web‏ censorship

Dear TCG,

I've heard that some web sites are not avalaible in China. Where can I find the list of those sites ? I know about facebook only.

Polish Girl


Dear Polish Girl

Facebook is banned in China ~ A good thing too bloody thing! read here

A comprehensive list does not exist (note TCG is banned in China woo hoo!) I got ONE visit and they cut me off, fear me CCP of China! Namely because there are new sites blocked everyday and sites get blocked and unblocked blocked and unblocked depending on events happening in China. And or how they feel about things sometimes. Yahoo for example used to work then it didn't then it worked then it didn't.

For example in the Beijing olympics everything was unblocked, same with the China expo and the Guangzhao motorshow, only for it to be promptly blocked again. Therefore a list as you may want can't really be found.

But anything which puts the PRC especially the CCP in a bad light like myself, is banned in China, the odd comment here and there on webforums does not automatically attract a block though as on another forum I was happily in the 365Inn WIFI connection people were openly dissing China.

BBC, CNN, Youtube those kinds of sites.

I found myself in the curious situation where a CCP public security beaurocop thug person was sat next to me and HE was using Vtunnel to access stuff you're not supposed to see.

What 100% of the population do however is just use a tunnel service as of 7th June 2010 these work.

http://www.vtunnel.com/ <- this is unstable however and the connection is slow as hell think Russian Beaurocracy but worse. http://www.slyuser.com/ (not personally tried but a mate in Shanghai here and now says it works)

http://www.sneakme.net/ Patrick woo currently uses this

http://www.hidemyass.com sometimes works sometimes does not

pimpmyip.org sometimes works

However WHATEVER you do do not uses these proxies with personal data while logging onto an email won't be touched bank passwords etc should most definately NOT be used via these services.

The alternative is to use a VPN which is $50-$100 a month or is that a year for an account, evil Simon uses one of these things. I don't know of any names of reputable companies though. VPNs are generally not exactly tolerated but semi ignored as one they have no solution to them yet and also only comparatively wealthy people i.e. people from outside China can afford to pay the $50-$100.

China has no solution to these holes YET, VPNs and the tunnel services as they plug holes but find more holes appear.


Btw the consequences of going to a blocked site in China are mere annoyance, cops won't come and kick your ass or arrest you even IF you don't use a VPN or tunnel thing, i.e. you go to something like bbc.co.uk which is banned in China, it cuts you off for 15 seconds sometimes everybody else in the internet cafe too (which can end in beatings). If you try visit another site which will give you a 404 error as if the site does not exist, then you are cut off for 30 seconds.

You do it again and the cut off lasts for 60 seconds, then 2 minutes, then 4 minutes until, it is one of those perfect conditioning blocking systems whereby to prevent being blocked you no longer even try accessing the banned sites in China. The Israeli guy and the Dutchman pissed everybody off in the 365Inn visit it by the way http://www.hostels.com/hostels/beijing/365-inn/16667 The Sakura Cafe is worthy attached to the hostel sometimes it is filled with ass holes though. The burgers are excellent the beef ones get the triple the lasagne is also but avoid the Tsingtao beers there, they buy the stuff with chemical preserver in it which causes hang overs from hell worse than cheap red wine.

By constantly attempting to use blocked sites blocking everybody off for minutes at a time.