I have a few domains with one of the biggest web host in the world – strato.de. so i find out that surfdog.de and swiss-chris.com does not work in china. surfcat does – which is also on strato. so i did complain of course. now here is the answer – in german:

Sehr geehrter Herr Hastenteufel,

vielen Dank für Ihre Anfrage vom 26.07.2008, die ich Ihnen gerne beantworte.
Ich habe grade Ihre Seiten swiss-chris.com und surfdog.de überprüft und konnte ohne Einschränkungen von hier aus auf diese Zugreifn.

Die chinesische Regierung blockiert aber bestimmt Webseiten so dass diese aus China nicht zu erreichen sind. Bei Ihren Webseiten scheint mir so ein Fall vorzuliegen.

Bitte setzen Sie sich mit der chinesischen Regierung in Verbindung um eine Entfernung Ihrer Webseiten aus dem Filter zu erreichen.

for my non german speaking friends – apart from taking 5 (!!!!!!!!!) days to get back to me and not even write proper german: the idiot tells me tha he can reach the sites without a problem! (oh well he sits in germany…)
than he tells me that the chinese government does block certain sites and in my case it seems to be so! (well why do i complain??)
And now – it is really funny!!! he tells me to get in touch with the chinese government to tell them to get my sites out of their filter! now i will call them tomorrow and tell them! what the fuck is that? stupid bullshit. they do not filter my 2 domains of course. they filter a ip range and their might be some tibet whatsoever on the same ip range or some porn. why cant he not put me on another ip range or however it works. hrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggg

China, Internet | No Comments »

I moved to Xing Ping and meet Michelle there again. Together with another girl we climbed the mountain for sunset. I have no idea when i did sweat that much before! Mind you 39 degrees and very very humid air.

The next morning i had to get up at 5:30 to climb that stupid mountain again. This time with the staff from the “This Old Place”.

The little racer in the yellow t-shirt did run the whole time so i had too – and i can tell you one thing – this was 2 times the sweat of yesterday! I did not think that was possible. Than i went back to my air condition room – took a cold shower and went to bed again. Now it is 12 and time for breakfast. Lets see what else this day holds in stock.

China, Photo, Travel, Xing Ping | No Comments »

Today Michelle and I went to another small town close to Yangshou. Visited the market and took a boat cross the river to hike back to the city. We had 38 degrees and it was quite humid. But the surroundings where worth the effort. No noise, no cars and almost no people – at last outside there small villages.

China, Photo, Travel, Yangshuo | No Comments »

Today i wanted to go to a little city and hike back to the hotel. On my way down from the room one of the hotel girls stopped me and asked my if i would like to join another guest in a day trip. Well why not? It turned out that the other guest is Michelle – a teacher on vacation. So here we took some bikes and went with our “tour guide” to the river. This time it was all downstream – so no engine noise.
All the chinese tourist where really happy so the place was full of good energy – great! After 2 hours on the raft we continued with the bikes in a big circle back to the city. Later Michelle and I went for dinner – did meet the 2 girls from the night before so we had a nice evening together.

Michelle

Every now and then there is a food or beer stop – very convenient !

China, Photo, Travel, Yangshuo | No Comments »

Despite the fact that the gouvernment banned dog meet during the olympic games you still can buy it at the local market – but than again – still 11 day to go!

If you look at his face you see he did not really had a nice and calm death….

Various dog parts

Here some advertisement for dog meat

This young lady is a Happybear friend – She feels happy when she eat’s him – hmmm i think she loves bear with garlic!

Animal, China, Food, Photo, Travel | 3 Comments »

My 1st day over here i went for a day trip to Xing Ping. Funny thing: it was one of the best days in a long long time!! Despite the fact that i had way to much beer the night before and went to bed at 2:15 – that means not enough sleep on top of the beer.

The friendly staff of “This old Place” in Xing Ping. The fruit sald on the right was a present for me – nice!

Back in Yangshou

China, Photo, Travel, Xing Ping | No Comments »

I took the bus to Yangshuo as Stan told me.

Got a room in the Peace Hotel. A bed, hot shower, toilet air condition, free Wifi and tv for € 4.80 – not too bad! Went for dinner and had a chat with the waitresses as there where not to many customers at the time. Than this 2 funny girls joined me

Later we went to the Monkey Roof Top Bar where this picture was taken

As the girls are students we went home 11:30 but i meet another chinese couple at the hotel lobby so i could not go to bed and we went back to the Monkey Bar.

The woman in the middle is the famous owner of the place

China, Movie, Photo, Travel, Yangshuo | No Comments »

The last evening before i took the bus to Yangshuo we went for dinner downtown Guilin. There we meet Wendy and her sister. Later joined Vanessa – but she refused to be in the picture.
Another nice evening in China!

Wendy’s sister, Stan and Wendy downtown Guilin

Just to give you a hight idea

China, Photo, Travel | 2 Comments »

At Sharon’s Coffe in Guilin.
Diana, Stan and Sharon

Did a day trip and meet this student’s from Guilin

China, Photo, Travel | No Comments »

Took the subway to the airport – not to bad! My bags had to go to the x-ray at the subway station and i had to show the whiskey bottle and the gorilla pod – of course! Than on to the airport. They have Olympia volunteers all over the city now so it is easy if you have a question. Good thing as i could not find the shuttle bus for the other terminal.

The woman at the airline counter told me as i am not a Chinese i can not sit at the emergency exit (do not understand the commands in case…) but the friendly steward at the plane put me right into it – sweet!

Got down at 15:15 and everything is very very green here. I stay at Stan’s place. He is a Couchsurfer and really great! He hosted 3 people last night! We went out together and meet some of his friends. Makes for a really different experience. Today the other two left but soon 2 Canadian girls will replace them.

Sonia & Schutze’s place in Beijing

Airport Express Train Station

More motor bikes than cars

Nice – hope the sun get out tomorow…

look what i found in the little supermarket next to the place i stay!! only € 0.35 for a 0.33 ltr can! 0.5 ltr can’s of Königs Pilsner are €1.80

China, Photo, Travel | No Comments »

Another day in the city. I really enjoy the flat of Sonia and Schutze. They are in Shanghai so i have the whole place for myself. In the living room they have floor to roof windows – great a lot of light and a lot to see – buildings for example

Today they put the “clean the air for olympia” plan in the capital in order – that means that on one day only cars with an even last number can drive and on the other the ones with uneven. This puts 2.000.000 cars out from the road. Lets see how the air is tomorrow. The city if full of new planted trees and still they work and work to make everything nice till august 8th. Yesterday i went to the “Birds nest” to make a few pictures – no way to get even close to it. It is fenced of and soldiers gard the whole thing. 2 bad!!! Security all over the place – today it was te 1st time that even i had to xray my camera bag before entering the subway.

I booked a flight down to Guilin at the 22nd! Like to see some green while i am over here.
The ticket need to be confirmed before so i hope that will work out.

China, Travel | No Comments »