What does the programmer and in circuit emulator cost and are they even available outside of China?
It's field programmable, but just one time. You can get them on various online outlets like AliExpress.
The manual is hosted at a ".tw" address, so its Taiwan. Which... is "mostly not China".
Everything microcontrollers: projects, questions, new releases, etc.
dragontamer's Beginner Guides:
Beginner Series I: What is a Microcontroller?
Beginner Series II: The "Generic" Microcontroller
Beginner Sidenote: Microchip's Signal Chain Design Guide
Beginner Series III: Skills and Complexity Tiers
Beginner Series IV: Deep Dive into Microchip's AVR EA