In the past two weeks, I experienced first-time problems accessing many Web sites. I lost access to every communication tool that uses the Internet and my blog last week, which is why this is the first blog post in two weeks. Here's the full list of sites I couldn't access:1) Skype. I downloaded it in America in May and have used it in China until last week when it stopped working. My Taiwanese-American friend lost his Skype a month ago; the rest of the Americans in my building lost it last week. Those who figured out how to make it work had to uninstall the international Skype and redownload the Tom.com, Chinese formatted Skype program.
2) Call2. I started using Call2 when the Internet in China was too slow to run Skype. It hasn't worked for a week either.
3) Google Gchat video. After Skype and Call2 stopped working, I thought I'd try the new Gchat application, google video chat. It doesn't work here, but that could be for a few reasons: the shoddy Internet connection, Google hasn't made a format Chinese authorities have agreed to allow, etc.
4) My blog. I couldn't access my blog either in my apartment through my Internet connection, any of my neighbors' Internet connections, or through the Internet connection at my favorite coffee shop. The last post I wrote was about the changing political landscape in Taiwan.
5) Wikipedia. Doesn't work anymore without using my proxy, but I was told to expect this.
6) Google. Seriously. The most popular search engine in America, and likely one of the most popular in the world, could not load for several days. It works now, but I think not being able to access Google for several days made me feel more isolated than anything else since I've been in China.
I think it's likely that a combination of Internet connection problems, software formatting problems and government censorship are blocking these sites. My question is, why now? Has anyone has read articles (that I may not have seen on the Internet over here) on Internet issues in China? Did the Great firewall of China get updated last week? I wrote this post hoping I could find out why I lost access these sites now, not before, and what I can do to communicate with family back home. So if anyone has suggestions, HELP! I'm feeling a little boxed in lately.
1 comment:
China's firewall gets updated everyday. China has over 40,000 "Web" police that work in Beijing alone. On top of that China's firewall is a learning one and it ban's websites based on words that are written on them. That is why you might find out that a website may not work for one week but the next it works perfectly fine. Its a shame you can't read the Wikipedia article on it, its a good read.
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