Just spent six hours on a local bus, heading south from Guiyang (贵阳) to Libo (荔波), a little town in the mountains near the border with Guangxi (广西) – essentially in the middle of nowhere. My butt is damn sore, but I’ve been rewarded with Internet access that’s faster than what I get in Shanghai -- I stopped trying to make sense of things like this in China a long time ago.

It’s been a long day getting to Libo, but it’s been educational. First, taking the local bus through small cities and across the countryside really gives you a feel for how absolutely dominant China Mobile is. I know that from the stats, but seeing it is another thing.

Even in smaller cities like Duyun (都匀), China Mobile has carpet bombed the place with ads for 3G. They also have the old-style ads for regular service in the countryside, which they paint on the walls of buildings or any bit of space a farmer will sell them. Great stuff and reminiscent of the old propaganda – I’ll post some shots in another letter.

Regarding yesterday's post about 3G access in Guiyang, the provincial capital, it’s as I suspected – 3G hasn’t made it there yet, despite all the ads teasing it. I dropped by a China Mobile shop today and they expect it in May or June. This makes sense, as China Mobile is concentrating on the east and southeastern provinces first, before spinning up the networks in the central and western provinces, where there will be less commercial benefit.

Before signing off, a final note on netbooks. Stopped by the main Suning electronics store in Guiyang this morning, where the only foreign branded netbook was an HP Mini. However, there were some cool Atom-based netbooks from Hasee (神舟) for RMB2499 and RMB2699. Along with local brands like Hasee, the shanzhai are also getting into netbooks and putting downward pressure on prices. That's not a huge surprise, but it's bad news for Acer and Asus (in China, at least) that a company like Hasee is putting out a pretty nice piece of hardware.

That's it from Libo, where the mountains are high, the rivers deep, and the karaoke loud.

PS: The sales folks at Suning said women are the overwhelming buyers of netbooks, an observation I’ve heard in a few other cities as well.