It’s been well known that Youtubers who post anything against the Communist Party of China CCP will have their videos demonetized, thus denying them the ability to make a living.Youtube is owned by Alphabet, the parent company of Google.
I am not sure why Google would do the bidding of the CCP, as Google services are banned in China and cannot therefore make a profit. Perhaps Chinese advertisers pay Google for ads around the world, but just not in China, where they are banned.
I‘m on yet another virtual tour, this time in China’s capital city Beijing, Chaoyang district. I would not say that it is a nice part of town, just typical of Beijing. The Chaoyang District is in the South-East corner of the city.
China, Beijing City, Chaoyang District, Jinchan South Lane #9
中国，北京市 ，朝阳区，金蝉南里-9号楼
GPS: 39.861362, 116.502227 (not useful in China)
Plus Code: 8PFRVG62+GV (even more useless in China)
As is typical with a Chinese map, there is no coordinate system points (national security)
China, Beijing City, Chaoyang District, Jinchan South Lane #9 中国，北京市 ，朝阳区，金蝉南里-9号楼, Baidu Street View
China, Xinjiang, Urumuqi, Midongnan Lu, Bingtuandekun 新疆，乌鲁木齐, 米东南路, 兵团德坤, This is the front gate
I am in Toronto, but can use Baidu to virtually go to China. It is fun to be able to walk through China and take a look. Today I went to Urumuqi, captal city of Xinjiang, China. Urumuqi, Xinjiang is not only far, but probably off limits to foreigners. The map is old, pics taken in 2015. The place I wanted to go is not yet on the maps.
新疆，乌鲁木齐, 米东南路, 兵团德坤 Xinjiang, Urumuqi, Midongnan Lu, Bingtuandekun
GPS: 43.901088, 87.612782, Plus Code: 8MM9WJ27+C4 These locations are inaccurate due to Chinese national security laws
Little Weed had a problem with his Google Pixel and Freedom Mobile. While he could call people he could not text, and received an error message “Can’t send message with freedom, error 8”.
We went to the Wind store and this is what the guy did. It did take a couple of seconds to kick in:
settings > network and internet > mobile network -> advanced > access point names > … (top right corner) > reset to default
Sim card was fine. I’m glad the guy knew his stuff.
Information is power, and information, to most people of the world is the internet. For most, this starts with a Google Search. In 2010 Google exited China, due to a massive hack by the Chinese government into Google servers. Now, beckoned by the call for making money, Google is again rethinking China. Can Google stand by its ethics of “Do no Harm” while working with the Chinese Government? There will be some compromizes required.
Chongqing, China, 重庆，Shapingba District, 沙坪坝区 Google Maps in Chinese
A Chinese friend randomly sent me her GPS coordinates. She was on a highway, deep within Sichuan province, just outside of Chongqing. Because Chongqing, with a population greater than the whole population of Canada, 30.1M people (2015), is so huge, this meant that she was just on the outskirts of the city. Mapping her GPS coordinates, between Google and Baidu maps, was, as usual, confusing. Here is the exercise.
The original coordinates sent to me were 29.656019,106.444153, or 29°39’21.7″N 106°26’39.0″E, 7PX8MC4V+CM. 沙坪坝区 Shapingba My Windows PC returned this URL: https://www.google.com/maps/place/29°39’21.7″N+106°26’39.0″E/@29.650779,106.3959376,12z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d29.656019!4d106.444153?hl=zh-CN
I‘ve pretty much proved this, but in North America Google Maps is much better than Baidu. Here are maps from Downtown Toronto, near Bloor and East of Yonge Streets. Google Maps has actual street names and buildings. Baidu has only restaurants. Google’s satellite map is also really good. I could have also zoomed in for greater detail. Hands down, Google wins on English maps of Toronto.
Charles Street, near Bloor Street, Downtown Toronto, Google Maps
Charles Street, near Bloor Street, Downtown Toronto, Baidu Maps
Charles Street, near Bloor Street, Downtown Toronto, satellite, Google Maps
Manulife blacklist of health services providers provided in PDF but all pages are images. You therefore cannot copy or search the 22 pages.
Our insurer, Manulife, has a list of health service providers, available on PDF, that are black listed. If you use any of them Manulife will not reimburse you. These companies go back to 2015. My doctor has recommended a provider near my house, so I wanted to check if the provider was blacklisted.
Jufuyuan Gongyu hotel, Xinjian Cun, Daxing Qu, Beijing, China fire, killed 17 people. 2017 Nov 19. Prompted Beijing to expel migrant workers. Hotel front door. New Image taken between Nov 19 and Dec 04. Image updated 2017 Dec 03. Pretty impressive, Baidu
The big fire in Xinjian Cun, Daxing District, Beijing, China at the Jufuyuan Gongyu Hotel killed 19 people, and sparked the forced expulsion of migrant workers in Xinjian Cun, followed by the destruction of all buildings. It was a tragic event that followed with some heavy handed government clampdown on migrant workers. For sure migrant workers deserve to be treated better, but after seeing some images I now wonder about the circumstances of the fire. Seventeen people were killed, and that is tragic, but the aftermath might also be 10s of thousands of migrant workers expelled from Beijing.
China, Guangdong Province, Kaiping City, west 8km, Nanyang Village (Lougang). Google Maps
A friend said his ancestral village was in China, Guangdong Province, Kaiping City, Changsha District and mentioned something about Lougang as the village name. The Google map he sent me was confusing, in that yes, it was Guangdong Province, but not exactly close to Kaiping City. I investigated.
