a link to proof.

Fish Heads High in the Sky

In one of the posts in my series of stories about Xiaoxin, a young lady from Sichuan I met in Shanghai, I mentioned that we ate at a restaurant atop of the Jin Mao Tower. One of the dishes we ordered was a large fish served whole. It did not fit with the themes I wished to emphasize in the earlier stories so I am presenting the story about the fish here. I think it highlights not only how Xiaoxin and I came from different cultures, but also how logically accepting something does not mean that more "visceral" parts of the mind accept it as well.

After we had nearly finished the delicious fish Xiaoxin said, "It's your last night in China. You should take the fish head and enjoy it." I knew that many in China considered the head the best part of a fish. In fact, there are popular dishes comprised only of fish heads. However, my interest in exploring new foods had only taken me so far at the time, and my still Western view of fish heads meant that eating one would be a challenge. I could also see from Xiaoxin's eyes that the fish head had much appeal to her. So I said, "I'm sure I couldn't enjoy the fish head as much as you. Please, I want you to have it." Xiaoxin still insisted that I should have the fish head, but even just thinking about eating it made my stomach feel queasy. Fortunately, after much discussion she finally accepted my "gracious" offer to take the fish head for herself.

As I began to enjoy the other dishes I heard a strange slurping noise coming from her direction. I turned my head and saw Xiaoxin had the entire fish head up to her mouth and was sucking in whatever it is that can be found within a fish's head. I swiftly turned my head away and did my best to control the intense nausea sweeping over me. Logically, I thought it was fine for someone to eat fish head, so I had not expected such a visceral reaction. As I tried to recover I saw a non-Chinese lady sitting on the other side of the room. It appeared she had witnessed the recent episode and was fully appreciating the moment.

I sat there looking away for a few more minutes as Xiaoxin finished savoring the fish head in a way I had never known a fish head could be savored. Fortunately, the fish head had her full attention, and she never appeared to notice my reaction. Especially after having heard her childhood stories about her desire to eat fish, I was happy she was able to so thoroughly enjoy it. I was also happy that my nausea did not reach full fruition.

Since that night over six years ago, my aversion to fish heads has disappeared. In fact, I have tried a variety of fish head dishes including a ginger soup in Taipei. Despite my change of tastes, I think I could still be gracious enough to let Xiaoxin enjoy the fish head.

Or maybe I would order two.

A Most Spectacular View for Royalty

[Note: This is the third in a series of posts about a young lady from Sichuan province I met during my first trip to Shanghai, China. An introduction to why I am sharing these stories is here. The first post told the story of Xiaoxin's very special first payday in Shanghai and the second shared Xiaoxin's thoughts regarding a vegetarian restaurant.][Added note: This post was edited to remove a section which can be found in a separate post here. An explanation for the edit is here.]

While there was much about Xiaoxin's experience in Shanghai that signified the improvements in her life, some of it did not meet her expectations. During my conversations with Xiaoxin there was one problem in particular she regularly discussed: her dissatisfaction with the business practices of her job. Initially, she had been excited to work at the art gallery. She had grown up with a deep appreciation for art, and she welcomed the opportunity to share her interests. However, she quickly found that her job was less about selling art to people who appreciated it and more about convincing tourists to purchase overpriced items. Although she was certainly happy to be earning much more money than she could in her hometown, her ideals did not allow her to take a more "pragmatic" approach and be content.

Of course not everything we discussed was about her life, and she was curious about mine as well. One day she said as if imagining a dream world, "Living in the U.S. must be wonderful. It's like all the streets are paved of gold." I briefly considered Baltimore, where I lived at the time, and thought there was much I certainly would not describe as golden. Capturing my feelings concisely would be difficult, though, so I decided to focus on one issue by saying, "Sure there's much that is great about America, but there are also many people who are not very fortunate and live in poorer conditions."

Without hesitation she replied, "Yeah, but they must feel so good to be surrounded by all that greatness."

