I remember sitting in the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou in early 2005 getting increasingly frustrated by the internet speed. Thus, I got up and wandered to another Shamian island hotel, in a flood, to find that they had the same thing. A visit to a random internet place in Shanghai a couple of weeks later (come to think of it, didn't even show a passport at that time) was even less successful.

Since then, I feel like China, even as it continues to block access to various websites (unless of course you like being oblivious to it all), has been as welcoming to foreign internet users as Japan. Which is to say, not very welcoming. But at least the speed has increased overall.

This reminds me of a friend's apartment in Shenzhen (near Yantian). He was able to get signals from both China and Hong Kong. Baidu was a hoot.