Best VPN for China in 2020
What VPN do we recommend for China?
- ExpressVPN: Easy to use, fast and it has proven to be one of the most reliable VPNs for China over the past years.
- VyprVPN: Excellent quality to price ratio, good performance in China and numerous options for a secure connection.
- Ivacy: Less popular in China, but has an excellent performance at a very low price.
- NordVPN: Very complete and easy to use. It has a good performance in China if you choose the right server.
Important: Due to the increased restrictions on internet usage in China, you should always keep your VPN updated to make sure it works at its best.
What is a VPN and why do I need one in China?
As you probably already know, the internet doesn’t work like we would like it to in China and a large number of websites are blocked by the “Great Firewall.” Among the websites that you can’t access there are Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, Twitter, and Google+.
There are many other blocked websites, and depending on what you do, it may be virtually impossible for you to work in China without a VPN (Virtual Private Network). The most striking case is probably that of Google.com, which often returns an error message when used from within the Middle Kingdom.
To solve this problem, you can install a VPN, which masks your I.P. address so that your laptop appears to be connected from the U.S. or Japan even if you are in China
A VPN will allow you to bypass the firewall and access any website you want. However, you need to choose wisely: even though there are dozens of VPN services available, only a few work well in China. We have tested several of them for years and today we’re going to review the four we like the most.
Essential tips for using a VPN in China
Update the VPN app or software: It’s essential for you to always have the latest version of the VPN program or app. The Great Firewall of China is constantly being modified to limit VPN use in the country. The majority of the software updates offered by the main VPN providers have the purpose of ensuring that their VPN continues to be accessible in China.
Install the VPN before traveling to China: If you wait until you’re in China to install (and purchase) the VPN, it can be quite difficult due to the following reasons:
- Google Play is blocked in China.
- The Apple AppStore (and other app markets) don’t let you download VPN apps
- Many VPN provider websites are blocked in China.
Note: Some VPNs offer alternative websites that are accessible in China. We try to make it so that the links that you find in this article are also accessible from China, but this isn’t always possible.
OpenVPN UDP tends to be the best protocol for China: In China, the best encryption protocol for getting around restrictions is usually OpenVPN UDP (or versions of it, such as Chameleon). Make sure that the VPN that you are purchasing has this encryption protocol.
The closest servers are usually the fastest: A VPN’s speed often depends on the distance between your connection and the server. Servers in countries surrounding China, such as Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong, tend to be the fastest. However, sometimes servers in the United States are faster because they have fewer users connected to them.
We recommend having a backup VPN: No VPN is infallible, and even less so in China. If you are going to spend a long time in China and having unrestricted access to the Internet is essential for you, you should consider getting a backup VPN.
Pressure on VPNs has greatly intensified over the past years, and all VPN have undergone breakdowns in service at some time. Even though good VPN tend to recover in a few hours or days, having a second VPN can be very useful if needed.
How to choose a VPN for China
- Does it work in China? The large majority of VPNs don’t work well in China. The VPNs that we recommend in this article work in China and we use them regularly, so if they stop working, we will know.
- Is it fast? Although there are VPNs that work in China, their speed leaves a lot lacking. After trying many VPNs, we can say that ExpressVPN, VyprVPN, Ivacy, and NordVPN are among the fastest that we have used. In any event, a VPN isn’t a magical solution, so don’t expect to have the same speeds as when you’re in your country.
- Is it stable? Another common problem is that the connection is unstable (it gets constantly disconnected). The VPNs that we have chosen rarely lose their connection once they are connected.
- Does it offer good technical support? It’s essential for a VPN to have 24-hour technical support that can solve your problems in a few minutes if you have any questions or problems with your connection. Besides, the technical support should be capable of quickly solving the problems that may come up during each update to the Great Firewall.
- Do they offer a large number of protocols and servers? It’s an important detail because the Great Firewall is being constantly updated. Therefore, even if your VPN works today, nobody can assure you that it will work tomorrow. Having the possibility to choose from different protocols and servers provides you with much more flexibility. Therefore, it’s more likely that your VPN will make it through the next firewall update.
The best VPN for China
| Features |  |  |  |  | What’s the Best? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main Advantage | Fastest and Easiest to Use | ||||
| Money Back Guarantee | 30 days | ||||
| Monthly Plan | 12.95 USD | ||||
| Yearly Plan | 6.67 USD/month(exclusive offer: 3 months free) | ||||
| Support | 24/7/365(Best service in our experience) | ||||
| Server Count | 3,000+ | ||||
| Countries with Servers | 94 | ||||
| Payment Methods | Credit Card, Paypal, Bitcoin, Alipay, Union Pay and others | ||||
| Desktop Apps | Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook | ||||
| Browser Extension | Chrome, Firefox, Safari | ||||
| Mobile Apps | Android, iOS, Windows Phone | ||||
| Simultaneous Connections | Yes (until 5) | ||||
| Encryption Protocols | OpenVPN, L2TP-IPsec, IPsec, IKEv2, PPTP | ||||
| Languages Supported | 18 | Try ExpressVPN➤ |
Features Description
Money Back Guarantee: This is an important feature when choosing a VPN, most of all in China. Even though the four VPN generally work well in China, every place is different. One VPN can work better than another in Shanghai but worse in Changsha, so it is important to have the opportunity to test the VPN before making a year commitment. All the VPN we recommend offer a money-back guarantee of 30 days.