I had never considered this and again thought about Baltimore, especially the poorer neighborhoods which closely bordered more prosperous areas. Were the people there lifted up simply by being proximate to "all that greatness"? I didn't know for sure, but I was not aware of any evidence that people felt this way. So I wondered out loud, "Maybe being around all that greatness can make people all the more aware of what they don't have. They could actually feel worse than if they weren't aware of it." The expression of wonder on Xiaoxin's face quickly disappeared. She never responded but instead considered the point in silence.

Conversations such as this one provided insights for each of us into the other's world and also more perspective on our own. I met a number of people during that trip to China, but it was only Xiaoxin that I got to know this closely. So, as my time in Shanghai was coming to an end I explained to Xiaoxin that I wanted to splurge on my last night with a special meal and that I hoped she would join me.

She accepted my invitation, and on my last evening in Shanghai I brought Xiaoxin to the Jin Mao Tower, at the time China's tallest building. I had chosen a Shanghainese restaurant near its top primarily because it offered an incredible view of Shanghai.

After the meal we walked to one of the large windows in the restaurant. I pondered the amount of unparalleled rapid development represented beautifully in front of my eyes. I also wondered what Xiaoxin, who had grown up in a far less developed region of China, was thinking. Maybe Shanghai's own version of golden streets further uplifted her spirits.

That was to be the last evening Xiaoxin and I would ever spend together in Shanghai. In a number of months, she would return to Sichuan. I would have never guessed that in a little more than a year it would be me and not Xiaoxin living in Shanghai. I will never forget those days, and I doubt she had any awareness of the type of impact she had on me.

There are many other people I later met in China who have also changed how I view the world. In future posts I will also share some of their own stories and comment further on what lessons there may be in my experiences with Xiaoxin. While she and others are but a small part of China's more than one billion people, their stories can shed light on issues of great importance to understanding not only their lives, but many others as well.

Finally, as that evening's meal of fish and other Shanghainese food settled in our stomachs, a meal which had cost more than the monthly salary of many in Xiaoxin's hometown, we continued to look at the brightly lit landscape. But like her payday and the meal at the vegetarian restaurant, the experience was not the same for each of us. The difference at the moment became very clear to me when she broke the silence and in a voice touched with amazement said, "You know what?"

"What?" I asked as we gazed at at an almost unreal scene.

"I feel like I'm a princess."

Truck Riding and Sewer Fireworks

I will soon post a story that continues the series that began with Xiaoxin's first payday in Shanghai and her childhood dreams to eat meat. In the meantime, I'll share a photo and a video that can be (very) loosely tied together.

Today's weather was rather pleasant in Guangzhou. While many had to work at least these guys seemed to have found a way to enjoy it while relaxing outside during a break from their toils:

Not going to McDonald's

Scenes such as this are nothing out of the norm in China. While safety may be a concern for the above riders, I will not use this as an opportunity to provide any advice.

But I will share another piece of advice regarding safety: don't throw firecrackers into sewers. It may seem that ignoring this advice could lead to interesting results. In fact it can, and that is exactly the problem. If you are wondering what prompted me to offer such sage advice then watch the video on Youku that can be viewed below. The news story is in Chinese, but the visuals should be sufficient to make my point.

In case you are wondering, the man was sent to the hospital with facial burns and other ailments. Hopefully he fully recovers, and his experience can serve as a valuable lesson for all that fireworks and sewers were not intended to be combined. One can only imagine the other dangers that lurk in the world yet to be discovered.

Guangzhou's Renwei Temple and Nearby Neighborhood

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to stop by Guangzhou's Renwei Temple (仁威祖庙). The Taoist temple has a history of over 900 years, but like many temples in China it has been rebuilt on several occasions. I also walked through the nearby neighborhood. While the homes there would be considered "old" by many in China they certainly don't have the same depth of history as the temple. Like many similar neighborhoods in Guangzhou a number of its buildings are marked for demolition, and it may not exist in its current form for much longer.

Below are some photos of what I saw. To capture a feeling of both the neighborhood's and the temple's history I thought it would be interesting to try something new and alternate the photos being presented in sepia tones and in full color.

A Most Delicious Lunch Without Meat

[Note: This is the second in a series of posts about a young lady from Sichuan province I met during my first trip to Shanghai, China. An introduction to why I am sharing these stories is here. The first post told the story of Xiaoxin's very special first payday in Shanghai and the third post can be found here.]

