I’ve made a new & bigger list of unblocked blogs of 2014, check it out.
Here is a list of free online blogging platforms unblocked by the Great Firewall of China, compiled in April 2013. Furthermore I have verified if the blogs are being indexed in Baidu. Please use this as a reference only, obviously the situation may change at any time the Chinese government sees fit.
Thanks to the generous guys at Great Fire, I have provided a link to the historical data of the blogging platform which checks for blocks or other restrictions within the Great Firewall. This may help to evaluate the stability of the blog’s openness in China. Click on the “TEST NOW” link to see the status of the current day.
Bluehost WordPress Hosting [never blocked]
I love this China specialised WordPress host, that has given me worry free and easy blog hosting for years. The below sites are simply no comparison, because blue host has optimised speeds to China and amazing customer service. Best of all, if your blog gets blocked, they will unblock it for you!
– wordpress
– totally ad free
– own free domain
– never blocked
– high speeds to China
– links are dofollow
– indexed by Baidu
www.blog.com [check status] [pr6]
Blog.com is a WordPress based free blogging platform with some minor ads. Unfortunately the annoying server overload outages have become a huge problem and I can no longer recommend using this.
– wordpress
– ads
– own subdomain
– links are dofollow
– indexed by Baidu
blogs.rediff.com [check status] [pr7]
Based on wordpress, but no subdomain so the blog URL is in the format http://blogs.rediff.com/yourblogname/. There are no actual ads but has a “rediff toolbar” on top of the page.
– wordpress
– no ads (toolbar)
– links are dofollow
– indexed by Baidu
www.tumblr.com [check status] [pr8]
There are no ads, you get your own subdomain and it’s great for microblogging. Tumblr toolbar sits on on top of the page. Some blockage has been reported, no longer a stable option.
– own subdomain
– no ads (toolbar)
– links are dofollow
– indexed by Baidu
tblog.com [check status] [pr4]
No ads, no toolbar neither. It’s their own blogging platform that’s really simple and easy to use.
– own subdomain
– no ads
– links are dofollow
– indexed by Baidu
jux.com [check status] [pr6]
Good for Microblogging. This site uses fancy javascript techniques but search engine robots are redirected to an escaped fragment standard to help indexing. Despite this, jux.com is not being indexed by Baidu.
– own subdomain
– no ads
– links are dofollow
– not indexed by Baidu
www.blogymate.com [check status] [pr3]
You get a page loaded with ads and all kinds of features which are included in the interface. More of a social place, but can be used for blogging. No subdomain, the URL you get is in the format: “blogymate.com/blog/yourname”.
– links are dofollow
– indexed by Baidu
You could also use these two, Baidu indexed website builders to run a blog:
www.weebly.com [check status] [pr8]
www.webs.com [check status] [pr7]
If you know of any more to add, please let me know in the comments!
Sina Blog, Baidu Space, and BlogBus wouldn’t be blocked in China (since they are based in China).
To expand your list, you could try going to this list of blogging platforms, and check each URL to see if it shows up on a Baidu search (Baidu is China’s biggest search engine).
Hello…
One big thank you 4 this article.
I just looking 4 some info how to start blogging in china. And your list are great to start with.
Thank you again sharing this info with us …
ya, thank you very much
As at April 2014 the only casualty seems to be Tumblr. it does not open over a weeks attempts.
However, BLOGGYMATE can not be found, this is maybe their issue, not the Great Firewall, as I can’t get it via VPN either. Maybe the site simply doesn’t exist any more, an “out of China” reader can verify that,
Also JUX might be marginal, their home page opens, as does their sign up, but any attempt to view sample blogs or other internal pages fails, Again, not sure where the problem lies.
All other urls are operational and various blogs hosted by them open, so they seem good to go~ albeit slow. But this is a good testing time as it is near the anniversary of the brave, heroic PLA soldiers murdering a few students and the Chinese gvt are so terrified of their own people that any site that is not registered with them is throttled back to almost death.
Hope this helps someone. April 18th 2014
Thanks for sharing. Sometimes websites stop working for no apparent reason, even if they are not blocked. And then there is the connectivity issue, if the server of the blog has a bad connection to the mainland (overall, or just randomly).
Are you talking about BlogyMate? That site is up for sure. But anyway that’s a “nofollow blog” and I’m not listing them. Actually I’m in the process of making a bigger list for 2014. Cheers mate.
The 2014 list is ready.
Cheers, Yeah Blogymate!!
Wasn’t totally sure as it has a different error to that of Tumblr, which I am certain is blocked so, you are right, Blogymate might just have had connectivity issues here during the 10 or so days I tried.
Back to Tumblr, Google Picassa is also blocked here, as is G+ and Blogger of course as near everyone knows. Anything that offers pictures is taboo as they contain images of things the Chinese say never happened.
Analytic s is still free, but can be awfully slow, Gmail is still free, but even slower, sometimes it freezes and G search, well, ya takes ya chances, sometimes it is acceptable [never fast] and sometimes, hmmm, quicker to walk to where ever and ask personally~ Or use BING: Yahoo – Microsoft have no scruples, sold their souls to get penetration here.
Keep up the good work, have a great 2014 mate… Aussie or K1W1?
I have a question – Why China blocks some websites? What is the reason for this? Content or country from where web come? Never heard about this!
By the way, thanks for an awesome list! Tblog is new to me.
The list of blogging is really too impresive and informative for me . Thanks for sharing.
Any update on how does it look like in 2018 in China? Are still some websites and/or blogging platforms blocked in China?
Same problem in my country mate..
We have the same problem in Brasil 🙁 The government has blocked many of websites..