Seems Wiki in English has gone the same way as YouTube, Facebook etc
www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-48269608

It will only get worse.

Nothing like a good brain freeze to whip everybody into line.
But note: it has never worked for long.

In the past it's come and gone. I guess this time it may be gone for good. Who knows?

Might be only temporarily to prevent access to information about something that happened in some square some years ago.

Dong Feng Square? Ha.Ha.

I noticed the blockage back in late April. Prevented me from looking stuff up while traveling, a real pain. Was wondering how long it would take to show up on these forums.

In the past it seemed that, without a VPN, I could not read some Wikipedia articles but could read others; but I just tried to read the Wiki on the lifetime of black holes and couldn't. (my first thought: doubtless astronomy, physics and cosmology are politically sensitive subjects? no, then I got the info I wanted from another site, also non-Chinese. So they must think Wiki's take on black holes is downright Wrong, uncivilized, morally corrupting, dangerous to the Chinese people, or maybe would hurt their feelings).
I wish Chinese university students the best of luck, now and in the funny future.

Wikipedia may well be gone for good this time. I've noticed students being encouraged to use Baidu Baike (even before the ban). Some people claim that it's an equivalent or alternative.

Yes, in the same way that boiled rice is an alternative to a full banquet.