withwings

Does anybody know how accessible the internet is in big cities? Do people have high speed, wireless connection in their homes?

bhuty

I don;t know about homes. most homes are owned or managed by the employer and so its a part of their employment package.

Most students who need the internet get it on campus in their dorms. They certainly seem comfortable with technology so I imagine that they either have it at school too and/or in homes. However, many of the uni students are from more financially secure homes whereas China has a large unemployment and poverty rate.

What I do know (statistically correct) is that the rate of adoption of computers and the internet is much lower in china even amongst the youth and young adult segments than the western world, whereas (and because) the adoption of mobile technology is very very high.

Just from my visions of the housing you see I would be surprised if the internet was common place.


However, back to the first part of your question: the availability or accessibility of the internet is quite good, as is wireless services. Many hotels have high speed services available and where I couldn't find an internet cafe (which are not very common to find) I just used the internet at a computer store (but only for a couple of minutes). Wireless is also availble at starbucks etc

Shanghainese

People who live in the new highrise condos they bought in large cities have access to wireless connections. The times of employer owned/managed housing is changing as people are purchasing their own homes. They prefer to buy a concrete shell in a new highrise and hire contractors to build out the interior themselves, adding to the non-stop noise and dust of construction. Single family homes in large compounds are cropping up too.

Neil_Oz

DSL also seems to be widely available. It's just a question of affordability. Computers are not much cheaper in China than in the West, which means that even a modest desktop PC would represent several months' wages.

thursdaysd

Apparently a lot of "unlicensed" Internet cafes were shut down after a deadly fire in Beijing in 2002. I noticed in 2004 that they had become much harder to find - you really needed a local to tell you where to look - but they still existed and still tended to be full of young males playing games. I also noticed that censorship is spotty - I couldn't access articles from the NY Times directly, but I could get them via my home-town newspaper's site.

bhuty

"also noticed that censorship is spotty"

I read some research on this and they found that even the censored sites aren't always censored. Best to explain with my experience. Sometimes I would visit a site and sometimes it would let me in and sometimes it would censor it and block me out. so yeah, its spotty in every way.

colind

Sitting in Changchun on Broadband it is $12 per month.

Most hotels have broadband and there are plenty of internet cafes

nancy_in_beijing

it is highly accessible. i have moved 3 times in 2 years. and in all the places i lived, broadband connection (dsl) is available. china unicom and china mobile (2 mobile phone providers) also offer wireless internet connection. i have used china unicom's. it is a bit slower then broadband but certainly good enough. u can use it on the go and it costs something like rmb160 a month. hope this info helps.