Monthly Plan: If you are traveling to China for tourism or temporarily, a VPN for only one month is the best for you. In this case, since the prices are quite similar, we recommend ExpressVPN.
Annual Plan: Annual prices for different plans may vary greatly, but if we compare the prices of plans with similar performances between the four providers (ExpressVPN, VyprVPN, NordVPN, and Ivacy), their price is 6.67 (with our exclusive discount), 3.75, 5.75 and 3.33 USD per month, respectively. Thus, Ivacy is the cheapest.
Support: When it comes down to use a VPN in China, it’s extremely important to have access to a support team that can help you when your configuration, for any reason, doesn’t work anymore. According to our personal experience, the experience of our writers based in China and the feedback of our readers (both the ones that let comments at the end of our articles and the ones that contact us by email), so far ExpressVPN is the company that is providing the best, fastest support.
Server Count: This is a very important feature, as the more servers there are, the less likely it is that your connection will be slow or get cut out due to too many users using the same server. In this aspect, NordVPN and ExpressVPN are the ones that offers the most guarantees.
Countries With Servers: This is a basic function, especially if you want to access content restricted to a specific country. Besides, it is also necessary to obtain a good browsing speed, as the closer you are to the server, the better the potential speed will be. Therefore, having a large number of servers in countries around China increases the possibility of finding one with good services. In this sense, ExpressVPN is the VPN with the most countries with servers and the most servers nearby China.
Browser extension: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari, the two most widely used browsers, allow the possibility of adding small programs (or extensions), which provide new useful tools when browsing the web. Some VPNs offer extensions for these browsers that are used to be able to control a VPN and see the state of the connection easily from your browser while surfing the web. Although this isn’t an essential option, it makes it a lot easier to use the VPN and you don’t have to open and close the browser every time that you change server. In this sense ExpressVPN is the one that offers more possibilities.
Simultaneous Connections: Today, being able to have simultaneous connections is a basic feature of a VPN, as having a reliable and free connection to the internet is not just necessary for your laptop but also for your cell phone, tablet or other devices. Having simultaneous connections saves you from the problem of having to connect the VPN depending on which device you want to use to access the internet. With this, for example, you can check Google Maps on your cell phone while you check your Gmail on your computer. All the VPN we recommend offer at least 5 simultaneous connections, which shall be more than enough.
Encryption Protocols: Encryption protocols are important to avoid censorship and to improve security. Having various possibilities will ensure that you have more weapons to avoid the Great Firewall, as some encryption protocols don’t work at times. While in China, OpenVPN tends to work the best. VyprVPN also offers a protocol exclusively designed to avoid blocking, called Chamaleon, and the new protocol WireGuard that has huge potential.
What VPN should I choose for China?
We know this is a lot of info to digest and if you aren’t a tech expert, you might be a bit lost. To help you make the right choice, we suggest that you choose the best VPN depending on your priorities (speed, price, mobile devices performance, user-friendliness, and security).
- If you’re looking for a fast VPN, then ExpressVPN is, in our experience, the fastest VPN from China at the moment. Also, it offers you the highest number of servers close to China (the closer the server, the fastest your connection will be, on principle). It has also been the VPN that in our experience has best withstood the constant updates to the Great Firewall.
- If having internet on your smartphone or tablet is a key feature for you, then you should go for Express VPN or VyprVPN.
- If you’re looking for a user-friendly VPN then, once more, ExpressVPN is the easiest of the four VPN to use.
- If you need a secure connection for transmitting sensitive data, then you should go for VyprVPN, which offers more protocols including Chameleon, which is especially designed for China, and Nat Firewall, for an extra layer of security.
- If you all you care about is the price, then Ivacy is cheapest option.
- If you need a VPN that can connect to servers from many different countries, ExpressVPN is the one that offers the most possibilities.
Still not sure what VPN should you choose?
What is the most popular VPN in China (our survey)
Your opinion is important for us, click here and tell us what’s your favorite VPN for China!
Most popular VPN for China
Below you’ll find a short review of some of the most popular VPN in China. These reviews are based on our experience using these VPN in China, so the are based on subjective criteria.
ExpressVPN
Speed, reliability, ease-of-use, stability in China, number of servers and technical service
Price
ExpressVPN is without a doubt, as of today, the most popular VPN in China and the one that we usually recommend for the majority of users. It’s a VPN that’s very easy to use and offers a service that rarely has problems, even with the poorest Internet connections and during periods of severe Internet use restrictions. The few times that problems come up with the connection, its excellent technical service tends to resolve them quickly and efficiently. Without a doubt, it’s a VPN for people that don’t want complications.
