You need an adapter to plug-in to China.
On the surface, that’s not entirely surprising – I mean, you need adapters in Europe, too. The Chinese adapters, however, are unlike most because, well, they’re hard to find. Go to most travel stores and they have a “Chinese Adapter.” Unfortunately, a few of us on the trip had the pleasure of finding that there is, apparently, more than one China where plugs are concerned. Who knew? Surely not I.
But that’s not the only adapter you need to plug-in to China. And by adapter I do mean a means to plug-in still – just to the technology that has aptly been called “a series of tubes.”
The Internet requires a completely different mentality – namely that which one is okay with not being on it. Yes, the Internet was available to us at the vast majority of our locations and the Chinese people have unsurpassed network access (cellphones with Internet EVERYWHERE), but most of our online tools vanished the second we touched down in Beijing.
YouTube. Twitter. WordPress. Goners, all of them. Google was censored and there was a very real feeling every e-mail or Skype call was not as private as I once believed. The fact that my family got our blog updates and e-mails was surprising every time.
So, my China adapter? My adapter was being okay with unplugging, of being away from my social media outlets and RSS feeds. I adapted to the Great Fire Wall of China. If only my iPod charger could have done the same thing.
-Kristen
Tags: adapter, Internet, Technology
