The only thing that's "banned" regarding bitcoins in china is that financial institutions arn't allowed to trade them. You can mine them, you can set up companies that mine them, you can trade them if you're not a financial institution.
And as an aside they're the easiest way to exchange money when overseas. It's like a bank where the bank meets you at your hotel and gives you cash, and you never have to worry that your PIN won't work or your home bank will decide not to honor your transaction for fraud protection.
Yes, it's more like regulation that poorly implemented. But less people knew it at the time according to what the news and bitcoin users in China said. As a result, news related to China still can impact the price greatly sometimes, which leads people ask has China really banned bitcoin or not? You could find many discussions in term of this at the time. Of course people by now understand the "ban" itself is limited.