VyprVPN
Speed, security, its own servers and the Chameleon protocol
Technical service
VyprVPN is definitely one of the best VPNs for China, especially if you’re interested in having the most secure connection possible, as it offers its own servers, own encryption protocol (Chameleon™) and an additional security layer with Firewall NAT. However, it is not as reliable as ExpressVPN, especially on poor quality connections. Over the past years, it has had problems with the Great Firewall on a few occasions, but they have resolved this quickly.
Ivacy
Price, stability, dedicated IP addresses and extra options
Number of servers
Ivacy is a VPN that isn’t well-known but is very innovative (it was one of the first VPNs to offer split tunneling), with excellent services at a very low cost. Currently, out of the VPNs in its price range, it is the one that offers the best performance in China. Also, Ivacy is one of the few VPNs that offer working servers in China. Therefore, it allows getting around the Great Firewall in both directions. However, its server count and connection speed are not as good as the previous VPNs, which justifies its lower price. It’s a good alternative when large VPN providers run into problems.
NordVPN
Simultaneous connections, ease-of-use, security and dedicated IP addresses
Price and stability
NordVPN is one of the VPNs that offer the best services in China, is very complete, fast, and easy to use. However, in China, it occasionally has problems with stability, and some servers don’t work very well. During times when restrictions are increased, it holds out quite well, although it has had problems at times. While the price is a bit high, its extra security and anonymity options are worth it. Undoubtedly, it’s a VPN to keep in mind, especially if you’re looking for the possibility of having a dedicated IP address.
VPN Area
Speed, stability, price, dedicated IP addresses, simultaneous connections and extra options
Number of servers and website
VPN Area is a very high-quality VPN (stable, very fast and reliable) at a very reasonable price. Also, it tends to be less well-known than the previous VPNs, which makes it less likely to be targeted by the Great Firewall. However, it does not have as many servers and sometimes technical help is needed to make it work properly in China. VPN Area is a VPN to be taken into account if you are looking for an effective alternative to the big providers.
Surfshark
Price, easy to use, connectivity, Shadowsocks, simultaneous connections
Streaming in China, speed in China
Surfshark is an excellent option to use as a backup VPN in China. It’s a VPN that still isn’t very commonly used in the country, is very cheap, offers relatively good connectivity and stability and its speed is acceptable (despite being under that of other providers). However, in our experience, it has problems with streaming platforms when connecting from China.
Astrill VPN
Speed, private IP addresses, encryption protocols and VIP plans
Technical service and assistance, reliability, number of servers and price
Astrill is without a doubt one of the most popular VPNs in China. In the past, it had serious problems with its reliability, but after a broad restructuring of its service, it has once again become one of the most effective VPNs in China.
However, it is currently one of the most expensive VPNs and has terrible after-sale service.
PureVPN
Price, ease of use and number of countries with servers
Software, technical service, add-on prices and reliability
PureVPN is a very complete VPN at a very competitive price. However, its low price is apparent in its inefficient technical service, lack of reliability in China when restrictions are intensified or in its software (or app), which at times have errors. It’s a good VPN if you’re not worried about losing reliability and speed in exchange for a low price.
StrongVPN
Reliability, dynamic IP addresses and technical service
Encryption protocols and extra options
StrongVPN was one of the first companies to offer a VPN with quality services, and for many years, it was one of the most reliable VPNs and a sure asset for China. However, over time, it has been overtaken by the new VPNs that have appeared on the market, such as ExpressVPN, VyprVPN, or NordVPN. Recently, it has greatly improved its services, but it’s still quite a basic VPN.
TorGuard VPN
Stability, number of servers, free trial, and dedicated IPs
Performance in China
TorGuard is one of the most complete VPNs on the market, among the ones that offer a competitive price. It provides many options such as proxies for shadowsocks, dedicated IPs, DDOS protected IPs, Stealth VPN, WireGuard protocol, and others. However, in periods of restrictions, its performance in China is not optimal.
Which is the fastest VPN in China?
Determining which VPN is the fastest is quite a complicated question, as it depends on a lot of factors (encryption protocol, Chinese city from which you are connecting, the website you want to visit, and the VPN server you connect to, among many other factors).
To respond to this question, over the past months, we have been testing from within China the connection speed of the four VPN that we recommend. To do so, we have calculated the ping, download speed, and upload speed while connected to different servers of these VPN when accessing websites located in the USA, Europe, and Hong Kong. While the results obtained are complicated to interpret due to the high number of parameters involved, we have been able to come to some conclusions:
- The four VPN offer good connection speeds: In general, tests show a ping of less than 250 ms and upload and download speeds which in the majority of cases are better than speeds without a VPN.
