Several people have asked how they can send email updates home while they are in China. Here are my suggestions, based on the trip we took there in July 02.

- Do not bring your own laptop. You have enough to carry anyway; you will need a voltage/plug converter; you might have trouble at customs with it, etc.

- Make sure you have (or create) an Internet-based "webmail" account. If you already have AOL, you automatically have one of these. Just go to http://www.aol.com, and click on Mail. If you have Verizon DSL (or dialup), you also have one at http://netmail.verizon.net/. If you don't have webmail, you can create a free account at http://mail.yahoo.com. (Make sure to use a yahoo mail account every few weeks, or they will disable it.)

- For safety, I set up two different webmail accounts, in case one was down or blocked by the Chinese government.

- Within the webmail account, use the address book feature and create a list of friends. Put in everyone you want to send mail updates to. You don't need a group at groups.yahoo.com. Just use your personal webmail address book to define a list.

- Test everything before you leave home.

- You will not be dialing up to any access numbers while you are in China. You will be using computers that are already connected to the Internet, then you will go to your webmail account.

- All the good hotels have "business centers" with computers on the Internet. The price is about 10 yuan for 20 minutes, I think. You can charge it to your room often. You can also find "Internet cafes" which are more fun and cheaper. At the White Swan, there is a nice one close to the hotel, down the side street that is blocked off to cars. I called it the "walking street".

-Don't send email that contains political opinions or comments critical of China. It is unlikely the Chinese government will read your outbound email, but it is possible.

Have fun!

Chuck Connell