Internet in China

[liuzhou]

I teach online for University of Phoenix and was hoping to keep that job while we lived in China just to suppliment our income. I hope I can access that regularly.

The website is available. I've just accessed it.

When I was in Shanghai, Newspapers, CNN, BBC, Wikipedia, Blogs

That was then; this is now. You know China. Always changing.

The BBC*, CNN, Wikipedia have been unblocked for months. Nationally, not only in some foreigner's obscure corner.

As for newspapers, I've never known any British newspaper to be blocked. I've been in China, reading the Guardian online almost every day for nearly 15 years and can only remember two days it was unobtainable. I've just checked and it is faster than China Daily.

Also, I've been running a blog for the last five years. It was blocked briefly about four years ago. Apart from that, it has been fine.

That was the situation in China's biggest city - Shanghai. In the provinces the situation is likely to be much worse

Actually, the reverse seems to be true. Shanghai has often been stricter in the past and often the last to open sites which become unblocked nationally.

(*The BBC site was never blocked - only the news section was. This meant that you could listen to the news, but not read it! All other parts of their huge site have always been open. As an added twist the you could read the news at their mirror site, which the GFW had overlooked. The Chinese language version of the site remains blocked.)

Edited January 1, 2010 at 02:20 AM by liuzhou

[roddy]

As you can see from the above, nobody knows. Get a VPN, check out a few alternatives for things you know you might want to use (ie, vimeo for youtube), where possible switch from free to paid options (ie from Blogger to your own webhosting) and enjoy your trip.

[Xiwang]

Try this site if you want to test which websites are blocked in Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou and which ones are not:

http://www.websitepulse.com/help/testtools.china-test.html

There are almost always ways to get around the Great Firewall bit they can be pretty frustrating and time-consuming. Sometimes when I use my Witopia VPN to access Facebook or YouTube, all of the other websites I try to get to slow to a crawl. I often turn off my VPN unless I absolutely have to use it.

China also seems to block a lot of things with the word "blog" in the name. For example, I can access most of cnn.com or latimes.com. However, if I click onto a cnn.com blog or an latimes.com blog, I will find that blocked.

[zhouhaochen]

check www.witopia.net they offer vpn services through the states. It costs 59USD/year and solves all internet problems, without really having any noticeable effect (at least for me) on the speed of your internet connection.

[liuzhou]

But remember they can block VPNs and proxies too, if the fancy takes them. Many people have had problems with Witopia.

I have always been able to leap the wall without interruption and have never paid for anything.

[889]

No, Witopia does not solve all internet problems.

For example, some sites are blocked not by China but by the site itself -- that "no viewing in your region" message -- and while Witopia sometimes enables these sites, sometimes it doesn't. Hulu, for example, is apparently blocked even if you use Witopia.

[aroberts42]

Thank you thank you!

This is actually my first experience using forums, and I am having so much fun and learning so much!

A-G, that weblink you gave to check the availablity is awsome.

Thanks to everyone for checking on sites available. I <3 Colbert too!

I'm still not exactly sure what a VPN is or how the proxys work, but hopefully we will be able to figure it out when we get there or have someone that can help us.

I was glad to see that one person's blog. I was hoping to start bloggging about our adventures for all or friends and family to see.

Thank you all so much! I am so excited to go!

[TVB Dreamer]

Like a previous user mentioned, Facebook and YouTube is blocked in China. When my cousin went to Guangzhou in China, he was telling me about it on the phone.

[Lugubert]

China Daily, 2009-12-31, item 4:

The central government blocked access to the Internet in Xinjiang just 24 hours after the [July] violence, and its Web service to this day remains restricted.

NY Times, Dec 30:

The Xinjiang regional government said it also planned to restore other Web sites and services, cellphone text messaging and international telephone connections “later, based on the relevant situation, step by step,” according to an official statement.