Tortoiseshell appears to have been blocked in China! Thanks to Chanticleer for this titbit.Interestingly, comrad Trabant Driver is perfectly valid in China. Is this a prima facie case of a "Web hosting for Trabi spares" Scandal? I think we should be told.
More seriously, this issue is linked to something I was browsing a few weeks ago, namely the legallity or otherwise of GPS in certain countries - an issue which is in line with this website's decidedly libertarian outlook on things.
In China, the GPS is "supposedly illegal". However, browsing the geocaching.com website we currently find a range of 116 caches hidden in some stunning parts of the country.
Unsurprisingly, no references can be found to geocaching in North Korea. One can safely assume that your life would not be worth living if caught in the North with a GPS device. The fate of a geocache placed on the boundary line between North and South Korea sets a clear precedent here.
Belarus is a country that will always be dear to me. I visited on a school exchange during the brief window in the early 1990s when it had just become independent of the USSR and had a progressive, democratic government.
Would I take my GPS into Belarus at the moment? The lure of the first (and only) cache in Belarus is certainly tempting. However, as one visitor to the cache has noted, it's unlikely that the current authorities would invite you in for cakes and tea if caught in posession of a GPS.
On a slightly tangiental note - it's good to see our forces working hard in Iraq and Afghanistan for the freedom to hunt tupperware containers.
