Web surfing and radio streaming in China...

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Hi all,

I have a mate who is a teacher in China and is a fanatical sports fan.

His problem is, that he cant access the BBC website to listen to '5 live' radio or other western sites that might stream the cricket or football.

My question is, does anyone know of any external links (that are China friendly or unknown to China) that will play '5 live' and/or '5 live extra' radio channels.

Many thanks in advance and Merry Christmas all. :)
 
Is it really worth it though? I mean, couldn't things get particularly nasty in China if he is caught bypassing Internet restrictions imposed on BBC website? (I seem to recall BBC being banned over there - correct me if wrong)
 
I remember there used to be an application designed specifically so that Chinese people could proxy their connection through friends computers in other countries. I can't remember what it was called but you'd probably find it quickly enough through Google.

That said, see above. It's probably not worth the risk of getting caught and severely punished just so that he could listen to a bit of cricket or foodball. :eek:
 
Indeed if the BBC content is blocked then going around those restrictions is a no-no, especially in a country like China, it's not going to be death with a rifle, but pretty stupid to do.
 
Eh, our entire chinese class has been told to actively circumvent the firewalls and such where possible when over there next year :p

He'd be exceedingly unlikely to get in trouble for it as a foreigner, I just can't picture it, unless he was actively trying to start a revolution or suchlike. That said, I don't think there's any way to access BBC - I was told by a BBC journalist working over there that they've recently changed it so you can now access the bbc.co.uk front page, but anything with "news" in the url is forbidden. Ah well.
 
[DW]Muffin;10684743 said:
Indeed if the BBC content is blocked then going around those restrictions is a no-no, especially in a country like China, it's not going to be death with a rifle, but pretty stupid to do.

I lived there and used a proxy to view the news site daily, and I never had any trouble. But then, the connection was registered in my name, so maybe they 'let it go'.

As far as I was made aware, bypassing the internet restrictions was also very popular amongst the Chinese nationals who lived there.

Maybe it's because the cities aren't as 'controlled' as the countryside, but China isn't half as bad or depressing as people make it out to be. They party a lot harder and a lot louder than anywhere I've been in the UK, too. :p
 
Listen to foreign radio - waken up in a barrel full of water with electrodes attached to your privates.

I'd say it's not worth it. Damn commies probably have warehouses full of serfs looking for exactly this kinda thing. Free thought is dangerous, didn't you know :)
 
Ah OvertoneBliss saying "It's not all bad" - well no your not going to die sitting in your chair, still a dispacable country with atrocious Human Rights record and next to no freedoms.

Rather live in Suadi Arbia.
 
[DW]Muffin;10685861 said:
Ah OvertoneBliss saying "It's not all bad" - well no your not going to die sitting in your chair, still a dispacable country with atrocious Human Rights record and next to no freedoms.

Rather live in Suadi Arbia.

Quite agree. Used to work with a few Chinese people and they were all absolutely blinkered when it came to China - thought it was the best place on earth!
 
That's the brainwashing for you.

I'm not sure if you are being serious with that comment, but I'll expand upon what I said: I think there is brainwashing to an extent - not in the "look into my eyes.." kind of way, but certainly the collective conciousness sense.... Everything in China is so controlled that you will end up thinking what the Government want you think.
 
It would be brainwashing, the Media is a tool and used to its maximum in China, and in all countries, but 'free press' exists in western society.
 
[DW]Muffin;10685861 said:
Ah OvertoneBliss saying "It's not all bad" - well no your not going to die sitting in your chair, still a dispacable country with atrocious Human Rights record and next to no freedoms.

Rather live in Suadi Arbia.

You do that, and I'll sit here knowing that I've at least been there, seen and experienced it myself, if only for a short while. :)

China is extremely messed up, in a lot of areas, but what country isn't?

I will agree on the brainwashing point, that they think everything China or Chinese is simply the best, but it's not the case with the new generation of teenagers and young adults who, more often than not, are embarassed to talk about their tradition with such pride, compared to how much the older generations ramble on about it.
 
I'm not sure if you are being serious with that comment, but I'll expand upon what I said: I think there is brainwashing to an extent - not in the "look into my eyes.." kind of way, but certainly the collective conciousness sense.... Everything in China is so controlled that you will end up thinking what the Government want you think.

Only semi-serious. As has been said above, the Chinese government controls everything it can.
 
You do that, and I'll sit here knowing that I've at least been there, seen and experienced it myself, if only for a short while. :)

To visit China, to see the exhibitions, the Terracotta Army, Beijing I really want to go, when I do travel the world. But my point was to live there either as a citizen or foreigner, they may have great people, social life and country side, but their country, sucks.
 
[DW]Muffin;10686025 said:
To visit China, to see the exhibitions, the Terracotta Army, Beijing I really want to go, when I do travel the world. But my point was to live there either as a citizen or foreigner, they may have great people, social life and country side, but their country, sucks.

As a whole, taking everything into account, I'd say it's far from being 'sucky'. But let's just agree to disagree, not least of all because this conversation is all very off-topic. :p :)

Edit: I was there for a year, by the way. Including Hong Kong and Macau, which are both extremely different to the Mainland. I agree, when I arrived in those places, I could almost breath in the freedom that they have, compared to the mainland. But I stand by my original views. :)
 
Still off-topic's topic
As a Chinese who lived there for 12 years, I can't really say the country is perfect. In fact, it's far from perfect. To simplify everything, the goveronment tells you to love your own country, and I don't see how that would be brainwashing. People in UK say "God saves the Queen", it is the exact same thing with what the Chinese are doing, in their own ways. Just because of the old age Communist propaganda, all the western countries who were against Communism think they are trying to brainwash you. As a normal Chinese citizen, I don't feel my freedom of speech or my human rights are abused for your everyday life. True there are cases and the goveronment did quite extreme stuff but considering the amount of Chinese are there, the goveronment have no choice but to control what they got to control, I guess.

But heck, I love both countires as I lived 12 years in China and almost 12 years in UK now :D
 
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