The Beijing News reports that the whole 3.99 square kilometers of the Beijing CBD (Central Business District) is to be covered with a wireless Internet signal. Soon, you might encounter mobile nomads sitting on the sidewalk, tweeting away — courtesy of that free wifi.
Just get yourself into the Beijing CBD (physically), log onto the CBD-WLAN wi-fi network and login. You will be given the option of using a mobile phone verification code or using Sina Weibo to directly login. Sina Weibo users might also rejoice in knowing that at quite a few coffeehouses around town there’s no real need to ask staff about any elusive wi-fi password, you can just log in via Weibo.
Nothing New
CBD free wireless internet coverage area
For Beijing, being a city where wi-fi is relatively accessible isn’t all that new. Just before the Olympics, we got parts of the city wired and the signal continues to this day, although you might need a China Unicom account to get online. Starbucks and Costa Coffee have long been known to provide wi-fi access (although the latter is a bit tricky in that you need a PRC mainland mobile phone number), and an increasing number of malls now also provide free wi-fi (so that the husband can tweet while the wife tries out the clothes that’ll cost the family thousands).
The Beijing News has also cited the deputy chief of the Beijing Municipal Economic and Information Committee, Wang Xuejun, as saying that Beijing will continue to provide at least three years of free wi-fi around Xidan, Wangfujing, the Olympic Green, railway stations, the Beijing Finance Street, Yansha (close to the new US embassy) and Zhongguancun (the city’s IT hub).
Yours truly will actually head to the Beijing CBD to give it a try. To be as expat-friendly as humanly possible, I’ll run a VPN and attempt to tweet from the dead center of the CBD (or somewhere around it) without borrowing wi-fi from Starbucks or from my 3G phone. Here’s hoping it works…
[Photo: Beijing News, wtdevflnt (modified)]