Despite a Ban, Chinese Youth Navigate to Internet Cafes

Tian Puma, who runs an Internet cafe in his apartment, said he knows a lot of Gedong residents who disagree. But most seemed to be the adolescent boys who patronize his shop and the other computer speak-easies around town.

"The party secretary of this town has no idea of what the Internet is," sneered a teenage boy outside another underground cafe, this one a large establishment in a courtyard next to a bicycle shop.

In a national online survey taken after the controversy erupted among Internet users across the country, the Sina.com Web site found support and opposition about equal at 48 percent of those questioned.

In any case, adolescents walking the coal-dusted streets of Gedong last week seemed to have little doubt where to go when they want to get online. "In less than a month after the ban, the Internet cafes all reopened," said Cheng Qiong, 15, a second-year middle school student.

Cheng, a girl, added that most of the cafes' customers are boys who sign on only to play computer games. Visits to several underground cafes showed only a sprinkling of girls at the keyboards, most of them on chat sites.

Liu Haidong, who manages the large courtyard cafe, said it is busy from the time it opens at 7 a.m. until it closes at midnight. One recent day, it was crowded with more than 50 people staring at computer screens. Except for one middle-aged man viewing statistics, all were adolescents playing computer games.

Asked how he escapes enforcement of the ban, Liu smiled, wiggled uncomfortably in his seat and said, "Well, that's kind of hard to explain." Pushed, he said the secret is "relationships" between the owner and the police.

Che said Fangshan has tried cutting off broadband connections, but the cafes responded by hooking up again over telephone lines. If the cafes are reopening and luring young people to spend hours in front of the screen, he warned, another campaign will be undertaken to close them down again.

Over a steaming bowl of thick-cut Shanxi noodles, he asked a reporter to disclose the locations of those operating again so police could close them. Backed by strong support among Gedong's parents, Zhang, who has been called the "iron-fisted party secretary," is determined to keep the cafes closed, he said.

Meanwhile, the local middle school offers classes on how to use a computer properly. The students are taught to operate the computer and keyboard, Che explained, but are not allowed to get online from school.

Fangshan County was not China's first jurisdiction to take radical steps against Internet cafes. Shaoyang, in central Hunan province, recently announced it would require students to wear uniforms so under-18 youths could be spotted easily if they entered an Internet cafe.

Shanghai has tried another approach. Hao, of the Communist Youth League's Internet association, said 268 community computer centers have been set up there to give young people free and easy access to Web sites with "healthy content."

"You can't just block the river's flow," he said, continuing the comparison to the Yellow River. "You have to let the water out. The same is true of the Internet."

Staff researcher Jin Ling contributed to this report.