Shortwave Radio

Shortwave Radio has been a favorite media of mine since before the Internet existed. I believe it's about the only reliable way to get viewpoints from a perspective outside of the United States that isn't filtered. For that reason I still listen today when I can.

Be sure to add an hour during Daylight Saving Time in areas where you are so plauged. Also, on the west coast I have found the broadcast on 13680 Khz to be by far the strongest signal, very strong, and the lower frequency signals to be weak. Also, these times are their English schedual, but I have found that they also broadcast in Chinese on these same frequencies at other times, particularly on the 13680 Khz frequency is often transmitting at times not published here or on CRI's website, sometimes in English, sometimes in Chinese. Also, usually this frequency does not propogate when it is much after sunset on the west coast.

China Radio International on the Web

You can listen to China Radio International by clicking on the above link. You will need to have Windows Media Player or a player capable of streaming mp3. It's been my experience that the connectivity is at times inadequate and the audio choppy as a result. Generally I have found the Windows Media version provides better quality.

Television

Dish TV, a direct satellite broadcasting company, makes available a package called The Great Wall that includes up to 28 stations all depending upon how much you're willing to shell out. It requires what they refer to as a Super Dish, basically a Dish with three LNA heads that is able to receive from several satellites simultaneously. If you're willing to commit to a certain subscription period they will pay for it, at least they did when I subscribed.

Scarecrow Video which is located in Seattle Washington just north of 50th Street on Roosevelt has a relatively large international movie selection. The China mainland section isn't large but they do have a large Hong Kong section.

If you happen to have a Laser Disk player they have quite a few older Chinese films upstairs in the Laser Disk section that isn't well advertised in the store. When the original owner still owned Scarecrow, he used to make trips and acquire a lot of material that wasn't sold here in the states. That was before DVD however, so that material is either on Laser Disk, VHS tape, or in a few cases VCD.

Please note that much of the material in the China and Hong Kong international section on DVD is region code 2 coded and will require a DVD player capable of playing region code 2 DVD's (or multi-region / region free). Rumour has it that some of the newer region code 2 DVD's will not work in a region free player and require either a region code 2 player or a player that you can manually set the region code on but I have not run into any of these myself yet.

Print Media

Click HERE for a list of Chinese News and Information sources in the Seattle Chinatown area. This list is maintained by the Chinatown - International Business District Improvement Area, a non-profit organization funded by the business and property owners of the Seattle International District. They do an excellent job so I'm just gonna say click on the link and go look at their site!