Dalian
Wordpress.com and the Great Firewall of China
As a loyal and fairly long-term user of Wordpress.com, I was very disappointed to recently learn that all Wordpress.com blogs are blocked in China.
Not only does my blog miss out on 1.2 billion potential readers, but this week I am attending the World Economic Forum’s Summer Davos in Dalian, China. I plan to blog about the conference and then spend some time traveling in China afterwards.
I do not hold it against Wordpress.com that they are blocked in China. Many publications, including my former employer, the International Herald Tribune, have distribution blocked on a fairly regular basis.
To solve the problem, I sought solutions on the Wordpress.com forum. The best answer seemed to be migration away from the excellent Wordpress.com service towards a hosted server that is not blocked by the Chinese authorities. (I would provide a link to the posting, but I cannot reach the forum since I am already in China.)
What I do hold against Wordpress.com is the difficulties they put in front of my migrating away from their service.
It was only thanks to a good deal of time spent by a generous Internet expert reprogramming my site that I am able to have this rudimentary blog up and running on a server not blocked by the Great Firewall of China.
This blog is only a rudimentary version because Wordpress.com does not easily allow the exporting of images. The situation reminds me of the Roach Motel: Photos check in, but they can’t check out.
Any ideas of what to do - short of downloading the photos one-by-one - very welcome! (Also, any anecdotes on Wordpress.com in China!)
Technorati Tags: Dalian, Davos, WEF, wordpress.com, World Economic Forum
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sorry we block you because we need to achieve a harmonic society.
yuk.”
“sorry we block you because we need to achieve a harmonic society.”
yuk,again.
‘Cause,I’m a Chinese.Like you guys say:we love peace.
I just began a Wordpress blog in Shanghai two weeks ago and I can report that it’s not completely blocked. Anyway, it’s more accessible than typepad, blogspot, squarespace, and a few others. Wordpress is slow as hell to load most days, and sometimes it’s blocked, but I’ve been able to access and update it daily — usually in the evenings. The stuff that’s blocked here is so random and often regionally applied. Some cities have access to blogspot at times, others don’t. Some can see wikipedia at times, others can’t. I imagine we’ll experience a full flowering of access beginning spring 2008, though the faucets may get shut off again this time next year after Olympic fever is cured.
hey
this software may help you
http://www.wujie.net/download.htm
i’m a chinese who use ‘wujie’ to borrow your website
‘wujie.net’ is also blocked
Hello,
I’m a journalist from Belgium just arrived in Beijing. I have to work here as correspondent for one year for tv, radio & internet. Just found out that my blog on wordpress is also blocked. So cruel as a chinese welcome. Please, do you have any solutions yet?
regards, Tom
Tom: Welcome behind the Great Firewall!
My solution was to leave wordpress.com and use a self-hosted version of Wordpress. A high-tech friend did this for me, but blog still not as good as it was (Many broken links I have not bothered to repair). Suggest you find such a friend or hire someone. Dreamhost is a common place to host that is not blocked by China.
Please do shoot me an email to the solution you find or - better yet - post your solution here. It could help others!
i live in the US, and it’s hard to share things with my friends in China. Flickr is blocked, wordpress is blocked, and for some reasons, my own domains don’t work for them either… I’m thinking to get a blog service that is hosted in China…
Truth will come to light sooner or later, but apparently Chinese authorities have succeed their goal.
Hello Blogger,
Is Wordpress still blocked in China? I will be traveling there in two weeks and I am an avid travel blogger. I hope everything is pleasant with you. Thank you!!
.amy.
Blocked solid everywhere in China. COnfirmed now on multiple business trip since last 1 year.
Sad.
But, this is China’s prerogative. I respect that.