Travelling in China and Tunnelling Through the Great Firewall

There are a few reasons why it's best to expect a fair amount of radio silence from me over the next few weeks. 

I'm currently travelling in China, home of Central Government-censored Internet access. Under normal circumstances, I'm blocked off from Blogger and Facebook. However, I've managed to maintain connectivity by using web anonymity software to tunnel through the Great Firewall (or the Golden Shield Project, or whatever they want to call the system that allows them to block off sites like puppiesandkittens.com should they be deemed too subversive.) That's why you're reading this blog entry.

It's not a perfect solution. Running encrypted data through IP bridges and proxy servers means my connection is slow as crap. It took me ten minutes yesterday to upload two 500 kB photos. So even though I can access the sites, catching up on a lot of blog work while I'm in China might be asking a bit much.

In a few days, I head up to Lhasa, Tibet. I'm not sure what my connectivity options will be up on the Tibetan plateau. Breaking through the firewall involves running proxy connections through a program on my laptop, so this only works when I have a reliable WiFi connection. No such luck at public terminals and Internet cafés.

Or, the lack of updating might be due to something else. I'm headed over to Hua Shan in about an hour to climb the ridiculously steep peaks. While I've heard that it's no longer quite the "Most Dangerous Hiking Trail in the World" (due to government improvements no doubt brought about because tourist deaths are just plain bad for business), the possibility of something going tits up is still there (look at the pictures). No further word means that I fell off the mountain.