4 ms·

I was in China just over two years ago and I can confirm just how insane the GFW is. Every other Google search wouldn't load, sometimes Wikipedia articles (Chi

I was in China just over two years ago and I can confirm just how insane the GFW is. Every other Google search wouldn't load, sometimes Wikipedia articles (China, Tiananmen Square, etc.) would appear to start loading slowly (the top parts of the page would show) before suddenly cutting off and showing 'Connection Reset'. I don't know how that worked because usually browsers just show you a half page if the connection is lost, but in China the page would just disappear.

latch 15y ago
Kinda off topic, but I thought people might be interested to know that there's absolutely no blocking (or any other kind of censorship) in Hong Kong.
- sandal 15y ago
  Hong Kong and Mainland China have pretty much completely separate political systems except for military and foreign affairs. I think this is supposed to last another 40 years or so at the minimum. It's weird how two regions connected by a subway system can be so different from one another, and yet still be the same country. My wife is a Chinese citizen but needs a visa to go to Hong Kong... as an American I don't but I need a visa to go to mainland PRC. Fun!
sandal 15y ago
I am currently visiting China and everything you said is exactly what I've experienced. Using a VPN is the only way to get a working internet connection, but China is also blocking various popular VPN providers seemingly at random. You don't need to be doing anything questionable to feel the bite of the GFW, webpages with Facebook like buttons are enough to cause a 30 second delay while the connection times out in the background before the site loads. The censorship occurs at the TCP level, which is why pretty much only a VPN will help.
foobarbazetc 15y ago
It's because they're manually checking the page as it loads. Once it's okay'ed, it'll load instantly the next time. Seriously.
- be5invis 15y ago
  Page content detection currently is ONLY targeted to Wikipedia. It checks article content and block it when a "keyword" detected.
  - biesnecker 15y ago
    Are you sure it's only Wikipedia? Seems unlikely. I don't have any hard data (neither does most anyone else, though), but I frequently have connections reset that seem to be related to page content on non-Wikipedia sites.

latch 15y ago

Kinda off topic, but I thought people might be interested to know that there's absolutely no blocking (or any other kind of censorship) in Hong Kong.

sandal 15y ago
Hong Kong and Mainland China have pretty much completely separate political systems except for military and foreign affairs. I think this is supposed to last another 40 years or so at the minimum. It's weird how two regions connected by a subway system can be so different from one another, and yet still be the same country. My wife is a Chinese citizen but needs a visa to go to Hong Kong... as an American I don't but I need a visa to go to mainland PRC. Fun!

sandal 15y ago

I am currently visiting China and everything you said is exactly what I've experienced. Using a VPN is the only way to get a working internet connection, but China is also blocking various popular VPN providers seemingly at random. You don't need to be doing anything questionable to feel the bite of the GFW, webpages with Facebook like buttons are enough to cause a 30 second delay while the connection times out in the background before the site loads. The censorship occurs at the TCP level, which is why pretty much only a VPN will help.

foobarbazetc 15y ago

It's because they're manually checking the page as it loads. Once it's okay'ed, it'll load instantly the next time. Seriously.

be5invis 15y ago
Page content detection currently is ONLY targeted to Wikipedia. It checks article content and block it when a "keyword" detected.
- biesnecker 15y ago
  Are you sure it's only Wikipedia? Seems unlikely. I don't have any hard data (neither does most anyone else, though), but I frequently have connections reset that seem to be related to page content on non-Wikipedia sites.