Right now there is no internet service in all of Xinjiang. This is confirmed by my relatives there. Of course we don’t know if GPRS or CDMA data access is blocked. People can always use a modem to and dial up to a POP in another city – but the point isn’t about stopping people like myself, that in 1999 unwired their hotel room phone jack in order to hook up a modem and dial out.

So if I were a betting man, I would guess that October 1st brings a lifting of net blockage in Xinjiang and maybe Face Book and Twitter and Friend Feed blocking for the rest of us.

Though like anything in China….don’t hold your breath. But maybe we will have something else to celebrate on China National Day?

I kept telling Kevin that I was trying hard not to blow smoke up his rear, but he really is a down to earth, friendly and an interesting guy. He has a real passion for tech (and tea) and the experiences that we could show him of our beloved Beijing. Of course with more time and more notice you can really roll out the red carpet.

On the way back to Kevin’s hotel for a drink before he turned in, the topic of food came up, he hadn’t eaten, and neither had I, since I went straight to the tweetup from work. As I ran through my mental list of places that would be open after midnight that were near where we were going and had good food, I met a total mental road block. Then I saw out the window a typical scene in China – a bunch of people with tables and chairs lined up outside many adjacent “holes in the wall”, eating, drinking beer and being merry. I told the taxi to stop right here…….. So we all sat down and had a real local Beijing meal and I introduced our guests to meat sticks or “Yang Rou Chuanr”. A lamb skewer made popular by the Xinjiang natives in China. For me it was a little poetic as I hadn’t planned on Chuanr, though it is what our Beijing Linux Users Group lives on!

Anyway I hope Kevin, Tim and Glenn enjoyed their culture lessons relating to alcohol and again wish to thank them for making themselves available to us fans and allowing us to show them a good time, it meant a lot to me and I am sure it did to the others as well.

It has been 30 mins now and it has not come back which usually happens after 1-2 mins if it is a temp thing with the automatic sniffing…. 30 mins sounds kind of “official” to me…

Something has been up today though – the transfer speeds between our Hong Kong and Beijing IDC’s as well as Hong Kong to our Nanjing IDC has been VERY slow and spotty. In that the speed fluctuates a lot. Something that backbone fibre should not do.