En Chine 2008 / In China 2008

Radio-Canada.ca à nouveau bloqué en Chine? (mai 2008)

2008-05-09

Après au moins six mois à être bloqué en Chine, le site web de Radio-Canada était à nouveau accessible aux internautes basés en Chine continentale. Une semaine après l’envoi d’une lettre par Hubert T. Lacroix, président de CBC/Radio-Canada, à l’ambassade chinoise à Ottawa, les Chinois pouvaient à nouveau cliquer sur Radio-Canada.ca et CBC.ca (voir article). … Continue reading “Radio-Canada.ca à nouveau bloqué en Chine? (mai 2008)”

Voilà qu’en voyage de deux jours dans la province du Guangdong, j’ai remarqué à Shenzhen hier (7 mai 2008 – vers midi, HKT) que Radio-Canada.ca n’était plus accessible. Un “server not responding” apparaissait en pointant sur le portail de Radio-Canada ou son site de nouvelles, tandis que CBC.ca répondait encore à l’appel. Une défaillance du routage? Un blocage temporaire automatisé par mot-clés? Le pare-feu qui tombe à nouveau?

Deux amis vivant à Beijing m’ont confirmé plus tard aujourd’hui (8 mai 2008 – le soir) qu’ils ne pouvaient pas accéder à Radio-Canada.ca non plus.

Mise à jour (2008-05-11): Bruno Guglielminetti rapporte dans le carnet techno de Radio-Canada que le site serait re-bloqué depuis dimanche, d’après des commentaires venant d’internautes en Chine. Vu que je ne suis plus en Chine, je ne suis plus en mesure de vérifier personnellement si le site est encore bloqué aujourd’hui. (Mon article a été référencé par InsideTheCBC.com.)

Very fresh chicken, in four times

2008-05-08

When we traveled to the village of Zili, near the small town of Kaiping (famous for its diaolou, and a UNESCO World Heritage site), one of the “tourist attractions” was home-style countryside food, such as free-range chicken. The meat is either considered strong or rubberish. I like to think that our Canadian chicken tastes like … Continue reading “Very fresh chicken, in four times”

This chicken was steam-cooked, with Chinese mushrooms, some orange peel and soy sauce.

Hong Kong Central Library in Causeway Bay

2008-05-08

My Internet hole in Hong Kong is the Central Library located in Causeway Bay.

Continue reading “Hong Kong Central Library in Causeway Bay”

Beware! Exploding cars!

2008-05-07

Seen in Beijing, April 2008.

The Olympic torch relay in Hong Kong through the eyes of an Overseas Chinese

2008-05-03

This is the photo of a crowd surrounding a reporter from TVB, Hong Kong’s top television channel, during the Wan Chai portion of the torch relay in Hong Kong. A very happy crowd assembled along Hennessy Road, the main artery passing through the centrally-located district of Wan Chai, nearby which are several Hong Kong landmarks, … Continue reading “The Olympic torch relay in Hong Kong through the eyes of an Overseas Chinese”

This is the photo of a crowd surrounding a reporter from TVB, Hong Kong’s top television channel, during the Wan Chai portion of the torch relay in Hong Kong.

A very happy crowd assembled along Hennessy Road, the main artery passing through the centrally-located district of Wan Chai, nearby which are several Hong Kong landmarks, like the Convention Centre. Flags of China were flying or drapped around bodies and umbrellas, among Samsung flags.

I was semi-expecting protesters, because of my exposure to Western press, but coming from a regular proudly-Chinese family, I should’ve known better, that it wasn’t in Hong Kong that you would see dissent.

There was a single occurrence of disruption, fifteen to thirty minutes before the torch’s passing, on Luard Street (perpendicular to Hennessy), at least 15 to 20 meters behind the crowd: a young blond-haired Caucasian male in a yellow t-shirt made a ruckus with the crowd. I never figured out what happened, and it was quickly suppressed by the crowd within a minute. Ten minutes after the torch passage, and after the crowd more or less dispersed, there was a police van barging in on Luard Street, with photographers snapping whatever they could through the van’s fenced windows.

Ironically, of the 300 pictures snapped yesterday, this previous pic is the only of two good ones that I managed to get. The carrier looked like some big business person or local politician. Only 40-something percent (approx number from memory) of the runners in Hong Kong were sportsmen, lower than at relays in St Petersburg and San Francisco.

Other than that, there was nothing worth mentioning. The best is to look at this Flickr set of pictures of the event, or check at these chosen pics below.

Continue reading “The Olympic torch relay in Hong Kong through the eyes of an Overseas Chinese”

This relay was sponsored by…

2008-05-03

This is expected and nothing really out of the ordinary: the Olympic torch relay in Hong Kong was heavily sponsored. Samsung flags and thundersticks (with Beijing logos too) were handed out to the people lining the streets. Here was a whole delegation wearing these green or red t-shirts and red caps with Coca-Cola’s signature. The … Continue reading “This relay was sponsored by…”

Here was a whole delegation wearing these green or red t-shirts and red caps with Coca-Cola’s signature. The torch group was preceded by a Coca-Cola truck (along with an official car, if I remember correctly), that hinted to the crowd that what they came to see was approaching.

“Sai Kung bus crash”: the bad news in China

2008-05-03

What made the news in Hong Kong on May 1st wasn’t the Labour Day march, but rather this bus crash out in the New Territories burgh of Sai Kung. 17 people died and 45 more were injured. This comes another transport accident, involving two trains colliding in Shandong province, with one of the trains on … Continue reading ““Sai Kung bus crash”: the bad news in China”

What made the news in Hong Kong on May 1st wasn’t the Labour Day march, but rather this bus crash out in the New Territories burgh of Sai Kung. 17 people died and 45 more were injured.

This comes another transport accident, involving two trains colliding in Shandong province, with one of the trains on a high-speed route between Beijing and the port town of Qingdao, where sailing events for the Olympics are to be held.

Labour Day march in Hong Kong

2008-05-02

Just like three years ago when I bumped into the annual Establishment Day march (July 1st), I again bumped into another march, this time for Labour Day, May 1st. I was walking in Wan Chai, near the small basketball court (nor Southorn), when I saw the local police cordoning off the left-most lane of Hennessy Road, one of Hong Kong Island’s main artery (where the tram circulates). I first thought that they were doing some sort of repetition for today’s Olympic flame march, but it wasn’t the case, clearly as I saw the people with loudspeakers chanting familiar labour union slogans in Cantonese.

>> Listen to the march passing in Wan Chai (~25mins – 11Mb)

I would say that a good half of the marchers were migrant workers, usually what seemed to be domestic helpers as they are usually called. Can’t quote a number for this entry, but a majority of middle-class families employs domestic helpers in Hong Kong. They typically come from the Philippines, but based on the posters I’ve seen, also from Nepal, Thailand, and Indonesia. On this public holiday, they took the street on their day off (who aand chanted “ga yaan gong”, for “raise salary”.

It was a small, peaceful march. I am going to see the Olympic torch today in Wan Chai, the last leg of its passage in Hong Kong. That is, if I can get even get near the path!

Flickr set of the event