Commentary – The Great China Firewall

I have waited until our return to the United States to add this post.

China controls the information the people in China get over the Internet. China has established a great firewall to keep information away from the Chinese people. I have read about the firewall but never though we would one day become a part of the firewall story.

When updating the blog, there are two main areas. There is one area to add / edit posts and one area to view the posts. I normally add / edit the post and then view the post to ensure everything is OK. This routine worked great in Tokyo.

In Beijing something went wrong. I could add / edit posts but could not view the posts. This was weird. I was actually worried that everyone back home would not be able to follow Connor on his journeys.

Then I remembered about the Great China Firewall. I was able to log into a US computer remotely, start Internet Explorer, and view the blog. Wow! Connor’s blog was being blocked by the Great China Firewall. This is fascinating.

The inability to view Connor’s blog stayed with us through Beijing and Shanghai. Finally in Hong Kong, we could view the blog again. Remember, while Hong Kong is part of China, Hong Kong is treated differently.

Even back in Tokyo, we could view the blog just fine. We do not understand why the blog was blocked. We really enjoyed our experience in China and had only good things to say.