By rights,after Google quit China,China authority will not block gmail service,for the fear of worst,I would like to suggest my friends to download ur gmail box.
In fact,I had synchronizing my gmail since Jan,2010.What`s the best way to download ur gmail,the Thunderbird.
Thunderbird is a free email client from Mozilla company,click the link below to download it:
Install it, and detailed information see below link;
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=cn&answer=77662修改Thunderbird - Reclaim your inbox
Thunderbird is the powerful and customizable email client from Mozilla.