Internet restrictions

[Rhian]

Dear All,

I understand that the BBC news website is blocked in China. Can anyone tell me which other major sites I cannot access? Also, can anyone recommend a good news alternative to the BBC?

Thank you

[Xiao Kui]

I am in Kunming in mainland China and I can access both the BBC and Guardian websites without a proxy. I don't think you should have any problem, even if a site is blocked permanently or temporarily you can access it with a proxy. There are several free ones and there is a Firefox add-on called Gladder that will redirect blocked sites (some automatically, some you have to add) to a proxy so you can get through. But don't worry, soon enough you will follow the Pied Piper of CCTV- 9 and the China Daily just like everyone else and you will forget those other sites even exist.

[simonlaing]

HI Rihan,

The first page, and the day's news are not blocked usually , but the archives were and still seem to be blocked .

Other sights like blogspot and Flickr are blocked as well. My Yahoo paid webpage used to be blocked but it is ok now.

Most of these can be accessed slowly through anonymouse.org. (no www) .

I read Ft.com and Nytimes.com every day. I remember in 2001 and 2002 Nytimes.com was censored. They uncensored it after they gave Jiang Zemin an interview and asked "why is our site censored in China?" I am happy it is uncensored again.

There may be mirror sites out there but I haven't investigated them.

Have fun,

Simon:)

[cute7]

What about wikipedia? When I was in China last year it was unblocked for a few days. But shortly after it was blocked again.

Luckily all my news websites are in German. I don't think they have any German news websites blocked in China. Even if they are sometimes very critical. Good thing about speaking a minor language.

CCTV- 9 and the China Daily just like everyone else and you will forget those other sites even exist.

I never watched CCTV News. I prefered Hong Kong news. But maybe some people here know what happens when Hong Kong shows critical news about China? Yeah, those stupid HK safety instructions will take its place for a few minutes. And the funny thing is, no Chinese ever noticed it. At least none of my friends. Hello?

[Ursula]

Is Flickr blocked? Why?? Last year it wasn't =/

[gougou]

Wikipedia is not blocked. Neither is flickr - but their pictures are. There are Firefox plug-ins and Greasemonkey scripts to help you around that, though.

[magores]

In Beijing, for me at least...

-Wikipedia IS blocked. I get the standard message: "The connection has timed out" etc, etc

-Flickr images are blocked

-blogspot is blocked

-some .tw and .edu sites are blocked, but others aren't

[skylee]

rootfool, who is in Changsha, told me a while ago that my blog on blogspot (click on my signature) was accessible. seems that the accessibility keeps changing.

Yeah, those stupid HK safety instructions will take its place for a few minutes. And the funny thing is, no Chinese ever noticed it. At least none of my friends. Hello?

Those dengue fever ads, right? even in winter ...

[imron]

Interesting you say Wikipedia is blocked for you in Beijing. I can access the english version no problem at home and at work, and that's been the case for a while now. Certain pages within wikipedia are still blocked however, and so is the Chinese language version.

I get the same results as you with Flickr and blogspot.

[madizi]

skylee: when did rootfool tell you that? I've just tried to reach your blog many times, but in vain. It is not accessible.

Cute7 probably meant chinese Wikipedia. It is not accessible.

[cute7]

Those dengue fever ads, right? even in winter ...

Not to talk about 山火 in winter. Once they even showed HK protestants in the news preview (the guy who was responsible for this probably got dumped) how they burned a Chinese flag. Yet, when the actual report was broadcasted I was getting those really helpful safety instructions from 80'ish hikers who saw someone doing BBQ in the hills of HK. Its just so blatant. It really gets me angry. I don't care about me actually cause I can get my news from other sources. But I wished there would be open media for all Chinese.

Cute7 probably meant chinese Wikipedia. It is not accessible.

No, I was talking about the English wikipedia. It was blocked ever since I can remember. Just for a week they unofficially unblocked it. It made big news in German news websites. However after a week it was again blocked. No way around it except for using proxys.

[Xiao Kui]

Yeah, those stupid HK safety instructions will take its place for a few minutes.

My favorite was one telling you not to throw stuff out the window. Someone throws the old A.C. from a high rise apt. and it falls through the air as children circle on bicycles below. Super dramatic, really made me stop and think. And in the end I finally went with an alternate method for disposing of a broken fridge.

[liuzhou]

I spent most of yesterday on the English wikipedia without any problems. And it's fine now.

[madizi]

The same here. English and German Wikipedia are OK. Although some pages are blocked.