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I am curious to learn where the people who are reading my blog are from in the World. I don't know any way to find out except to ask, so I am. I have a Visitor's Poll on the right side. Please take a second to select the best answer. If I don't have your Country listed it is not intended as a Slight (China was suppose to be there; I can't add it now). I quickly realized I could not list every country, so I have continents listed. Feel free to drop me a comment or email as to which Country you reside in if it isn't in the list IN ADDITION to selecting the best answer in the poll. Thanks

Monday, February 24, 2020

Back from the dead

It's been a long time since I've posted anything on my blogs.

In August of 2013 I moved to Longgong, Shenzhen in the Guangdong Province of China.  This is adjacent to Hong Kong.

So why have I not keep my blog up to date?  Simple.  China blocks blogspot along with multiple other US sites such as Google, Facebook, and even Dobber Hockey (go figure).

China by law guarantees freedom of speech.  Ironic eh?  If you post anything online however critical of the government it will be deleted and you could even be arrested.  Freedom of Speech in China means you have the freedom to say anything so long as the Chinese government approves.  Propaganda is key to the government's survival.

Yesterday I dusted off my Twitter account.  Like this blog, I haven't used it much since moving to mainland China. It also is blocked.

So how, if it is blocked, am I able to post?

VPN - Virtual Private Network.

Before I moved to China in 2013 I knew about the Chinese Firewall.  So I bought a VPN before I left - surfEASY.  And ..... it didn't work.  Halfway across the world and the VPN I bought at Sam's Club in the US didn't work.  Guess I blew that $50.  Without a VPN I couldn't even complain about the vpn not working to the company.

So I ended up using a variety of tools such as tunnelblick using openvpn to sometimes connect but it isn't easy to set up or use and wasn't very reliable.

I finally bought a vpn from a provider in HK PureVPN.  It worked well for about a year, then it quit working.  China changed it's firewall and without a working vpn I couldn't update the PureVPN software.  Catch-22 - you need a vpn to get a vpn.  Finally after several months, I managed to contact PureVPN and they arranged for me to download an updated version that worked.  I learned my lesson and downloaded some alternatives on my iPad and Windows PC such as Psiphon (free).  Now if PureVPN doesn't work I can use another vpn to contact the company and get a new workaround or new software version download.

Today, there are times when a vpn doesn't connect.  This is especially true when China doesn't want negative talk being circulated such as it's 70th Anniversary, the anniversary of Tiananmen Square, during Hong Kong Protests, etc...  But usually now I can connect using one of the various tools.

So now lets see if I can update the Covid19 situation on my blog.  Next blog.

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