I wish you could all have read the incredible, in-depth, well-thought-out responses I’ve received over the last week about my post-China articles. Thank you so much to all who took the time to write. If only we had a message board…

So here’s the deal. Once I got back from China, I wanted to wrap up my blog with two more posts, one venting any frustrations or problems I had in China and a final post celebrating the things I learned and the people I met in Beijing. My plans have been delayed by the enormous news questions that emerged after my post: Is the device I saw in Beijing taxis a microphone or an audio device?

I asked readers to comment, and you have in spectacular fashion. Click (more) below to read excerpts from the responses. Everyone seems to be positive they know what the device is, but not all the stories match up…

Here’s what y’all said about the device:
From Chinese grad student at Ann Arbor Michigan
“As far as I understand, the microphone in the taxi is not meant to eavesdrop or monitor the passengers, and it's especially not to monitor the foreign visitors. (Think about it, what are the ratios of foreign passengers to the normal Chinese passengers?) It's there just to facilitate the communication between the drivers and their company.”

Ricardo Chan, a friend of my mom’s
“I think the picture is a tweeter. They are placed in the same location even here in the US. … I do work with security systems that record video and voice from varied sources and the likelihood of recording that many sources is not there. Possible but not feasible. There just isn't enough money or resources to put recorders on cabs.”

Jing Huang, commenter
“I checked some Chinese website and you are right, the device in your picture is a microphone. The government said they were installed for security aid, as connected to GPS device on the taxi. “

Kevin Roberts, a friend of mine in Columbia, MO
“From the looks of it, it could be what's called a "tweeter," a small speaker used to reproduce high frequency tones, but with a better look I could be more certain.”

And here’s what y’all said about my reaction to the device:
Haifeng Zhang
“I enjoy reading your blog, but you are so wrong about recording your conversation in taxi. Censorship does exist in China, but not as severe as you think. Western countries have been trying to demonize China for years, and you happened to be the victim of your country's propaganda. I'm very surprised how brainwashed you are. I do feel sorry for you. This is what distorted media can do to its people, pathetic."

Jinli Feng
“And the meeting from your faculty of all those warnings is oh-so-80s and outdated. (well maybe to stay away from the 3T is a good advice to make sure you stay out of trouble, but the rest is totally redundant.)”

Kien Voon, commenter from China
“Lindsay, what surprised me most is that, being a professional Journalist, you totally believed in what you have been told by your government that your every movement in China were being monitored and tapped even up to the extend that that little sound device inside a taxi also arouse your suspicions!!. Sigh, where is your sense of assessment?”

Thanks again to all commenters.

To tell you the truth, this is really hard for me to publish. I didn’t keep this blog as a journalist. I kept it as an individual, so it’s hard not to take these comments personally. So above all else, thank you to readers for being respectful, even when you disagree with my writing.

It sounds like most readers, especially those from China, take my last posts as signs that I’m not as open-minded as I seemed. Even commenters from America sensed that I’d fallen into the same trap as the rest of the Western media.

And maybe I did. Maybe I should have done this differently. But my post on censorship in China was not about what I reported…it was about what I experienced. It was about what life was like for me as a blogger in Beijing during the Olympics. Right or wrong, founded or unfounded, those were my daily concerns. You now know what happened to me.

This will probably be my last post on this subject, although I’d love to keep corresponding with anyone interested. This back-and-forth with you has left me wanting to go back to Beijing as a journalist and find out just how wrong I may have been.

Thank you for teaching me to question my own assumptions.