Since it is just a short period of time until I leave for China, I feel like some comments to that end are appropriate. In 9 days time, I will be sitting on an airplane bound for Beijing via Shanghai, off into who knows what. The first week I am there, we will be in Beijing for orientation (and, I hope, tourist stuff). Then it is our bum-numbing 36 hour train trek to Xining. I have no idea what to expect there in terms of Internet access. Our program director said that we should be able to get on when we are in Xining, but no promises in Beijing. So if you don’t hear from me right away either on here or by email if you are on my email prayer list, don’t worry.
I’ve been trying to figure out if I will be able to update my blog while I am over there. I’m not sure if blogger.com is loved or hated by The Great Firewall of China. I’ve been reading other blogs to figure out if I’ll be able to post while I’m in China, and so far it looks like I might be able to, but then again, I might not. According to one report I read, and I can’t for the life of me remember where because I read it yesterday and didn’t bookmark it, the blockage in China is fairly sporadic: I might be able to access one site at downtown Beijing but not back at a hotel. Someone else wrote (again, no recollection where) that they have been able to access blogger.com, but not their actual blog site to see what the blog looks like and read comments. So who knows what it will be like?!?! It may even change from day to day.
So with that in mind, if you want to be on my email prayer list, and you’re not sure if you are or not, or you know you are not, leave me a comment or drop me and email at gillian [dot] hoyer [at] gmail [dot] com.

Update: More on Chinese censorship here or here or here.

Update again: I found the China article I was talking about here – scroll down to ” China ‘net censorship: not one big brother, but many”