I sent an email to Witopia tech support and got a reply from them. The great firewall of China has been blocking some of their DNS servers so that none of the connections can resolve. The short term workaround is to modify the config to point to a specific ip. Witopia is working on a more permanent solution.
I suspect the problems other VPNs have reported have the same root cause.
I tried the Keats on-line test a few days ago. It has errors in it that even I could spot. Did not give me a feeling of confidence! On the other hand, I wonder if anybody has bothered to report the errors to them so they can fix it.
On the plus side:
My wife had some surgery in January. The hospital asked her to bring four bags of salt which would be used to help put pressure on the vein in the leg, then they used a different technique and we still have the four bags of salt. Anybody need some at an excessive price?
There is no way that salt is going to protect anybody from radiation. But who cares? It's a long way from Japan to Kunming and the wind is blowing in the other direction.
Just in case I had a strong dose of peanut butter!
Tiger,
to put things in perspective I need to give you another set of costs.
I spent my own 8 days at Yan'an hospital last October with a requirement for abdominal surgery to replace a "patch" on an incision hernia (which required removing the patch placed in Toronto and putting in a new one). I was 7 hours in surgery and recovery so it was not a small procedure.
Total cost for lab,CT scan, hospital room, medication and surgery was just over 17,000 Yuan. I guess this shows the price can depend on what is happening.
No results found.
Had my first ever visit to Slice of Heaven last night for a group party. Barbara recognized me as a newcomer and immediately came to welcome me and introduce herself.
While speaking with her at the counter, a server walked past with a pizza for one table. The aroma immediately caught my attention. It was awesome.
Our group shared 4 different pizzas. All were amazing. I think the sauce really makes the difference since it was very flavourful. I also put back to cups of cappuccino. I guess they must have fixed problems noted in other reviews because I found it to be quite good.
If I lived closer I would be a regular here.
New visa and residence regulations for the PRC
发布者OK, lots of changes and new information we need to know about. Let me start by answering my own question.
If you are here on an L Visa, visiting family, then you can change to the Q or S Visa without going out of China. Also, since those two Visa classes lead to a residence permit they will do the residence permit at the same time as the Visa so no extra trip to the PSB is needed.
The Q Visa
Yesterday my wife and I went to the PSB. She recently got a new passport and her Visa was about to expire today. Here's what we learned:
First of all, my wife is here to take care of her sister who is seriously disabled after a major stroke. That's no problem for the Visa, however, they now wanted proof of the relationship which we never had to provide before! That required a trip to the police station to have them go through the archives (manual records - not computer) to find that information. I was quite impressed that they located it in only 10 minutes.
Back to the PSB with that new information. They now told my wife she could get a 1 year Q visa (that would be a Q1) but to get a 2 year she would need to go to a specific hospital to get a health certificate. It's nice to know about this but we just didn't have time with the current Visa expiring, but next time ....
The S Visa
I just have to prove my relationship with my wife to get the S Visa with the same expiry as my wife. I'm guessing they'll also want the health certificate for a 2 year. For many years now they've just been accepting our marriage certificate. Now they want that certificate notarized by the consulate. That means I have to make a trip to Chongqing (Canadian Consulate) to get that done at a greater expense than a taxi trip to the PSB. I'll need to phone and ensure that the Canadian consulate will do this for a marriage certificate issued in Las Vegas or do I then need to go to the American consulate in Chengdu as well?
The new rules seem a bit strange, but in the long term will be quite a bit more convenient for us. Also, if they're issuing longer term visas then there should be (eventually) a reduction in the workload at the PSB.
New visa and residence regulations for the PRC
发布者It also does not address which of the VISAs may be issued (on renewal) here in Kunming. For example, can my wife and I change from L visa to Q and S without having to leave Kunming?
Shangri-la hit by 5.9 earthquake
发布者"Travellers in affected areas have been asked to leave until blocked roads are reopened"
If the roads are blocked, how will the travellers leave?
Beijing attempts to curtail "excessive" government spending
发布者This is not a uniquely Chinese problem either. It seems people in government jobs all over the world follow the patter. In Canada and the US the politicians like to claim there is no corruption, while at the same time they all have their "entitlements", like free lunches, apartments and limousines at the tax payers expense.
Toronto councilors even made trips to Shanghai to "study" the transit system, then went home and did nothing with it.
Dragon Boat Festival
发布者People may have three consecutive days off work or school, but they went to work or school on Saturday and Sunday to make up for some of that lost time.