I'm currently in the US, but heading to rural China for 4-5 months in a few weeks, where there are no internet cafes or anything (I was there last year).  I'd really like to be able to email people in the US.  Can you get the internet on a cell phone?  I'll happily buy a new phone and pay for a data plan.  Thanks!

So in a conversation with a Chinese friend last week we were discussing my (admittedly ancient) cell phone. It's the first phone I bought when I moved here. It's a flip phone that only ever "flipped" the first three weeks of our time together. I've dropped it, scratched it, even sat on it crooked so that the extremely sturdy little antenna tilts its little head.

My friend took a look at my poor little phone and called it a 文物wénwù, an artifact or a historical relic. I asked if you could also call it a kǒnglóng 恐龙, much as we do with old computers, cell phones, etc. in English. Nope. It's a 文物。