iLive iN chIna and iWant my iTunes!

We all have our vices to get us through the day. Maybe it's coffee, exercise or Diet Coke. Maybe its a little more taboo than those; chocolate, liquor or Bejeweled.

My one and only weakness (that I will admit to publically) is that I need to check my iTunes every few hours and see that adorable little swirly thing spinning away next to "downloading".  For two days now there has been no swirling. There has been no new John Stewart, Saving Grace or Hannah Montana (I didn't say all the content was for me). I am not sure why. Suddenly on Monday afternoon, any time I would attempt to go to the iTunes store I would get an error that it could not connect. 

I am not the only one in this country with the same issue (did I mention that I am currently in China... ) 

On the iTUnes message boards there have been people from all over China reporting the same issues. We all use stores from other countries, but all are being blocked now.

<http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7910158#7910158

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7910050#7910050

I have written to Apple and here is the reply:

ITunes is not being blocked in China from our end, but access to the iTunes Store IS restricted in some areas in China. This would also explain why it's happening to your friends there as well.

I would advise that you contact your ISP about this matter. Please also note though that accessing the US iTunes Store outside of the geographic region of the United States is not supported, and that attempting to access it while in China is at your own risk.

OK... well the ISP is... THE GOVERNMENT... who appears to be the one blocking the access.

So from the message boards the best guess at the reasoning for the block is content (possibly some regional support CD?... wary of typing names as I actually want this post to make it through the filters)

It is the only thing that makes sense at this point. I have lived here for 4 years with no difficulties in buying my TV from iTunes (instead of the illegal market down the street) but this block may be the thing that gets me to move home!

IS anyone else in the world having issues with the connection to the store?

Is anyone else experiencing that happy contented feeling of anticipation that comes from watching the swirly thing spin relentlessly as it is bringing me my evening hour of normalcy? 

Anyone?