It's been freely available for at least a couple months but you still will not be able to get into the DB's as the DB's have been designed to NOT be available in China by the web site owners.
And whilst the forum is available now without Proxies - you MAY still want to use a proxy for safety sake. One never knows in China what the real motive is - why all of a sudden sex sites are freely available? How hard would it be for the Powers that be to check out your ISP if you've been accessing such sites directly? I for one would be worried about a knock on my door occasioned by them tracing my ISP.
I've found the best free proxy is Freegate by those guys hated by the powers that be -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freegate
Gets thru anything!!
SEAJ