Life In China Without A VPN Is No Life
Yes, I said it and I mean it! Unless your are just visiting China for a week or two at most you have to prepare yourself with a VPN (Virtual Private Network) that actually works in China. Why you ask? Because you will otherwise be walking around in the dark. Any and I mean any website that is engaged in social networking is blocked by the Chinese government. Twitter, Google, Facebook, Gettr, Rumble, Linkedin, Instagram, WhatsApp, Line, Telegram, etc etc etc are all blocked along with a host of others. Basically, if a website can’t be controlled by the government to ensure all news related to China is according to their narrative then its likely going to be unavailable in China without a VPN. A VPN will help you disguise your location and encrypt your communications so that you can’t be identified. You can make you location almost anywhere in the world. Thereby allowing you to pierce the great Chinese firewall and communicate with the outside world as you would normally do outside of China.
Since most of us depend on getting messages and important news from home in order to make travel and living arrangements, schedule meetings, keep in touch with customers. family and friends and so on. You better arrange for a VPN before you go to China. Once in China the level of difficulty goes way up to get a VPN downloaded and working. So please plan ahead. Beside helping you in China, VPN’s are very handy for a variety of useful work arounds. One purpose, in particular, that I like to use my VPN for is when I’m booking travel. Airline are notorious for adjusting their prices to local markets. So, if an airline thinks you are in Thailand booking a flight it may very well charge you less than if you booked the same flight from the U.S. One flight purchase alone could net you back the cost of your VPN. Other uses include keeping your identity private when downloading torrents and certain types of videos. There are many other uses, as well, but my focus here is on China so enough said. Anyway just get one for your security and privacy regardless of where you happen to be at the moment.
Given that you need a VPN in China the question becomes which VPN can you be sure will work in China. There are many many VPN’s available in the marketplace. I often hear Express VPN being bandied about as being the “best” in China. Well, I’m sorry but I don’t think so, Express VPN was one of the earlier VPN’s I tried while living in Shanghai and it was a nightmare for me. I was constantly bing knocked off my connection to the point that after several months I just gave up on it. And only used it in time of desperate need. Now honestly, this was back in the 2010 to 2014 time frame so they may have gotten their act together by now but I won’t be checking on that any time soon because I am super happy with the VPN I’ve used since 2015. I virtually never get knocked off when using it on my laptop or desktop computers but to be honest my mobile phone will occasionally get knocked off if I go inactive for a while which can be a little annoying.
After the bad experience with Express VPN I kept playing around with “free” VPN’s hoping to get away without spending money for something that didn’t work, again. One “free” VPN I tried was from Protonmail.com (which by the way is my favorite email service that keeps my privacy 100%). Protonmail.com has a “free” VPN that does work in China but is really only good as a temporary solution. After having tried half a dozen of these “free” VPN’s in China the result was always the same. First, the speed is purposely kept very slow, in order for you to become tired of waiting, the VPN makers all the while hoping you will give up and shell out the cash for their “full” version and second, these “free” VPN’s are easy to be knocked off-line.
Save yourself the headaches and skip any “free” VPN and go get yourself a good VPN that you know will work.
So by now you must be wondering what VPN do I use inside and outside of China. It’s a VPN that I’ve been using for over 8 years now and it’s called Astrill VPN. I was first made aware of Astrill VPN by an Australian friend during a drinking session in China, in which, I was lamenting not having a good VPN to use. My friend being the good Aussie that he is shared with me his positive experience with Astrill VPN over the course of the previous several years. Well, he convinced me to try Astrill VPN and I haven’t looked back since. I since also shared, my now lengthily experience with Astrill, with many others and have never had someone come back complaining about my recommendation. So, I feel pretty good sharing it again with you. If you are looking for a secure and reliable VPN take a few minutes and look over Astrill VPN at the link below.
