Memoirs of Beijing

July 7, 2009.   The day when China banned facebook.   Expats were scrambling to find ways to access this site as for some it’s their only economical way to communicate with their friends and loved ones.  For other bored expats, they while away their time using the numerous applications this site has to offer.

In any case, I’m one of the expats who were outraged when they banned this site.  I’ve scoured the net to go about the ban and here are some which I’ve tested and it worked.   Please note that they’re not fast as if you’re directly accessing it without the firewall.

1.  Freegate – it’s a software that was created by Falun Gong practitioners to help work around government censorship of their group.  Currently, the only way to download this software is to get your friend download it from another country and send it to you through an online data storage website like yousendit.    If you’re behind a firewall at work, this won’t fly.  Let me know if you want this file as I have till Sunday on yousendit.

2.  UltraVPN – it’s a software you need to install to connect to a free VPN service.  Access to this VPN service sometimes is so slow.  I sometimes just give up and try to find other ways to bypass it.

3.  AnchorShield – another software with a lot of ads.  If you don’t mind the ads, it has its moments wherein the access is quite fast.

4.  U95 – a software distributed by UltraSurf.   This software has been around for quite some time and only in Chinese version.  I remember using this in the south but can’t make it work here in Beijing.  Some friends of mine use this to access facebook.   If you want to download this software, click here for a working link.

5.  Jondo – it’s a java script which access to a German proxy site.  The speed is similar to UltraVPN.

Well.. if you know any other way to make it work, please feel free to share it.  Hopefully, none of these sites will be blocked again.