China Law Blog

Interesting that you use an SSD. I do as well. It brings some peace of mind if I ever consider busting the laptop out on a train or bus.

Two things you didn't touch on: VPN's and GPS's. Until my most recent trip back to China, I was able to connect to work's VPN in USA and access the internet unfettered. That was not the case last time. It looked like whatever port the VPN was using was being blocked. Major bummer. How do you circumvent the firewall? Or do you?

Second thing that's really useful, a GPS. But, there are some caveats when using a GPS in China. (If you don't know what I mean, compare street maps and satellite images at local.google.com for an address in China.)

I travel to China every two weeks and want to go fast and light.
1. I am done lugging big laptops. I now use a Toshiba NB205. All of my critical data is stored on 8 Gb SD cards. The system, even relying on XP, has yet to crash and with an 8 hr battery life it stays awake longer than I can on those long flights.
2. I use a Sprint modem which stateside provides wireless coverage in all the airports since I seem to have problems with the Red Carpet Club's Wifi system. In China it is configured to act as my Wifi modem and connects seamlessly at Starbucks and Grandma's kitchen as well as in my apartment. Next month I am going to get a China Unicom modem to provide wireless internet access throughout China (about 2200 rmb per year).
3. When online I use Skype but have ditched the corded headset in favor of the new Plantronics bluetooth ear piece.
4. When off line or not near Wifi or just walking around, I use my China Mobile phone with a callback service from www.wwtelecom.com. You provide them with your China Mobile number and they issue you a dedicated US number to call. Simply dial the number and hang up after one ring (so no international charge). Within 30 seconds the phone rings with a dedicated US line. Dial the US number you want to call and you are connected at extremely inexpensive rates. I have used this system for years and it has never failed me in HK or Beijing. It is nice to be able to easily call the family during the day or night and stay in touch for pennies.
5. The Blackberry cannot be beat for international email traffic. The automatic polling of the IPhone will drive your bill through the roof. AT&T only charges an extra $5 per month for international email.
6. The latest and greatest is Google Voice. I have set up a free account with a local US number that they provided. I have given this to my main contacts with instructions not to email me but rather call that number and leave a voice mail. It is immediately and automatically converted to an email which shows up in minutes on my Blackberry. Most of the messages are short and simple or often just asking me to call back with a time and number.
7. I back up all my files on a 500G Lacie portable hard drive. However for those critical files I am working on or may want to access when I do not have my computer with me, I save them as a Document on a dedicated Gmail account(free). That way, wherever I am, I can access these files from anyone's computer and never have the worry that I always need to carry my netbook with me.
Just a few thoughts.

Interesting post. I would, like one of my fellow commenters, be curious as to if you use a VPN and if so, which one. Also, you can often save a lot of money by using the site qunar.com (sort of the Chinese version of kayak) to book domestic flights in China.

I'd recommend spideroak.com over other online backup/sync products.

Their encryption method they use is client side based, so they only store "random" (to them) blocks. Of course if you lose your decryption password then you lose access to all those files, but with something like keepass you can safely store your password. Their product also does both backup and sync.

Occasionally I'll setup a desktop in my office with a file share. Online file sync between my office and laptop. Then other people can access my files via the file share at the office.

I use www.dtunnel.com to access blocked sites in China. When I travel in China I start my flight search using Ctrip to get an idea on current rates. Finding the best flight I generally go directly to the individual carrier's website where frequently I can book at the same discounted rate as Ctrip but avoid their surcharges.

I second the love for Toshiba's NB205--just make sure you have the latest touchpad drivers to fix a lag issue it has. Nevertheless I have to use an office-issued HP Compaq 6910p since our VPN connection is only available through that.

However, I have had pretty good success with FreeVPN (thefreevpn.com) on my netbook. I've even been able to watch Hulu with it without having to let the video buffer. The only downside that will annoy people is that it changes your browser homepage to some page theat generates ad revenue for them, but nothing's free I guess. (I found that if I ran the software after opening Firefox, however, the homepage wouldn't change. No luck for IE though).

I use a free dropbox account for online file storage and syncing.

Google products for everything else.

I'd be curious to see more examples of how people are using Google Wave, btw. I have it, but not really sure what I'll use it for.

Hmm, I was recently in China for two weeks with my iPhone. My lawfirm ahead of time updated me to an international plan. They told me not to worry about data or internet (as long as I stayed under 5 gb, and I think it would pretty difficult to go above that). Though, they did tell me phone calls would be $1 a minute or something like that.