As seen in the previous story, our mutual enjoyment of spicy food provided a door through which Xiaoxin and I could connect. However, food also proved to highlight how some of our experiences and expectations were very different.

After our first two meals together, I told Xiaoxin there was a restaurant in Shanghai I had enjoyed on my own and wanted to introduce to her. She expressed interest, and I casually mentioned that it was vegetarian.

"Vegetarian?", she asked. So I explained that there was no meat in any of the food.

She cocked her head to the side and with great puzzlement asked, "No meat? Why would you go to a place without meat?"

For many in China eating meat is a sign of prosperity. The idea of being vegetarian for either health or moral reasons is not very common. But I really didn't grasp how much this was true until I saw Xiaoxin's reaction to my suggestion. In her eyes, it made absolutely no sense that someone who had sufficient money would chose to eat at a restaurant without meat.

I realized that explaining my perspective to her would be difficult at best, so I said, "Trust me. It's really good food. If you don't like it we can go to another place afterwards." With an expression of skepticism laid over confusion she agreed to give it a try -- if for no other reason than to be polite.

At the restaurant I ordered 5 dishes for us to share. I made sure a few of the dishes included the mock meat many vegetarian Chinese restaurants excel at making. And of course, a few of the dishes were spicy.

The results were clear. Xiaoxin was very surprised to discover that she really enjoyed the food, including the mock meat. She said she hadn't had a meal without meat in a long time. She told me, "When I was little we very rarely had meat to eat. It wasn't easy to get and it was very special for us to have any." Xiaoxin then paused for a few moments before thoughtfully adding, "I remember sometimes seeing the little girl down the lane and sometimes she would be eating chicken. I would feel so jealous of her. I really wished I could have some chicken, too. And sometimes, sometimes she would be eating fish! My mouth would water when I saw that." The deep expressions on Xiaoxin's face and in her voice as she told the story only sharpened my imagined picture of her long ago staring in envy at the girl with the fish.

Fortunately, Xiaoxin's life had significantly improved over the years since then. She later commented on these changes when she pointed out with some pride and amazement, "But now my life is so different. I eat meat all the time and can have it whenever I want. In fact, I'm really picky about my meat now. It's really so different for me. It's hard for me to believe what my life was like before."

I had known that while very significant challenges remained in China, the lives of many people had vastly improved during recent decades. But Xiaoxin's story made me feel it in a way I never had before. Maybe nothing better indicates the difficulties of those days and Xiaoxin's limited hopes for the future than when she said, "And you know? When I was a kid I had a dream. My dream was that when I grow up I'm going to eat meat three times a week!"

The perspective this put on her current life struck me very hard. I had nothing in my own experience that could compare to it. To eat meat three times a week -- that seemed like a dream to young Xiaoxin.

The next story will shed some light on Xiaoxin's dreams not when she was younger but instead at the time when I met her. Like this story and the previous one, part of it will also be about a meal we shared. In fact, it was our last meal together in Shanghai.

And I made sure to order a very large fish.

My Brief Afternoon Break in Guangzhou

A post following up on the story about Xiaoxin's special first payday in Shanghai is on the way. Before that, I'd like to share in this light post a few photos I took while taking a brief break this afternoon following a late lunch in Guangzhou.

Where I ate lunch was near a large park, and I decided to take a stroll through it. In one section of the park I stumbled upon this performance of a piece in a Chinese opera:

A small crowd had gathered to watch the performance:

As suggested by the lady with a camera in the photograph, performances of Chinese classical music are not a very typical part of many people's lives in China today. However, informal performances aren't uncommon in many of the parks I've seen. Fortunately I was able to catch this one which was a little more elaborate than most I've seen.

On the way back from the park I took a shortcut down this alley:

And briefly met this little girl who seemed surprised to see me there:

She was taking out the trash from her family's small store  -- evidence that little helpers are universal. In this case, that meant dumping the trash on the side of the alley.

That's all. Again, more about Xiaoxin soon.

