While I am not too fussed about not being able to access twitter, the lack of western newspapers in Beijing is more challenging for me. We easily transferred our subscription of The New Yorker from Hong Kong – at no additional cost – however, I cancelled, for now, The International Herald Tribune (IHT) after I learned that it would run more than US$800 per year for the honor of receiving this beloved New York Times publication in Beijing. “We have to fly them in,” the Hong Kong rep explained.
Although my husband had warned me, I did not quite realize that canceling our IHT subscription meant that my only western news source here would be the Internet or cable television, which serves up CNN (not the same as what you see in the US) and BBC. While CNN is good for headline news and I enjoy BBC, they don’t provide the breadth and depth of a newspaper. My husband seems satisfied with getting his news from the Internet, but I can’t get used to it. I received our first copy of <i>The New Yorker</i>, covered with lots of official looking writing and stamps, but I still miss my newspapers.
Our first Sunday morning in Beijing, in the midst of my withdrawal, I suggested going to a western hotel to see what they carried, but my husband just looked at me with pity. “Sure,” he said, “We can try, but I’ve never seen a western paper in my years of coming here on business.”
A Hong Kong friend volunteered to bring us western newspapers and magazines on his bi weekly trips to Beijing. Though I only receive his deliveries every two weeks, it helps, and I save at least one for the weekend because really, is there anything better on Sunday morning than sitting back with a good cup of coffee and a newspaper? But perhaps this is too old-fashioned.
I have reconciled to reading the NYT online – I’ve been reading the Seattle PI online for three years – and I’m happy to be saving trees. In Beijing, however, even this news source can be fragile. Around the June 4th anniversary of Tiananmen, I heard IHT subscriptions were halted into the country, and the Chinese government blocked many news sites. But for now, it’s Sunday morning and I’m at the computer, reading the paper.