The New York Times: The Chinese government appears to have blocked the ability of people in China to gain access to Google’s email service through third-party email clients, which many Chinese and foreigners had been relying on to use their Gmail accounts after an earlier blocking effort by officials, according to Internet analysts and users in China.
wasn't google and it's services were already banned in China
The great firewall of china! Im no expert but when i tried to access blocked websites in the past i used vtunnel.com and accessed gmail an facebook no problem. Well it didnt run quite right sometimes but in sire its improved as it was years ago i used it at work. There is likely other sites doing similar. It would be a shame for this to be the way of things.