- ExpressVPN seems to be the fastest VPN: In the different tests that we carried out, in the majority of cases, ExpressVPN is the VPN that offers the best results for the three indicators (ping, download speed, and upload speed), while in some cases VyprVPN has similar or even better results for download speed.
- The values of the tests vary greatly: In China, the connection speed varies greatly depending on the day and time, and this affects the performance of the VPN. Besides, speeds can vary also depending on the server you are connected to and where the website or data source you are accessing is located.
While ExpressVPN seems to be the fastest, this may depend on the place in China from which you are connecting. If you want to verify the performance of your VPN, in this article you can test your connection speed and also explain how to interpret the results obtained.
With these results, you will be able to know if your VPN works well (the values will be similar to or even better than without the VPN). You will as well find out the quality of your connection in China (the values you obtain without a VPN).
Description of the main encryption protocols
Encryption protocols are an essential feature when it comes to choosing a VPN, as they determine its level of security and its ability to overcome the internet blocking in China and other countries. Below you can find the main encryption protocols:
- PTTP: PTTP, with 128 bits, is the weakest encryption protocol, and because of this, it is faster than the other protocols. In addition to its speed, it has the advantage of being supported by the majority of devices.
- L2TP/IPSec: L2TP/IPsec is a 256-bit encryption protocol that is very robust but quite slow. Its main advantage is that this protocol can be used on the majority of mobile devices.
- OpenVPN: OpenVPN can be either 160 or 256 bits, and is a protocol which offers a very high level of security combined with a more than respectable speed. The main problem it has is that it is often not supported by many mobile devices, in particular, iOS systems.
- Chameleon: Chameleon is a protocol very similar to OpenVPN 256 bits, offering a good speed with very robust encryption. It has the feature that it is specially designed so that the connection cannot be identified as a VPN, therefore avoiding it being blocked.
- StealthVPN: Encryption protocol based on OpenVPN with an additional layer of traffic obfuscation. StealthVPN works with both TCP and UDP, and like Chameleon, it is designed specifically to prevent connections through automatic firewalls from being detected.
- OpenConnect: Open source protocol that works with both TCP and UDP. It was designed to replace Cisco’s AnyConnect SSL VPN. The protocol uses a TLS authentication system and DTLS to encrypt traffic. It usually has performance similar to OpenVPN.
- SSTP: This is one of the fastest protocols, and can even be faster than PTTP. Also, it offers encryption which is almost as robust as LTP2/IPSec. However, this protocol is difficult to implement on the majority of systems and is normally only compatible with Windows.
- WireGuard This is a new open protocol with much potential, and which you should keep in mind. Some VPN providers, like VyprVPN, NordVPN, and TorGuard, are starting to offer it. It is a very fast and secure protocol, as it works directly on the level of the operating system kernel. The protocol still needs a bit of development, as right now, it doesn’t do a good job of protecting anonymity (which is essential for getting around restrictions in China), and its security must be analyzed thoroughly before it can be commercialized.
Regarding China, currently, PTTP and SSTP don’t tend to work, and the protocol which tends to be most effective when it comes to getting around the firewall is OpenVPN. However, the WireGuard from some VPN providers offers good performances, sometimes even better than OpenVPN.
Performance of VPN in China
Before starting this section, we would like to inform you that these conclusions are not based on objective data; rather, they are based on our personal experience using VPN in China.
VPN work better outside of large cities: Despite not being able to find technical data to confirm our observations, it appears that the Great Firewall is much more effective in large cities such as Beijing or Shanghai. This makes it a lot more difficult for VPN to connect, and also makes connections less stable. There are even VPN that doesn’t work in these two cities, but which do work in second or third-tier cities.
Poor internet connections limit VPN performance: While this point is obvious, we wanted to highlight it, because it seems to be typical to blame things on the quality of the VPN when it doesn’t connect. Often, the problem is because the connection quality is so bad that it prevents all VPN from working normally. This situation is common on hotel WIFI networks (normally at hostels) or in cafés. The same goes for mobile data connections, as in large cities, they tend to be so saturated that they prevent VPN from working properly.
Different VPN don’t always behave the same: It’s common that depending on the place you’re connecting from, some VPN work better than others. For example, ExpressVPN might work better from your workplace internet connection, whereas VyprVPN might work better from home.
Nonetheless, as a general rule, ExpressVPN tends to have the least problems connecting, even on low-quality connections. As for VyprVPN, even though it tends to run into quite a few problems when on low-quality networks, if you have a relatively good connection and use the “connect to the fastest server” option, its services are normally very good, and at times even better than those of ExpressVPN.
As for NordVPN, even though we have been testing it for less time when connections are poor, it can have problems connecting, but over good connections, its performance is more than acceptable.
Last of all, even though we have only been using Ivacy for a short time, we can say that it offers relatively good services considering its low price. However, its performance is somewhat inferior to the VPNs mentioned above.
