We've all heard stories about the Great Firewall of China, the system of internet controls used by the PRC to ensure 'harmful' online content is not seen by the population of China. But it was interesting yesterday to run head-long into a real-life section of this wall.

When you create a free-blog in China on one of the many popular websites (like 51.com for example), you are obliged to provide your real name and credentials for traceability. I've been helping a friend build her blog under her own domain name www.halosophia.com, but yesterday the site suddenly became unavailable.

In its place was a notice that the site had not been registered, and a redirection to the government ministry responsible for information and culture, where my friend is now required to provide her details. The redirection has been implemented by the server hosting company, who probably have a legal requirement to do this. It takes 20 days for this registration to take effect and the website to become available again.

Welcome to China!