A Most Amazing Payday in Shanghai

[Note: this is the first in a series of posts about people I have met whose stories I think can help provide context for thinking about issues such as the expectations for jobs and living conditions held by many in China. An introduction to this series can be found here. The next post in the series can be found here.]

The first time I visited mainland China was in 2005. In addition to Hangzhou and Nanjing, I spent 9 days in Shanghai as a tourist. Of the several people I met during my time there, one was a 23 year old female who I'll call Xiaoxin (approximately sounds like "shiao sheen"). I first met Xiaoxin because she was standing outside at a popular bazaar for tourists trying to convince people to visit a "student art exhibition". Those who are familiar with such places will immediately appreciate the quotes. Typically, the exhibitions are merely tourist traps selling overpriced art. Xiaoxin later told me that she was surprised I had trusted her and so quickly accepted her invitation. In fact, at the time I knew what I would likely encounter, but I couldn't refuse a potential opportunity to escape the oppressive heat outside.

I spent an hour or two in the (thankfully air conditioned) art gallery with her as my guide. Our conversation focused on my questions about the various pieces of art and Chinese art in general. I learned a great deal from her, and it appeared she had gained many insights from her uncle who was hoping to make a name for himself in the Chinese art world. When I saw a painting that included chili peppers, I commented on my fondness for spicy food. This surprised Xiaoxin and she proudly told me she was from far away Sichuan -- a province in China famous for its chili-filled dishes.

Towards the end of my visit to the gallery I began considering a few of the items to purchase as gifts for friends back home. Although I knew the prices were likely too high, I was concerned that it could be bad for Xiaoxin if I didn't buy anything after she had spent so much time with me. As I was about to make a final decision she became visibly uncomfortable and then whispered, "Please don't buy anything here. It's too much money. I can't let you buy it."

Feeling touched I wanted to return her considerate act (her boss would probably have had other words for it had he known) so I did the best thing I could think of -- I invited her to dinner at a Sichuan restaurant of her choosing. She happily accepted and later that day we had a tasty (and very spicy) dinner at an authentic Sichuanese restaurant. During dinner I learned more about her life and how she had recently arrived in Shanghai so she could earn more money. I was particularly struck by the fact she was expected to work 12 hours everyday of the week. If she was lucky, she would be granted 2-3 days off in a month. While this seemed extreme to me, it was obvious she didn't view it as abnormal.

Despite her busy schedule, we had the opportunity to see each other several other times during my stay in Shanghai. On one day when we met she excitedly told me (note: for many in China discussing salary isn't taboo), "I got my first paycheck today! Guess how much I got!!!" I briefly considered how much someone could earn at an art gallery in Shanghai after working approximately 29 twelve-hour days in one month. I also considered that she was clearly very happy. After some quick calculations of her potential salary and the potential effects of me being wrong I said, "I have no idea. How much?"

Xiaoxin's eyes grew wide and her answer stupefied me. I quickly gathered myself and forced out, "That's great!"

"I know!" she replied while pumping her fists in triumph. "I'll be able to save so much money to bring back to Sichuan!"

I quickly realized I had no context with which to interpret what I had heard. I decided to put it aside for later consideration, and we hopped into a taxi. When we arrived at the Shanghainese restaurant I had wanted to try she took a quick look at the menu and said "Good! I can pay for this." I didn't want to let her pay, but it was a very special day for her and she wanted to share some of her bountiful earnings. I could see that no debate was possible. While the meal wasn't as delicious as what we ate at the Sichuanese restaurant, it felt more special in other ways.

I'll soon share a few more stories about Xiaoxin that highlight how much her life was changing and how some disillusionment, already hinted at, would add a wrinkle to her plans. I'll also share some stories of other young people I later met in China who couldn't expect a payday as large Xiaoxin's in their immediate future. These stories provided me an important perspective.

Looking back, I can now feel some of Xiaoxin's excitement. Having grown up under difficult conditions she had taken the risk to move to Shanghai alone with no real guarantees but found she was going to save so much money. She'd be able to do so much with it back home. She would gain so much face in front of her friends and family. Her Shanghai dream seemed to be coming true.

After all, Xiaoxin was making more than U.S. 70 cents per hour.

