My access speed now is [ 1804 K bps ] [ 221.1 K bytes/sec ].

That's amazing but at the same time I feel shame on myself!

The internet has indeed been returned to normal speed. In fact, I'd say it's actually faster now than before (this may just be because I complained enough to China Telecom that they fixed the local line) - when I'm going downhill I can expect 220Kb/s, although this changes a lot depending on the time of day and inclination of the moon.

Azam, InScript should work, but may have some issues like HeadSpace. I'll check it out soon

Using this test (http://www.hinet.net/support/testspeed.htm?index.htm)
I have myself a [ 197.7 K bps ] download [ 24.2 K bytes/sec ] upload
What rate is your connection speed right now ? that would be interesting.

The UK branches are still not properly integrated into the HSBC network, so it would have been like transfering cash between different banks anyway. I'm in Malaysia and had the same idea, but on further investigation it turned out to be pointless.

"On returning to China I discovered that the internet was hopelessly broken. An earthquake in Taiwan on December 26th had cut most of the ocean cables linking Asia to the USA. I’m quite astonished at how little has been made of this in the rest of the world, or how big an effect it had on the whole infrastructure in Asia. Even though it happened nearly a month ago it has still not been fully repaired."

Same here in Malaysia. The Internet ground to a halt, and then became tediously slow for a month or so. It's much better now, although there are still bad periods from time to time.

I'm thinking of doing the UK Christmas run next year -- I think it's 10 years or so since I was last over at that time. About 3 weeks is enough for me, then the novelty starts to wear off. Paradoxically, it's both the worst and best time to go. The weather's to awful to do much, but you inevitably meet lots of people you haven't seen in ages around Xmas.

Totally unrelated, but will Inscript work with WP 2.1?

Over the last few months I've decided I really should get back to posting more often, and I've now taken the plunge to upgrade from 1.5.

That aside, I have been wondering myself "how little has been made of this (the slow internet in China) in the rest of the world, or how big an effect it had on the whole infrastructure in Asia."

From what I hear, Hong Kong is pretty much up to speed again so that can't be the problem.

It is and has been rather disastrous here in Shanghai. I have clients that switched from Unicom to China Telecom as the former was performing even worse. It seems the local Telco's don't really see the need of fixing this in a "Timely fashion".

Maybe because most of the users in China just surf the Chinese web and for them things are fast enough now.

If it will be fixed by Spring Festival that would be great but I wouldn't be surprised if it takes longer. In a way it shows that China on this part is not yet ready or maybe just doesn't care that much. The upside for them is that they have less to monitor.