China lifted its ban on Wikipedia and popularity is over the moon, with more than 1,200 users registering to contribute to the site every day.

Authorities had been blocking both the Chinese and the English versions of Wikipedia steadily since October 2005. The sites previously had been blocked in China only intermittently. The lengthy ban drew criticism from some intellectuals in China who pointed out that it hindered the ability to add Chinese perspective to articles on the encyclopedia sites. Last month, the block on the English site was suddenly lifted, without explanation.

Unblocking the site makes it accessible to China's more than 120 million Internet users.