A Prelude to Stories About Expectations and Hopes in China

Two recent articles in The New York Times "Apple, America and a Squeezed Middle Class" and "Apple’s iPad and the Human Costs for Workers in China" are both worth reading and together highlight some key issues regarding the shift of certain types of jobs from the U.S. to China and the working conditions at factories making products valued by many Americans.

There are so many questions I wanted to address in response. Should the U.S. make an effort to "bring back" these jobs (and if so, how?) or instead focus on growing other types of jobs? When U.S. executives make lowering costs a priority are they willfully ignoring problems faced by factory workers in China? When U.S. consumers make having the latest technology a priority are they too turning a blind eye? Are high turnover rates at factories in China such as Foxconn Technology (a key manufacturing partner for Apple) really notable in a country where high turnover rates can be the norm in many industries? How best to consider long working hours in a country where many workers insist on overtime? What are conditions like at factories that aren't tied to global companies? What are the expectations and goals of factory workers in China?

Thinking about these questions made me realize that there was much more for me to consider and learn. But it also made me realize that there was a lot of context I had when considering some of the latter questions that was likely missing for others, particularly those who haven't had an opportunity to experience China up close. Whether gained through focused research efforts or daily life, much of this context can't be easily captured in a single post.

So, for now I've decided to not directly comment on the articles or the questions above. Instead, through a series of posts I'll try to communicate at least part of the context I've gained that I've found valuable when considering issues such as the expectations for jobs and living conditions held by many in China. Primarily, I plan to do this through sharing some conversations and experiences I've had with a variety of people in China. What can be learned during a meal at a vegetarian restaurant about the scarcity of food experienced as a child by an optimistic young lady now working far from her hometown? What perspectives could be changed after listening to a waitress who couldn't afford to continue her education explain that her only realistic hope for improving her parents' very difficult life will be through the husband she hopes to meet someday? Although the hopes of many in China may at their core have much in common with people in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, the specific expectations for what will fulfill them and the roadblocks in the way can be very different.

Although I don't aim to capture all of China in these posts, the stories I will share can serve as a valuable window into some individual lives in China that highlight a number of key general points. Not only may these stories be eye opening for people outside of China, but based on my previous work I suspect the same will sometimes be true for Chinese as well. As I've discussed before, China's diversity make it particularly challenging to understand (see here) and being part of a culture doesn't necessarily translate to fully understanding the behavior of people in that culture (see here).

Like many of my posts, this will be an experimentation in itself as I explore ways to best communicate what I've learned in and from China. My goal won't be to tell you what to think but instead to stimulate. In that spirit, I'd genuinely appreciate your thoughts and feedback via comments or email (for emails I assume that I can share the content without identifying you unless a request is made otherwise). Whether it's what caught your attention, a question, a different perspective, a story of your own, or something else you wish to share, your responses will be truly welcomed and considered. The more I hear back, the more I'll be encouraged.

The first set of posts will be about a young lady I met in Shanghai when I first traveled to mainland China in 2005 as a tourist. I suspect some of the experiences I'll share left a particularly deep impression on me because they were part of my first direct exposure to China. And none of them may have happened if I hadn't been so eager to get out of the heat.

Not Black & White: Access in China to Amazon, Facebook, Google+, Windows Live, Yahoo! and More

China's blocking of numerous sites with its "Great Firewall" has been the subject of much attention here, but I haven't touched on the subject recently. So I decided to conduct some "tests" in order to get a sense of current conditions in China for accessing a variety of major websites. As publicly available in-depth reports on the topic are hard to find, I am happy to share what I've found. While I've noticed that an earlier post of mine on the accessibility of Google+ in China was cited in testimony (see here) provided to the The Congressional-Executive Commission on China in the U.S., my primary goal is simply to help readers who are outside of China better appreciate the online experience of website blocking in China. It's often not as clear cut as some may expect.

