Laptop to China
 

My company advises I don't bring my laptop to china due to restrictions on decryption laws. Apparently even things like lotus notes considered a problem. Seems fantastic to me. Anybody share their experience?

I'm not sure on restrictions of decryption laws. I brought my laptop to China since I live here. I've had no problems of any type. Good luck! Linda

China has become notorious for the level of corporate espionage they've undertaken. Your company probably has those restrictions for a reason. <BR><BR>Just last week Cisco sued a Chinease network equipment company, Huawei, for intellectual theft and copyright infringement. Apparently, the devices Huawei were selling had everything but the Cisco logo on the outside.

I'm not aware of any such restrictions. I (and everyone else in my company) have brought my laptop on every trip.

Since we are traveling to China on vacation, shouldn't take a laptop anyway, right? But I was wondering if internet cafes are available and usable to us westerners so we can at least email, etc.<BR>Thanks

If you are in really touristy areas, the restaurants say &quot;internet free for customers&quot;. That means you will be eating Chinese western food. You shouldn't have any trouble e-mailing unless you are with a tour, then there is no time allowed for that. If you're on your own, you won't have a problem.

I was on a tour while in China in September. Found good email access at hotels. No problem. <BR><BR>The only problem we had was on the boat on the Yangtzee. The computer was willing but the speed was too slow for me. I just waited till we hit the hotel again. <BR><BR>If you are only taking your laptop for email, leave it at home.

Increasing numbers of hotels (even some at three-star level) have broadband Internet available in-room, and it's often free. Where it's not free it probably will be in the future, and for now is the international norm of about US$16 for 24 hours. Those with Macs can plug-and-play, and those with Windows machines who happen to have an Ethernet card can fiddle about, curse, and call housekeeping for help.<BR><BR>Anonymous free dial-up is available almost everywhere in China. 'Free' here means an almost infinitesimal amount more than a local call, which is anyway so cheap you'll hardly notice it. Often hotels advertise 'free Internet' which means that if you use one of these dial-up numbers they won't even charge you for the local call. Typically the number is 163, but some provinces have variants (8163 is popular), and some cities have a number of choices, some faster than others, but in most cases fast enough for Web access to mail to be little problem. Typically you just create a new account on your computer set to dial 163, account number 163, password 163, and you're away.<BR><BR>Internet cafes are numerous almost everywhere, and typically Y2-3 per hour (business centres in hotels are ridiculously expensive in comparison). A few are luxurious, but most are smoky dives full of spotty teens playing combat games. Some have proper T1 access, some rather patchy bandwidth shared between too many machines. But checking mail is rarely a problem.<BR><BR>Peter N-H<BR>http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

My experience with the 8163/163 'free' dial up numbers has ranged from adequate to excruciatingly slow depending on the time of day, what city you're in, etc. The time you spend online is generally charged as a local call by the hotel which is minimal. At the Grand Hyatt Shanghai last month it was around 20 yuan an hour. This is one of the few hotels in Shanghai in the 4-5 star range that doesn't offer broadband for free (it's around 120 yuan a day). If you have any problems, the hotel staff can help you set up your laptop for either broadband access or with one of the 'free' dial up numbers.