I was limited to what I could view on my computer. My blog,
which I had hoped to have a running commentary on was blocked, Meredith could not
access facebook, You Tube and some of the blogs that I follow were all blocked.
That is when I learned about the "Great Firewall". The Chinese government actively blocks many
sites for the protection of its
people. If you Google the "Great Firewall" Wikipedia is listed first and talks all about
the history of censorship in China. A fact stated on the wiki page says that there could be over 30,000 people
employed as "Internet Police".
An interesting site
to check out is http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org/
Type your favorite website to see if it is blocked. An example is http://www.marthastewart.com/
which is blocked.
This link will give
you a list of the more know websites blocked in China. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China
A VPN or virtual
private network was the solution. Many are available and most of the
westerners living in China subscribe to one. It hides or secures your internet
network connection by tunneling under
the Great Firewall. For $70 a year we now have a VPN subscription and Meredith
and I can once again connect to all of the once blocked sites.
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