While there exist several websites that provide the status of websites' accessibility in China, I felt it was worth undertaking my own exploration since none of those services (as far as I am aware) examine whether any blocking is only occurring at the DNS level. This is an important distinction since DNS-blocking is usually very easy to overcome (for some links to information about DNS-blocking see here). Also, DNS-blocking may suggest that China is not fully concerned about the website or that a "formal" decision to block the site has not been made. Other potential problems with using semi-automated websites include their apparent inabilities to test internal pages of sites requiring a login (particularly relevant for many social networking services) and to distinguish cases between a website being significantly slowed or disrupted instead of being fully blocked.

I conducted the tests on January 21 and January 23 while in Guangzhou, China. On each day every website was tested under each of these conditions: using default locally available DNS servers; using non-China-based DNS servers; using a VPN (while also using a non-China-based DNS server). Therefore, every website was tested at least 6 times in total. After changing DNS settings, I deleted all Internet cookies in the browser and rebooted the computer (there are methods for changing DNS settings which should not require rebooting, but I've found them to be less than 100% reliable).

When using a VPN, which can be used to "get through" China's Great Firewall and allow a user to access the Internet as if they were outside of mainland China, all of the reported websites responded normally. This suggests that the problems I observed while not using a VPN were not due to general problems with the websites or my computer. All results reported below are from conditions where a VPN was not used (the "normal" situation for many in China).

First I'll present sites that were completely inaccessible. Second, I'll present sites that were fully accessible. Third, I'll present sites that weren't fully blocked, but did not load normally.

Unlike explorations I conducted last year (see here for the most recent prior tests I conducted on Google+), I noticed no apparent differences for any of the tested websites when using a local versus non-local DNS server. I also found no obvious differences in any site's performance between the two days of testing. Therefore, all results that follow are collapsed across those two conditions.

Sites I could not access from China:

Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube

None of these services were accessible. In all cases there was a definitive failed response after some period of time (and not an indefinite wait with no response). Based on previous reports & experience, there are no surprises here as all of these services have been known to be blocked in China.

Sites I could access from China without problem:

eBay -- eBay's U.S. website loaded very quickly on a consistent basis and no problems were seen. Because of this, I used it as a baseline in comparing other sites. If another site loaded slowly, I could use eBay to demonstrate that the problem wasn't due to general slowness in the Internet connection or in connecting to web sites outside of China.

Amazon China -- The Chinese version of Amazon's site loaded very quickly, and I never noticed a problem.

Windows Live & MSN -- I had no problem logging into or using Live (including Hotmail and browser-based Messenger) and MSN.

NPR -- Again, I had no problem accessing the site nor in listening to its streaming audio reports.

Sites I could access, but with problems:

Google+ and Gmail -- My post from last summer "Access to Google+ in China" includes reports from more than 10 days up until the beginning of August. It indicates that DNS-blocking of Google+ appears to have become the norm during the period of testing. However, in the current testing Google+ was not blocked, although sometimes logging in or accessing new information could require waiting several minutes or reloading the page. On one occasion, images (not including Google's icons) wouldn't appear, either in the streams or pages dedicated for photos. Here's an example of a public post by journalist Malcolm Moore when no images were appearing:

It's worth noting that article referenced in the post, "China rushes to jail activists before political handover", was available in China, although the sidebar content on The Telegraph took significantly longer to load than the main content.

Gmail was similar to Google+. I could access it but sometimes I needed to wait for a period of time to access new information. Additionally, Google Chat would occasionally loose connection (I've heard friends in China regularly report a similar experience).

So, both Google+ and Gmail could be a pain to use at times (and sometimes they had no problems at all) but they never appeared to be fully blocked.

Yahoo! -- Yahoo! presented one of the more interesting cases. When first accessing the main page at www.yahoo.com it took approximately 9 minutes for the page to load. That length of time was very consistent across several testings. When the page finally did load it was not rendered correctly as seen here in three screen shots of sections from the same page:

Top of main page for Yahoo!

This column of icons continued at great length

This content also rendered incorrectly and should appear near the top.
Instead, it followed pages and pages of the icons seen in the previous photo.

However, there was no problem accessing other sites at Yahoo! such as news.yahoo.com or mail.yahoo.com. On several occasions the main page would correctly load after first waiting for the incorrectly rendered Yahoo! main page to load and either 1. reloading the page or 2. going to another Yahoo! site & then returning the main page. However, this behavior was not consistent and sometimes another 9 minutes would be needed for the main page to reload.