What to do if your VPN isn’t working in China
China is constantly updating the Great Firewall to make VPN connections harder, and even the best VPNs can fail or have difficulties connecting.
Below I list some of the things that you can do if your VPN isn’t working:
- Update its software: It’s important to always be running the latest version of the software, as many of the updates are done to prevent the VPN from being blocked by the Great Firewall.
- Change server: Even though many VPNs have an option to automatically connect to the server with the best performance, sometimes it’s useful to test which server works the best with your connection.
- Change encryption protocol: In our experience, currently, the only protocol that works well in China is OpenVPN (or versions of it, such as Chameleon). However, if you experience difficulties, you can always try with other protocols, which sometimes work as well. In order, I would try the following protocols: OpenVPN UDP, OpenVPN TCP, IKEv2, L2TP/IPSec, and SSTP. Don’t bother trying PPTP, as it has never worked in China.
- Contact the technical service: If none of the above has worked for you, you can contact your VPN’s technical department to find out what is happening (it might be temporarily out of service in China) and get a recommended configuration for getting around the Great Firewall. This is why we place a lot of importance on the quality of the VPN’s technical service. Good VPNs respond efficiently and are capable of quickly reacting when the Great Firewall blocks their service.
- Port forward to port 433: This is a more technical solution and isn’t usually necessary. We don’t recommend it for the majority of users.
If you use ExpressVPN on this page you will find up-to-date information on the state of the VPN in China and recommendations for getting the best performance.
What is IP leaking and how can it affect me?
When you use a VPN, in theory, your IP address is masked and external observers and the websites you visit can’t determine your real IP address.
To put it simply, IP leaking is when your real IP address is discovered by the webpage you are visiting (normally through the execution of a script) despite you using a VPN. This causes you to lose your anonymity and your geolocation may be detected.
In addition to the anonymity problems that this may pose, IP leaking can make a VPN useless for accessing geographically restricted websites.
While there are many ways of avoiding IP leaking, some of them are quite complicated for people who aren’t experts on the subject. Even so, there are simple measures that can substantially reduce the likelihood of this happening.
Obviously, the better your VPN, the lower the likelihood of IP leaking.
The other precaution has to do with choosing your browser. Studies carried out on multiple browsers show that without a doubt, Microsoft Edge is the worst of them all and in this sense, Safari is the most secure. Opera and Google Chrome are similar and despite being better than Edge, are quite insecure. Mozilla Firefox is quite secure without reaching the same level as Safari.
Tips to optimize your VPN
- Give the VPN permissions: Sometimes VPNs can be detected as malware by your operating system. If you want to use the VPN, you will have to give it permissions so that your firewall doesn’t block it. It’s important to make sure you’re using a trustworthy VPN (like the ones we recommend in this article), as many VPNs can be dangerous for your laptop or smartphone.
- Servers: As a general rule, choose servers located in countries nearby for better VPN performance
- ExpressVPN: Follow the instructions on this page
- VyprVPN: The chameleon protocol is a bit slow, so only use it if the others are not working
- NordVPN: Use obfuscated servers. The servers that tend to give the best performance are Japan 20-22 and the Singapore obfuscated server
- Ivacy: Use the OpenVPN UDP protocol, the Unblock Websites function, activate Switch to Secure DNS and IPv6 Leak Protection. Australia and Hong Kong tend to be the best servers.
Is it illegal to use a VPN in China?
We aren’t lawyers and we are certainly not qualified to provide any legal advice. So what follows is just our personal opinion:
As far as we know, using a VPN in China isn’t illegal. Even so, there are a lot of contradictory rumors and news on the subject, which means that currently, it’s difficult to say which VPN can be used legally and which can’t. Even if it’s true that VPN gets often blocked, on the other hand, VPN is a necessary tool to improve security at companies, and because of this, it would make little sense to declare all VPN to be illegal.
However, in January 2017 the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology declared that the VPN services in China will now need to obtain a government approval.
The new regulation seems to only refer to VPN providers that operate from within China. It’s not clear yet how (and if) this will also affect VPN providers that operate from outside China (like the ones we recommend).
As of July 2017, the apps of the main VPN have been removed from Apple’s App Store in China. While this doesn’t stop you from using them (you can download them outside of China or configure the VPN manually), this indicates that multinational corporations are taking what’s happening seriously and are trying to adapt.
In any event, you should keep in mind that when using a VPN, it doesn’t necessarily have to be illegal: it depends on the situation, and what you do with the VPN can be illegal or not. For example, if someone uses a VPN (to avoid being identified) to scam people, it’s obvious that this activity is illegal and will, therefore, be prosecuted.
One last warning: When you use a VPN, it’s as if you were connecting from the country where the server is located (normally the United States). Because of that, intellectual property laws can be a lot stricter than what you’re used to in China, where regulations are much laxer in this sense. Therefore, do so at your own risk.
For more information on the subject, I recommend reading this article
What websites are blocked in China?
