Netbars in Chengdu (China)

Netbars in Chengdu (or China for that matter) are mainly used for gaming. Here a netbar advertises it’s hardware configuration and the games they have. Next to gaming comes chat. QQ is by far the most popular chat software. MSN is there on some PCs and very rarely you will find Yahoo messenger. QQ has no client for Apple, probably that is one reason (other than the cost) that Apple is not so popular in China.

If Ou is early and I have taken my macbook with me, she will stay put at a neighbouring netbar watching movie, catching up on blogs, or some subversive stuff. Users know pirate sites from where they can download complete movies. Most of the time you don’t have to download it all all, just look on the harddrive and you will find the latest music videos or movies downloaded by a previous user.

Online dating sites are pretty popular and there are lots of them. In Chengdu sometimes you see a scam where young boys stand by the roadside with latest mobile phones. They stop mostly teenage girls and let them play with the phones. Then they lure them into signing up for such online dating sites. They are told that by signing on they are participating in a lottery where they may win the phone if they are lucky.

There are more professional dating sites too. For example, the one below. The Chniese name translates to red thread network. Red thread is cultural symbol that represents red string of marriage.  This service has physical offices where they verify credentials of the members before posting the profile.

My regular stay in Chendu has a tea house that is one of the first places in the city with wifi. If it is too cold, or hot, or raining, you will find me here.

Below, iPod ads outside the local computer superstore.
iPod is perhaps is a far stronger brand than Apple here in China, it is hard to find Macs outside the larger cities.