Chinese Internet Access

Free wi-fi is in a lot of the upmarket shopping centres, hotels and coffee shops in China – usually you will need to get the password from the supplier.

Every hotel I stayed in had free wi-fi in the lobby and a cable for free access in the room.  Which is great if you bring your laptop.  If you need to use the hotel business centre be warned of the cost – usually 1 Yuan per minute.

Chinese internet cafes don’t always allow foreigners to use their facilities – no matter how much you beg.  If you do manage to find a friendly internet cafe you’ll need to show your passport.  It costs around 4 Yuan per hour, which is much better than the 60 Yuan the hotels want.  An internet cafe is identified by what looks like an upside down square U with xx inside the U and they’re called internet bars there – although there’s not an alcoholic drink in sight.

Facebook and twitter are blocked on the Chinese mainland – but I managed to reach them via my phone (with the UK sim).  Although I couldn’t manage to tweet anything while I was there..  it just wouldn’t upload the tweet.

I also found that some emails didn’t come down to my email app on the phone.  No idea why they were blocked.