乌尔 (wu’er) is the ancient Sumerian city of Ur. According to one estimate, Ur was the largest city in the world from c. 2030 to 1980 BC. However the city started to decline from around 550 BC and was no longer inhabited after about 500 BC.
Why it is blocked: Though the city of Ur is associated with various religions, it is not fraught with contemporary tension. The blockage is perhaps related to Xinjiang or the Uygher (维吾尔 / weiwu’er) people—though weiwu’er is not blocked—or to dissident Wu’er Kaixi’s name (whose claim to notoriety stems from his interrupting Li Peng during a televised negotiation during the June 4 protests). Though his full name is banned (吾尔开希), the Wu’er portion (吾尔) is not, making the blockage of seemingly innocent Ur quite a mystery, caught in the crossfire of something opaque.
Thickening the plot more is the blocking of the Iranian city of Qazvin (加兹温 / jiaziwen), capital of the Persian Empire in the 16th century. It may just be an odd coincidence that two formerly mighty Middle Eastern cities are blocked, but perhaps there is a rhyme and reason to this.
