Internet users in Beijing and Shanghai
While searches of random topics such as "Johann Sebastian Bach" and "dim sum" brought up English-language articles, sensitive words such as Tibet were met with a message that the browser was unable to connect to the Internet.
The move comes after International Olympic Committee inspectors told Beijing organizers that the Internet must be open for the duration of the 2008 Olympics and that blocking it "
China's government, keen to avoid sparking social discontent, keeps a tight watch over the media and often blocks or censors popular Web sites and forums where dissent may brew.
Wikipedia, which is written collaboratively by volunteers, has more than 2 million articles in English.
These include politically sensitive subjects such as Tibet and Taiwan independence, the banned Falun Gong spiritual group and the bloodily suppressed pro-democracy protests of 1989.
