internet - Is MSN spaces blocked or not?

Metro Society complaints in his first blog that he cannot see his weblog on this relatively blogging service without a proxy. I realized that I had not checked whether this very-easy to use and free blogging service was blocked by the Chinese censor or not.
Mostly I advise people to use the software I use, blogger, since I can help them a bit when they get into trouble, and host them on an independent hosting service, to avoid the blockade. Compared to other services the blogger-software sucks, since it has not been upgraded over the past two years, since Google bought the company. Rumors in the market say upgrades are on its way to fight off the better software of the competiton, but I should actually have a good look at MSN spaces too.
First: I switched off my proxy and could get to Metro Society without a problem. But when I pinged it, and checked the traffic, the results suggested there would be an IP-block in place. So, I'm confused. Any more experiences with MSN spaces in China?