While the Western world seems infatuated with Youtube, the Eastern world, at least those in China, cannot access it. The strange thing about this is that the West can access just about any site in China. What good is that you ask? Well, if you’re stuck on Youtube then you’re missing Youku!

Youku.com is China’s answer, some would say copy, of Youtube. While both sites show many of the same videos, there is a vast selection of Youku-only videos. Yes, the site is in Chinese but any searches can be done in English. If you’re looking for Jay Chou, for instance, just type in his name, forget about the fact that you don’t read or speak Chinese. Looking for episodes of Friends? Type in Friends. It’s that simple.

Baidu.com is a bit different. Baidu is China’s answer to Google. When you get to the site, you’re looking at what is essentially the same menu as Google. If you’re using Google Chrome, and you should be, here’s the magic it can do:

Once you’re feeling comfortable again, search for the videos you would like to see. Baidu is not as comprehensive as Youku, simply because Youku hosts its own videos while Baidu searches many other Chinese sites for its resources. We’ve only mentioned Youku, since it’s the most user-friendly, but there are many other Chinese video sites. We’d recommend that you stick with Youku, however. Some other Chinese sites, just like their counterparts in the West, are full of malware and adware. Stay safe!

Next time, we’ll show you how to record some of these videos to your computer. We’ll also take another look at downloading Facebook photo albums. We’ve had an update from one of the programmers of a plug-in we wrote about a few weeks ago. Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading!