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When
I lived in Beijing I used to go to the Internet Café in Beijing and
email my friends overseas from there since we didn’t have a computer
at home. I still remember the Café’s name - "Sparkle".
A lot of libraries didn’t have access to the Internet for the public
back then. So students liked to frequent the café a lot even though
it’s expensive to use their service. Sparkle charges almost $4/hour.
My brother told me it’s cheaper to have Internet at home. It’s
$0.50/hour from 8am - 11pm and even less from 11pm - 8am. If we take the
telephone line charges into account, it would be $0.70/hour at night. That’s
the cheapest price at present, although Chinese Premier Zhu RongJi said
the fee of the Internet service is still expensive and it has be lowered
as much as 1000% within 2 years. Today
Sparkle has 4 locations in Beijing. Some bookstores have opened Internet
Cafés, too. Also, more libraries provide access to the Internet.
In 1998, my brother, Yan-Bing, bought his own PC and hooked up to the Internet.
Since then, we’ve been able to email each other every day. He shares
the news in China with me and I share the news in America with him. I’ve
started to write him a lot about Brookfield since I came to live and work
here. He often reads Chinese newspaper on their web pages. I visit some
of them, too. I was really amazed that Chinese Internet has developed so
quickly over the past two years. According to one report, there were over
4 million Internet users in China by mid 1999. I’m glad my brother
is one of them. |
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This
September, an Internet Survival Test was conducted in China. It drew huge
attention all over the country. Three groups of people were chosen from
Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, for a total of 12 participants. This is
how the test worked: each participant was confined to an empty room with
nothing but a credit card with a limit of 1500RMB (about $200), a little
cash and a computer with the access to the Internet. Whoever stepped out
of the room within the 72 hours of the test, would fail. They have to find
food, water, bedding, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and other living necessities
through the Internet within 72 hours and survive to pass the test. Except
for one person of the Beijing group who dropped out after starving for 26
hours, the rest of the people all passed the test. They ordered everything
they needed on line and survived. A couple of them even ordered color printers
for themselves. Online newspapers had continuous coverage of the contest.
Right
after this event, on October 1st, China celebrated her 50th anniversary.
There was a grand ceremony on Tian An Men Square. The event was broadcast
on the Internet, too. Beijing TV Station has it on their web site. I watched
some of their program on their website (http://www.btv-5.com).
Here are some other web sites for you to check out. China Central TV: http://www.cctv.com.cn/english/index.html
China Daily: http://168.160.224.42/ |
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