shanzhai | wifi internet connection ::
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009:: while white collar workers in China’s cities take the Internet for granted, it’s not quite the same in the countryside.
After Lu Hui (卢慧) finished her studies, she went back to being a rabbit farmer in a remote village in Sichuan. She had the benefits of Internet during computer studies at secondary school, but unfortunately her home village was too remote to get a connection.
She first tried wireless Internet (GPRS) at her house in 2005, but it was too expensive. After a few years of self study, Lu Hui and her boyfriend came up with an ingenious solution.
They re-purposed 2 satellite dishes, off the shelf TP-Link wifi routers, and buckets (for rainproofing!) with a 3km line of site connection going from her boyfriend’s place in town to her home in the countryside. They managed to get the connection working in September of last year (2008), and it’s been running successfully ever since.
The “rabbit beauty lady” (as she’s known as on the IT forum ZOL) posted details of her DIY Internet connection two months later in the ZOL forums and almost immediately rocketed to unanimous acclaim. Her ingenuity has led to two TV interviews, as well as a number of media appearances. Link here for more on the technical details of Lu Hui’s Internet connection. Link here for Lu Hui’s QQ blog. Link here to learn more about a DIY microphone project in China. // XD
