[Venue-selection] Venue assessment: Beijing and Shenzhen

[Barry Leiba <[e-mail]>]

The 2010 IETF meeting in Beijing was excellent, and I have every
reason to think that a future IETF meeting in China -- either Beijing
or Shenzhen -- would go equally well.  They are both great cities to
visit and to hold meetings in, with good, inexpensive food that
includes western options.

I've visited China many times in the last 15 years, and have seen *no*
issues with travel to or within China.  It has been easy to get a visa
-- far easier than it seems to be for Chinese IETF participants to get
visas to U.S. meetings.  Entering and leaving the country have been
smooth, uneventful.  Flights to Beijing are plentiful, and Shenzhen
can be reached either through Hong Kong and ground or ferry
transportation or by flying to Beijing or Shanghai and taking a flight
to BaoAn airport (SZX) from there.  I have never felt unsafe on the
streets in any way, nor have any other non-Chinese colleagues I've
spoken with.  As far as I can see, issues of acceptance of LGBTQ and
various religions are just not there.

Outside of the hotels, it's unusual to find anyone who speaks English
(or any other western language).  I haven't found that to be
problematic, as restaurant menus have pictures and hotel staff can
help with taxi transportation.  There is also now an English version
of the DiDi app, their version of Uber.

The only real issue is the network: we will need to have an unfiltered
network for the IETF meeting.  We had that in 2010, and it worked
fine.  As long as we can be assured to have an unfiltered network for
any future meeting, China should definitely be on the list, and I
would not hesitate to attend.

Barry