The list of websites blocked in China is long and changes every day. Generally speaking, the most popular social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, etc), blogging platforms (WordPress.com, Blogspot, etc), Google services (Google.com, Gmail, Google+, Google Hangouts Google Docs, etc), messaging applications (WhatsApp, Line) and media websites that may be or have been critical towards China (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and LeMonde, just to provide some examples) are blocked.
Then, there are websites or software that aren’t blocked but are so slow that they become practically useless. The most common example is probably Skype, which works on and off (for calls, messages usually work fine).
Generally speaking, most of the websites that aren’t hosted in a Chinese server will be slow, when you try to connect from within China. This is especially true after 8 PM (Chinese time), as this corresponds to both American and European working times. This implies that the traffic in and out the Chinese network will be larger, and tends to saturate fairly often.
The best way to overcome this problem is, of course, to choose a VPN that is working well in China!
Free VPNs for China
We NEVER recommend using a free VPN. They are generally a huge risk to your security and privacy.
Maintaining a VPN that works in China implies a significant financial expense, and therefore you should ask where the VPN is getting this money from.
My recommendation is that you should carefully examine any VPN of this type before installing it, as in many cases, it will install other things, such as programs that display ads while you are browsing, programs that store your browsing data to sell it to third parties or programs that use your computer as a server (your laptop and your Internet connection will work much more slowly). Plus, in the worst case, they are simply viruses or malware.
Given that they only cost a couple of euros a month, there is no doubt that the best option is to buy a decent VPN.
If I haven’t convinced you, I recommend that you read this article first.
Other frequently asked questions
If you have an Apple device (iPhone or iPad), first you have to manually configure the VPN (see the instructions on the VPN provider’s website), connect, and then later use the App Store to download the app. Keep in mind that if you try to download the VPN app directly from the App Store before connecting your VPN, you will get an error message. You can get more detailed information in this article.
Nonetheless, the large majority of VPN websites are blocked and their apps have been withdrawn from the App Store and Chinese app markets.
You don’t need to buy a VPN for China as long as you don’t use any of the websites and apps blocked in the country, such as all of Google’s services, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter, among many others.
In any event, China has services that are equivalent to those that are blocked, such as Baidu, WeChat, and Weibo, among others.
However, it’s important to cancel recurring payments if you want to avoid automatically being charged the fee for the following month.
However, you should know that once in China, the App Store will prevent you from downloading (or updating) VPN applications. If you want to use a VPN on your Apple device, you will have two options: downloading the app outside of China or configuring it manually (VPN websites tend to have detailed instructions on how to do this).
Remember that once the VPN is connected, you will be able to download or update the app without any problem.
However, many apps aren’t available unless you use a VPN, such as VPN apps, WhatsApp, Skype, and many others.
[Photo Credits First Photo (Creative Commons CC0): Pixabay.com].
Hello,
i am from main land china using OneVPN with Cisco anyconnect client its flawless, work for me like a camp.
For years I have used the Chinese VPN XiYou (https://xiyou360.net/login), once recommended by a Chinese friend. It’s super cheap (20-30 RMB per month), it always works and the speed is great. These international VPN companies are in general less good for China.
Check out PureVPN trail for 7 days with 47% onwards.
I live in China and have done for the last 25 years, so no nipping home and loading a new VPN. Totally agree with Huge Mason. Windscribe is good, reliable and has a free option. Also there are some very good free services out there which unlike the paid ones do not grind to a halt at the week end. They limit user not band width and speed, which the rip you off boys cannot do. Obviously ExpressVPN pays the best affiliate link commission!
Windscribe free accounts limit bandwidth and you grant them the permission to send you mail advertising and include adds during browsing. The paid version might be a good option for China and we might consider testing it, but I don’t like their refund policy (at least Express and the other VPNs recommended here, can be tested and if you don’t like their service they give your money back). Anyway, I always suspect services that promise privacy but at the same time, they offer free accounts.
Sorry, Windscribe ‘free’ does not send ads or include ads while browsing. It has been as reliable as Express , which was blocked for me last year.
The CCP plays cat & mouse; frequently pulling the plug on Express, Nord, etc..
The free version give’s you 10GB and limited bandwidth, you can allow them to send adds to your email to increase you bandwidth. What I want to say is that no VPN is really for free and I prefer to pay for a good service instead of trying to find out where they get the money from.
How can you guys keep pushing Express and Nord unless you are getting paid to do so. Before I cam to China and after reading articles such as you put out. I bought a subscription for both Express and Nord, Express never worked full stop managed to get my money back. Nord does not work as it says I had to go over to their OpenVPN which does work, nut why should I go to all this trouble to get it working. Its like buying a car then having to tune and reconfig the engine before you buy it. From comments here and other blogs it is obvious that China blogs are bought by the big VPN suppliers and do not represent actual working conditions here in China.
