Living in Shanxi and looking for Linux friends

I'm American living in Shanxi province, PRC and soon to move to Hangzhou (March). I'd like to develop some Ubuntu friends in China. My Chinese is so-so and I'm working to improve upon it.

I've been trying to get Ubuntu to run on my MSI A6000 laptop with no success beyond the splash screen. I have a friend who owns a computer shop in Taiyuan, but he only knows Windows...sort of.

I have QQ, Skype, etc., as well as the cell phone and email.

Regards

RHardie

To meet China linux users, I think you will have better luck at http://forum.ubuntu.org.cn/

Thanks. That's helpful.