A few points of clarification:

1) Shenzhen is an hour away from GZ. Maybe Klein took an old train but the new speeds along at about 170kph through a countryside of factories and foetid ponds. It's about 1.5 hrs to Hong Kong by the direct train.

2) Boing Boing is easily available here in GZ without a proxy, and since I have been here it has never been blocked. Thank the FSM for that. Maybe they are fans.

The authorities, though, are whimsical. Wikipedia is now unblocked, but who knows for how long?

It is a repressive government, yes, but aside from the net spying, there is very little obvious surveillance in the form of cameras and such.

The police, also, are generally ineffectual and lazy, but watch out for security guards who like many everywhere are bloated with gaseous power and will fart all over you - one didn't want my girlfriend bringing her little dog anywhere close to the building.

I live in Guangzhou, China, which has an area of a street, Renmin Lu, dedicated to eyeglasses. I am talking about three-storey buildings crammed floor to ceiling with frames: tens of thousands from granny to funky to funkygranny. My first visit I bought a pair of cool frames with prescription lenses that were ready in two hour for about $40 US. That's expensive because the lenses had to be high-index. My pair of prescription sunglasses in some cool black plastic frames were less than $20. I have had a problem with one of the lenses being off, but they replaced it no problem.
My last pair of glasses from Canada, excluding the test, would get me about 10 pairs here, and I wouldn't have to wait two bloody weeks.