01 Sep 06 Finding and Using Internet Cafes in China
There used to lots of cybercafes in China but these days they are getting harder to spot. Stricter govt. regulations have forced most of these place to close down. The ones that are running are licensed establishments. They are usually referred to as Internet Bars - wang ba (网 å§). The character wang means a web or network and the character ba is I suppose just a phonetic near to bar. Most Chinese people use them for games, watching videos and messaging and they are very adept at multitasking using many of these things at the same time.
The last two characters wang ba means internet bar.
You pay an advance at the counter usually 10 RMB and they will give you this slip or a card with your login and password. Sometimes it is only a login, you can leave the password blank if it is not printed. In this example 00292145 is the login and 123 is the password. After you have finished your session they will return your change.
The cybercafe might not have msn or yahoo. QQ is the most popular chat client in China. You can use a web based messaging service meebo to log on to msn, yahoo and aol.
The computer is usually newer and has USB ports so it is very easy to transfer your files. I found Chinese cybercafes more reluctant if you want to use your own laptop and connect to their LAN cable. The Thais are more open to this.
At one of the smaller airports in China, this girls was selling a GPRS internet service. Whenever she was not answering customer questions she would be chatting with friends.
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Play a game AND chat? Not first-person shooter game right? If they can, wah, I kowtow to them.
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