You can read our disclaimer to know more about this, you have plenty of options faster than Windscribe. The big suppliers offer faster speeds and they are more reliable long term, but obviously are also a target in periods with increased restrictions. If you want the best performance of a VPN is normal that you need to adjust their settings.
Anyway, in my case, most of the time I use ExpressVPN because it’s fast. When Express have problems, I usually use VyprVPN or other smaller providers like Ivacy or Surfshark
I understand I have other options than Windscribe, but it has never let me down like Express and Nord. Sorry I cannot believe you use Express most of the time as my experience and the experience from a lot of other expats in China is that it does not work, period. Sorry to go on about this but I am really peed off that after extensive searching for VPN to use in China before coming here, the two highly rated, by reviews, turned out to be crap and I was lucky to have a freebe that actually worked and got me out of the poo.
Hi Hugh, I know that Express isn’t perfect but, at least in my experience, when it works is the one that gives me the best performance (I always follow their recommendations for China).
About Nord, it had problems recently but it’s still is a big provider that has the ability to fix the connectivity problems faster than smaller providers.
Also, in this article, you have some other good alternatives: Vypr, Ivacy, Surfshark, Strong and Astrill. VPN Area and PureVPN are also good VPNs but sometimes are a bit too slow or less unreliable.
The idea is that there isn’t a “perfect VPN” and you should try some of them and stick with the ones work better for you. Almost all of them have the 30-day refund policy
ExpressVPN is not the most effective in China, you just say so because of affiliate referral like everyone else. The trusted research site https://cc.greatfire.org/en?d=1 measures speed and reliability in real time updated everyday. Express is for normies, but tech savy researchers do not respect ExpressVPN but rather free software like Tor, Lantern, VPNGate, Psiphon, and I2p. According to GreatFire, today the free Lantern circumventor is 84% faster than Express in China.
Our experience is really different from what the greatfire says, in our experience, PureVPN and HideMass (that they rank quite good in greatfire) don’t work or have really low performances in China. We test the VPNs in real conditions not automatically and considering user experience.
Ps. greatfire is full of affiliate links
Ps2. Lantern is a peer to peer tool and I will never recommend it because may pose a risk to its users
I believe GreatFire is less biased. I’m pretty sure peer to peer is a good thing. It makes the circumventor more sustainable, decentralized and resilient.
Yes, and more difficult to control security threads.
I don’t say that GreatFire is biased, it’s a great resource, just that most of the data is collected automatically and our personal experience is different of what they get.
The last time we checked Tor wasn’t working and only covers browsing
Also, just a suggestion if you use a free VPN you have to be really careful, most of them are basically malware
There are a couple ways to get Tor working in China. You could find or be given a Obfs4 bridge through a social network. You could run your own private Obfs4 bridge back at home in the West and connect from China. And you could use the Meek bridge. You could technically force Tor connections for your whole operating system by using something like TailsOS, but installing additional programs is not user friendly.
Unlike a paid VPN, Tor is anonymous. Also the free tools: Tor, Lantern, VPNGate, Psiphon, and I2p are very legit software, and highly respected by tech researchers. But some of them may or may not be ideal for privacy :-/
Hi Bart, thank you for the feedback. There’re excellent ways to circumvent de GFW. However, for common people without thechonlogy knowledge is easier and safer to use a paid VPN. I would never recommend to use Tor to a person that don’t know what is doing.
Tor is slow and tricky to get working in China, therefore I recommend Lantern. But if anonymity is part of your ‘threat model’ I recommend Tor. I’m not denying, VPNs can have great benefit too: circumventing geo-blocking, preventing ISP throttling, prevent web tracking (but only if you isolate/delete cookies), hence getting unbanned from a site, securing your local connection in an insecure environment (library, coffee shop wifi, school, or doggy ISP), and even saving money on an airplane ticket!
Well said @Bart, Expressvpn is crap, constant disconnects, It gets blocked every other week and then have to wait for them to fix, The Author is completly biased because of affiilate referrals… waste of an article, should have juts title the post, Advertisement for Expressvpn!
Do you have a better one? All the VPNs mentioned here have good performance and they are secure to use. I’ve been using Express for a long time and even is far from being perfect is still the most reliable for me.
Here are some better ones: 1. the paid version of Lantern, 2. Freegate, 3. XX-Net, 4. Outline with google cloud
I ended up using Windscribe, can be a bit slow but works each and every time.
NordVpn has been down for nearly 2 weeks and its impossible to get a clear answer on when they will be back up. Very dissappointed with my subscription and if not back up soon will ask for a refund.
I was with ExpressVPN for a few years and there service seemed pretty good and reliable, however when I came to renew last year the price had shot up. More than double what I had been paying. So I decided to try an alternative, now I’m thinking this might have been a mistake. I might give Vypr a try next time however.
