China Bound

One week from today I'll be hopping on a big bird and making my treks to Hong Kong and South Western China. It's interesting to note the responses from those who I've shared details about my trip. Typically the trivia rolls off the tongue.

  • 1.3 billion people (about 25% of the world's population)
  • 2.5 million Military Service Personnel
  • There are 666 cities in China (11 of these have a population of more than 2 million while 393 have less than 200,000

Others warn me of SARS dangers while still others eager to point me to the major attractions: Terracotta Warriors, Great Wall, The Three Gorges (now flooded). But interestingly enough barely anyone I know (excluding those doing business in or with Chinese) haven't been to China. Just last month Liz made her way to Shanghai.

But even more interesting to me is the news that spread around the net last month about the Chinese Government's action toward its local bloggers. Seems that it shut down a number of major hosters of Chinese Weblogs.

If there are any bloggers in Hong Kong or Guang Zhou that will be in town between now and the first week of may, please drop me a note through the link in the sidebar. It'd be nice to connect with some locals or ex-pats in HK or China. Plus, anyone want to point me to some good blogs I should be reading prior to my arrival?