Amazon.com -- Typically, the first time trying to access Amazon's U.S. website led to complete failure. However, a reload would cause the main page to quickly appear. The site would typically be usable for a period of time then occasionally it would become temporarily inaccessible again. Such behavior never occurred on Amazon's China-based site.

Bing -- Microsoft's Bing performed without problem. However, on one occasion it became inaccessible for several minutes. I was not able to replicate the experience.

CNN -- A quick overview of CNN indicated no problems except that all videos and video sections of the website would not load.

This blog: Isidor's Fugue -- Similar to the main page of Yahoo!, this blog wasn't blocked but is rendered incorrectly. For example, all of the non-post content on the right side of the page incorrectly appears at the end of all posts on the page. Additionally, some of the space between lines of text is compressed as seen here:

...

Also, for the "Blog Archive" normally only the most recent month's posts appear without clicking on the triangle figures. However, as seen above other months (but not all) appeared as well. Additionally, it is typical that some of the images in posts will not not appear (all images are hosted by Google). A refresh of the page can cause missing images to appear, but then sometimes others images will not load. I'm not aware of any pattern other than that I have yet to see every photo successfully load and the banner photo never loads. That some likely explains why I have data indicating that it's not uncommon for visitors from China to reload pages.

I should note that I don't think any of the interference is directed specifically at the blog but is instead due to it being hosted on Google's service Blogger. However, I haven't yet specifically tested this.

Conclusion:

If there's only one thing I could say, it would be that accessibility of sites in China isn't as simple as "yes" or "no". It's much more nuanced as seen in the last set of sites presented above. This means that checking automated reports of a website's accessibility in China won't necessarily provide key details. For example, my ability to use Google+ stands in contrast to the status at the time for plus.google.com on greatfirewallofchina.org (failed for 5 locations in China, but none are Guangzhou) and websitepulse.com (failed for Guangzhou). This isn't the only difference I've found (they also list Yahoo! as ok). They may be due to testing/reporting methods used or variations, especially in DNS-blocking, in different locations in China (it's also possible that the Great Firewall engages in user-specific blocking based on a variety of factors). While I suspect location is not the main explanation for many (if not all) of the differences if found, I can make no strong claim at the moment as to whether I would find similar results if I were in other locations in China. Ideally, people would conduct identical tests at the same time on multiple occasions in several locations. Well, actually... ideally the Chinese government would provide an explanation of what they were doing.

How are the peculiar results for some of the sites caused? In large part due to the variety of the results found and the complexity of the various technologies possibly involved, I'm not now able to provide any certain answers. I'd certainly welcome input from readers.

Why would the Great Firewall only partially interfere with a website? In some cases, the Chinese government's goals may be best met by not fully blocking a website, but merely making it sufficiently annoying to use so people are disuaded from using it. Other cases may be a result of no clear or country-wide directive existing as to whether a particular website should be blocked. But I also suspect that not all interference is necessarily intended and some of it may instead be "leftovers" of past actions by the Great Firewall or the result of actions not targeted towards the site in question. That the Great Firewall may behave in such a "messy" manner comes as no great surprise. For a more in-depth discussion on the workings of the Great Firewall see an in-depth article by James Fallows here.

Finally, although there was a crackdown on VPNs in China last year, recently I have had no problem using a VPN and all sites loaded normally while using it. I'll have more to say on the VPN issue in a later post. I've noticed a curious pattern of results there, too.

"There is No Jobs Anymore"

Still working on a post about access to some websites through China's Great Firewall, so for now I'll simply share a photo I took last November while on a small bus from Sujiawei to downtown Heyuan in China's Guangdong province.

"THERE IS NO JOBS ANYMORE"

Since this is supposed to be a quick post, I'll refrain from commenting on the shirt or using it as an introduction to my thoughts (hopefully later) on the recent article in The New York Times "How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work".

And in case you missed it, here's a T-shirt I saw last year in Vietnam that also caught my attention (though for very different reasons).

More soon...