# You can get the Dope in China..but **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 17, 2002, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-get-the-dope-in-china-but/137216 "2002-11-17T22:56:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-get-the-dope-in-china-but/137216/1 "2002-11-17T22:56:08Z")
…you can’t to [Fark.com](http://Fark.com) [Interesting](http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filtering/china/test/) site to check what websites are available in China. Guess the commies ain’t afraid of Cecil, huh? ---
**Author:** ![Slainte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Slainte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slainte)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-get-the-dope-in-china-but/137216/2 "2002-11-17T23:00:23Z")
Hmmm, I tried google and it said accessible. I’m sure I read or heard on the news that it wasn’t allowed there. Did something change or was that misinformation? ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-get-the-dope-in-china-but/137216/3 "2002-11-17T23:27:08Z")
I’ve only posted to the Dope from China. In various cities and through various networks. Never ever been down. As I have pointed out before, there are very few websites that I want to visit that are blocked. I read wire news/bloomberg rather than some of the blocked sites. CNN is no problemo. Geocities are blocked. I’ve gotten into all sorts of Taiwanese government websites and newspapers. Google went down for about 10 days (see thread someone snatched my google) but is fine now. That whole google thing was a mystery and at the time you could still use other search engines like Yahoo that was powered by google. Let’s put it this way, I haven’t found a blocked site yet that would induce me to find a reliable proxy server. It isn’t a big problem. The web is insanely difficult to try censor by it’s very design. ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2002, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-get-the-dope-in-china-but/137216/4 "2002-11-17T23:57:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by China Guy \* > **Google went down for about 10 days (see thread someone snatched my google) but is fine now. That whole google thing was a mystery and at the time you could still use other search engines like Yahoo that was powered by google.** Yet, if [news reports](http://www.forbes.com/newswire/2002/09/13/rtr720414.html) are to be believed, though the Google site isn’t blocked any more, its search result are now filtered: > [@](#): > > A spokeswoman for Google…said the company had heard from Chinese users that they were again able to access its site 10 days after Beijing, gearing up for the key congress, blocked it. > > But on Friday Chinese surfers could not open Web links appearing under sensitive search topics… > > \ > > “Rather than stopping things going out, they’ve switched to filtering things coming back in,” said Duncan Clark, head of Beijing-based tech consultancy BDA China Ltd. FWIW, this same Reuters article has appeared on a number of news sites, but the Forbes link was the only (first) one that didn’t have to retrieve it from Google’s cache. ---
**Author:** ![Pythagras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/45deac/32.png) [@Pythagras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pythagras)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-get-the-dope-in-china-but/137216/5 "2002-11-18T00:26:26Z")
Im trying the studie’s site itself… Starting testing… Stage one testing complete. Stage two testing complete. Testing complete for [http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filtering/china/test/](http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filtering/china/test/). Result: Reported as accessible in China ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-get-the-dope-in-china-but/137216/6 "2002-11-18T01:45:10Z")
It’s funny, because www.harvard.edu was listed in the box below as being inaccessible. But I entered it, and it was accessible. As long as they can get to my homepage, I’m happy. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-get-the-dope-in-china-but/137216/7 "2002-11-18T13:29:57Z")
www.harvard.edu works fine. I just tested it from here in-country. Not sure how you could limit google, but it seems to conduct my searches just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-get-the-dope-in-china-but/137216/8 "2002-11-18T13:53:36Z")
**China Guy** , can you name a single site that _doesn’t_ work fine? And I heard the Chinese government is planning on blocking this message board around 9AM central US time today. Maybe you could check it out. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-get-the-dope-in-china-but/137216/9 "2002-11-18T22:34:20Z")
Wow, you can get into [freerepublic.com](http://freerepublic.com) from china- what exactly are they filtering over there? ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-get-the-dope-in-china-but/137216/10 "2002-11-19T12:35:55Z")
some news sites are blocked, but I couldn’t tell you what ones. NYT, Wash Post something like that. Not the SF Chronicle. Geocities is blocked. Some religious sites are blocked. Seriously, no love lost over the government here, but evil internet censors is not really their forte. Let’s just say I surf a fair amount, and it hasn’t been enough of an irritant to want to set up a proxy server somewhere. Why, I’m shocked, shocked I tell you, to hear that pornography is widely accessible 🙂