Grasslands communication

Because Twitter is blocked in mainland China, a number of competing services have jumped in to capture the huge demand for microblogging services here. The two biggest players are Sina's Weibo ("microwave") and Tencent's Weixin ("micromessage"). I've never really done Twitter before, but have been using Weixin to stay in touch with both foreign and local friends. You can walkie-talkie, text, send photos, arrange chat groups... it's like AIM all over again!

Everyone in China has mobile phones, from the cities to deeper parts of the countryside. The cool thing about Weixin is that it alerts you whenever someone in your phone contacts has also joined the service. I was recently surprised to see an account pop up for a farmer who owns a small Hebei motel at which we've spent the last couple National Day holidays, riding horses, drinking baijiu, and eating freshly-slaughtered lamb kebabs. For me, there's no better tourist experience in China than road-tripping 500 kms out past the Great Wall into ethnic Mongolia, totally different feel from the China on the other side of the wall--and man, do they love horses!  I immediately walkie-talkied the motel owner to ask how he was doing and if he could send some pictures to show friends. Still no photos to share, but it's pretty cool to think how this guy's small business could potentially be transformed by new technology--and I might have an easier way to convince people to drive 6 hours with me out to this amazing place!