Clamping Down on Filthy Websites

China has launched a new campaign targeting the purveyors of risque websites.

From Bloomberg.com:

Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- China, the world’s biggest Internet market by users, announced a nationwide crackdown on Web sites that it says spread pornography, singling out search engines including Google and Baidu for criticism.

China’s Ministry of Public Security and six other government agencies jointly opened a one-month campaign at a meeting today in Beijing. The central government announced the decision through an official Xinhua News Agency report posted on its Web site.

A vulgar tone on the Internet has seriously damaged the physical and mental health of youth, Cai Ming-zhao, deputy press chief of the State Council, said at the meeting. Participants asked all related government agencies to “strictly execute the law,” Xinhua said.

Web sites that refuse to change after receiving warnings risk penalties and closure, Xinhua said.

Baidu and Google, China’s biggest search engines, provide links to “a huge quantity of pornographic sites,” according to a statement from the China Internet Illegal Information Center today. Sina Corp., the biggest Chinese Web portal, was accused of hosting “tawdry” blog and photo sites, according to the center, which is linked to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Read On

Trying to rid the internet of porn seems to be a task equivalent of ridding noodles from China. Can't see how this would actually work to well. The Chinese do have the Great Firewall of China though, so I suppose it could be possible.

It's interesting they're targeting Google with this directive. I wonder if this is a precursor to them shutting the site down. It could be a convenient excuse to block the world's biggest search engine from the world's biggest internet population.

China's Train Chaos Begins

Yesterday on my way to work, I saw a massive line of hundreds of people waiting to buy train tickets at the ticket office near my work.

Here is a story on the current state of China's train passenger glut from China's Xinhua News:

Guangzhou's train station last year

BEIJING, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- For many Chinese who want to nab railway tickets home for the annual Spring Festival migration, the government's promise of having a better system by 2012 is just a distant hope.

Starting Friday, the first day to book tickets for the travel rush expected to last from Jan. 11 to Feb. 28, long queues appeared at ticket booths in almost every major railway hub.

In Wuhan, college students were first hit by the rush, as many schools' winter break starts from Jan. 10 to 17.

As more than 70 percent of the 1 million resident students there were expected to go home by train, local railway authorities have set up ticket agents on campus, opened more ticket booths for students at stations and offered special trains for students.

But many still found it difficult to get tickets, especially to Urumqi, Qingdao, Jinan, Harbin, Zhanjiang and Nanning. At the Wuchang Railway Station alone, more than 60,000 tickets were sold on Friday.

In Shanghai, police and security officers were put 24-hour on guard to maintain order and prevent accidents. They gave each passenger a number and assigned them to different waiting lines.

Read On

The most amazing part of this article to me is this:

In a column in the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post on Saturday, he said that the per capita railway mileage in China was only 6 cm, shorter than a cigarette.

"Even after the mileage is extended from the current 78,000 km to 110,000 km, per capita rail lines in China will only be 8.5 cm. Can we really say good-bye to ticket shortages by then?"

Those numbers show just how mind-boggling ridiculous the situation is here in China where nearly everybody relies on train travel.

I'm about to experience my third Chinese new year in China. I'm very thankful that I've never tried traveling by train during this time period. Although it's been enticing to do some traveling since there is a week break for the new year, trying to deal with this kind of chaos just doesn't seem worth the effort to me.

This year, I will be spending the holiday with Jackie's family here in Xi'an. We will not have to go anywhere since she is a Xi'an local.

Speaking of the Chinese new year and Spring Festival, which officially begins on January 25th, I'm really excited that I'm getting the chance to experience both Christmas in America and Spring Festival in China this year.

These two holidays are the best time of the year in each respective country.

The 11th Best Personal China Blog

In the end, I finished eleventh with 51 votes in chinalyst.net's "Personal Blog of the Year" voting last month. I want to thank everyone who voted for me.

Considering that there were 89 blogs eligible in this vote, I'm happy with this result. Although if the voting had taken place in a month where I had updated my blog more (I only had fourteen entries in December), I'm pretty sure I would've cracked the top ten. Blogging was certainly not my top priority while being back home in America for the first time in sixteen months though.

I predict 2009 will be a big year here at "Mark's China Blog." I'll try my best to make this an entertaining and enlightening place for China news, things going on in my personal life here in Xi'an, and any travel stories and photos I have.

Back in China

After two weeks in Kansas City, I am now back in Xi'an.

Last night was definitely the quietest New Year's Eve I've ever experienced. I didn't do anything. I met Jackie and had a very quiet evening. After spending 26 hours in transit from America, I didn't even make an effort to go out with friends or anything. In fact, I was in bed just a few minutes after midnight.

In a few minutes, I'll be going to my girlfriend's parents' house for a hotpot lunch.

It feels good to be back. I'm going to have to jump right back into a ton of work beginning tomorrow. That is going to be annoying, but it's all right seeing that I just had sixteen days off.

Hope everyone reading this blog will have an awesome 2009!

Hua Shan - Part 5

Another round of photos from Hua Shan:


This is one of the best photographs I've ever taken. Andy appears to be floating on the ledge jutting out of the mountain.


Some instant noodles planters


This woman was struggling with the climb just before the North Peak


A map of Hua Shan. This helps me visualize the north, east, south, and west peaks a lot. It's easy to lose this perspective while on the mountain.


A shot from the lower part of the mountain


Me ordering/negotiating our dinner with the owner of the small guesthouse we stayed at near the North Peak. As you can see, I opted for Kobe Bryant-style leggings on this cold night.


Andy, me, and a middle-aged Chinese man going on a cable car down the mountain. As you can see, we were all soaked from being out in the rain all day.


These are a few Chinese guys I chatted up near the South Peak. The guy in the Texas Tech hat was very talkative. I still can't get over that he was wearing a Tech stocking cap.

Here is a video of us discussing beautiful women from all over the world: