"Surfdaddy Orca" at the Seventh Sun recently went in-depth with HiPiHi, and has published an interesting travelogue of his experiences in what's been called "the Chinese Second Life." Some interesting observations:

A word of caution. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, you need to remember that you are not in Kansas when you visit HiPiHi (right, Toto?). As an “overseas visitor,” you are subject to the regulations of the People’s Republic of China. You are reminded of this in the HiPiHi Terms of Service: “Users of this community may not made remarks include which damage the Constitution and the law, undermine national unity, fabricated or distorted the facts, spread feudal superstition and obscenity, pornography, and other violations of the constitution and administrative laws and regulations of expression.”

There are interesting notes on every stage of the experience, providing a peek into the rather picturesque-sounding beta phase:

When I first logged in to HiPiHi, my avatar appeared as a headless, shadowy wraith. This turned out to be a language settings problem on my Windows XP computer (see the Installation Notes at the end of this article to properly configure an XP computer to handle Simplified Chinese).

After correcting the language settings problem, I logged in again to find my avatar standing in a bamboo forest wearing a white undershirt and underpants—the badge of being a overseas “newborn” in HiPiHi, I guess. I quickly looked around, but I didn’t see any pandas chewing on the bamboo.

Neat work, guys!