Users in China are forced to change into special Chinese version of italki even if they refuse to "upgrade". And there are no discussion section,language partners and essays. The only thing you can do is to look for a online teacher. I have to use VPN first to use the normal version and start the discussion. If that's what they (website or government) really want to do, I had nothing to say.
Thankfully VPN can be used now. I don't know whether it would be blocked in the future. Maybe most Chinese users will disappear from this website at that time. Hope we could find a way to solve this.
Is this part of the anticipated 'crackdown' by the Chinese government on open access to the www ?
Who has created the special Chinese version ; is it produced by Italki to satisfy government restrictions ?
We hear that in future it will be difficult for Chinese internet users to obtain VPNs ; in that case many, maybe most, of the Chinese users of this site will effectively be excluded.