Social Media in China... Possibly Not??
I LOVED my time in China, it’s such an awesome, crazy, busy country with so much fascinating history and sights to enjoy. There was one thing that I didn’t know before I arrived and for such a technologically advanced country, I nearly fell over when I found out….
In China, social media is banned. There is no ‘checking in’ on Facebook, no posting pretty travel photos on Instagram, no Tweeting, no Pinterest, no Gmail. You can’t even google a restaurant phone number! Google is banned. I had these big plans of posting a daily video diary on my Facebook business page so my followers could explore China along with me. There was absolutely no chance of that. I found that the only app that I could get to work for me was Viber so I could keep in touch with my family and friends, but I couldn’t send them any photos, only text, and even then it was a bit hit and miss.
The Chinese have invented their own social media channels, an app called WeChat is super popular, and they have their own version of Google. Any internationally based websites are inaccessible though.
Once you get over the shock of being disconnected though it was kind of refreshing not to have to think about updating your every move on social media (and I’m sure some of your non travelling friends would thank you). The only bad thing about it was the flood of photos that appear on news feeds once you return home!
A x