Anyway, I used email and the internet like mad. I wonder what that set them back? Had they not told me to not worry about, I definitely could have used it less (since I was surfing the net, youtube, etc for non-work purposes).

The ThinkPad is an excellent choice. Sturdy, well-designed, and with very good warranty service.

I use sinohotel.com to book hotels. You don't have to pay until you get to the hotel, which gives me peace of mind in case I get stuck somewhere and end up having to pay a penalty for not showing up as scheduled.

Dan, what mobile service/hardware does Steve use in China? Most people worry about service via their U.S. provider when traveling abroad. I'm interested in the other way around, viz. the capability of Chinese providers supporting Chinese subscribers traveling to the U.S.

The T400s is lighter and slimmer than the T400. I'd get one, but I heard that the T410s is coming out in January, and that might be even nicer?

My problem with the SSDs is that it seems like if you're going to work with any sort of multimedia the cost effective ones are probably too small.

Michael,

I did not touch on VPNs because there are so many people who know so much more on that than I do. Plus, when I go to China, I mostly stay in US hotels where that is much less of an issue, or go to my firm's office or to local lawyer offices, which already are set up with their own VPNs. I believe we use Witopia, or at least that was what we were using the last time I knew.

As for GPS's, dude that is so old school. I just iPhone it in.

Andy Ungar,

1. I should do what you are doing re laptops, but I am so used to one that I have glued to my hip that I fear withdrawal.

2. My old laptop had a cellular modem, but it drove me nuts. It drove me nuts because wherever I had Wi-Fi access, the connection with the cellular modem was excellent. But whenever I was in the boonies, it would slow to a crawl. Maybe it is better now.

3. I use Skype with bluetooth also.

4. I just make the phone calls on my cell and then bitch and moan when I see the bill.

5. I completely agree with you re the Blackberry being better than the iPhone for international email, but the iPhone is just so much cooler.

6. I have Google Voice also, but have yet to really use it. I probably should, but my onebox serves that purpose still.

7. The great thing about a service like Carbonite is that it backs up without me having to ask it to do so.

b.cheng,

As I state in an earlier comment, I am no expert on VPNs. I will have to check out qunar. Thanks for the tip.

Andy,

Yeah, I do that to in terms of booking directly on the airline's site. Not so much to save money but so that the airline (or hotel for that matter) cannot claim they didn't get my reservation or whatever. It's an accountability thing.

Shaan,

I too have Google wave but I too have done nothing with it, though I hear it is going to change the world....

Nicholas,

Good tip. I will check out spideroak.

When it comes to AT&T, trust nobody. A few years ago, some guy convinced me that I did not need the unlimited plan on my cellular mobile on my notebook. He swore up and down that x number of GBs would be plenty for me. So I went out of town and watched CSIs and Law and Orders to my heart's content on it and came back to a ~$3500 bill. I called AT&T and complained and the person reduced it to $250 and I thought that was that. But of course not. For months I had to deal with people who told me the $250 reduction had never happened.

Finally, I brought in a friend of mine at AT&T who fixed everything in a day and in return, all I had to do was take him and his wife out to the nicest most expensive restaurant in town.

William,

Sturdy is good. Cool would be better. But sturdy will do.

Chris,

What about the peace of mind of knowing you will have a room when you arrive?

R2D2,

Steve virtually never comes back to the US. I mean it is less than once a year and when he comes it is typically just to give a speech or two and then he returns to China within days. The firm gave Steve a Blackberry with a US phone number that he used in China but after a while he pretty much stopped using it and so we canceled it to save the $65 a month we were paying. Steve has not been to the US since then and I guess the next time he comes we will have to decide whether it makes sense for him to use his China phone or maybe we just get him a disposable.

Cathy,

Go ahead and laugh, but my hard drive is only 65 GB and I love it like that as it forces me to keep everything in order and to shed all excess weight.

As much as I use my computer, I mostly just use Word and Outlook and the rest is in the clouds. My pictures are on my iPhone along with most of my movies. I occasionally have a movie on my laptop but I delete them quickly.

I have a 4 month old killer 24 inch iMac at home and that's what I use for multimedia.

Good stuff. I am studying law with the aim of becoming an international lawyer and so I love it when you write about the nitty gritty of practicing international law.

I am glad you mentioned Skype, but do you ever have trouble using it in China due to slow internet or having to use it through a VPN?