Yes, all the popular VPNs are having problems this year, this is why I have always a backup. Vypr is not a bad option, but also was down sometime this year (but they recovered quite fast). Anyway, still Express is my preferred option when it works well is faster than any other VPN in my personal experience
I am staying in Shenzhen in China and I recently bought Nord VPN in August 2019 but I could not use it because it did not work so Nord VPN refunded my money. So I advice other people that don’t by Nord VPN if you are in China.
Sometimes NordVPN gets blocked as other VPNs, but normally they can recover the service quite fast
That’s what I thought but looks like this time is a major problem.
I understand, recently I haven’t had time to check Nord, I’ll ask them and let’s see if I get a better answer.
try using pure. youll be able to use the pptp protocol which is fast as well. thats the only one currently working consistently in china. also its very cheap at the moment because of halloween so worth a try
Pure has a lot of problems in China, it’s a long time I don’t try to use PPTP protocol, but in my experience was the first protocol to be completely blocked in China (almost 8 years ago)
Just want to share my latest experience in China.
ExpressVPN: not working well after the recent CPC conference (apps), but my VPN router is working fine. You may need to switch the server location if the router is not working.
Nord VPN: not working. have talked to the customers services and Nord provides me a “special troubleshooting” method. It’s not very user friendly but at least the problem is solved.
https://support.cn-nord.info/Connectivity/Troubleshooting/1047408742/Connecting-from-a-country-with-internet-restrictions.htm
Windscribe: it’s my backup VPN for free. It’s working surprisingly well and even better than ExpressVPN and Nord. Good enough for short trip traveler.
Hope the above information can help.
I guess it’s time to leave this country. Start feeling annoying to stay in China.
I was in China for two weeks in mid May 2019. I tried both Express VPN and Shadowsock (hosted by Digital Ocean), for purpose of comparison.
Both worked well at beginning in Shanghai, Beijing and several days in Nanjing. Shadowsocks had more reliable connection. While ExpressVPN had more bandwidth when connected. I was amazed by the good results on my Android phone and laptop. But both stopped working around June 1. I tried different server sites of ExpressVPN including US, Hong Kong, Japan etc. None worked. Shadowsocks had the same story. Both were useless until I left China, regardless I continuously trying. Very frustrating. I had no clues at that time. Thinking back, it is coincident with the time when China imposed counter measures against US’s sanctions early June. This is an observation for reference. Consumer VPNs (like ExpressVPN and Shadowsocks) are vulnerable to be sacked by China’s Great Wall. They are big targets. I would like to hear whether they are usable now in China. Both are not reliable tools in my case.
Hi Lake, at the moment I can tell you that Express is working quite well but they are still are working to recover the 100% functionality from the 1st June “attack”.
Yes form time to time China is able to nearly shut down the use of VPN; however reliable providers don’t take a long time to recover from it.
About Shadowsocks, I have little knowledge at the moment
I’ve been using expressVPN since 2017 so far their services are good and the speed is acceptable but after 6/1 all the servers were blocked, below the apps said that connectivity is impacted due to political events. I have a back-up VPN (Thunder VPN) but all the servers are also down. I don’t know if all other VPNs are affected by the said political event but are there any other VPNs that are still working.
Thanks.
NordVPN is also not working
Express is aware of the problem, and they are working to restore the service
What about NordVPN?
NordVPN (as all VPNs) also had problems during last months, but normally the obfuscated servers work quite well
Hi, there, I really want to recommend a new service provider to you right now. It’s called SSRocket. It’s a new service based on the socks protocol. You can go to our website, they have some introductions
Now we offer a trial in a small range at a very low price of $6.99 per month，And if you are not satisfied, you can get a refund at any time. We also support PayPal payment.
Another important point is that because of the working principle of traditional VPN, its traffic characteristics are very obvious, which can be easily recognized by GFW and thus blocked. But we don’t have that concern at all.
If you’re interested in trying，You will get unlimited data traffic, secure, stable, fast, and very nice customer service.
Hope you guys all best.
My fiancee lives in China until her fiancée visa is approved to come to the US. How can she get skype downloaded so we can talk to each other.
Skype doesn’t work very well in China… She can either get a VPN, or you can get WeChat, which is free, and you guys can talk via WeChat
If she has a VPN, she can talk to you using Facebook messenger, which is better than WeChat. WeChat notifications are often problematic. We provide free trial and guide
2 months ago I visited China and that time I used VeePN. It worked well.
Hi Daniel, never heard about it!
Surprisingly, I always use it when I travel. You can quickly connect to the server and use VeePN on your phone and laptop it is very convenient)
My business between China to Hong Kong, so I will be at China every night, also communicates with my client using WhatsApp!
So I subscribed NORDVPN at the end of last year for my two iPhone & one MacBook pro, at the first five month so far so good, I can connect VPN server using iOS app/Mac OS App. When iOS VPN disconnect suddenly it can be connect again automatically. But you must enable Connect On Demand before you connect VPN. Go to the setting → VPN→”i” you will see it!
Some day of April 2019, 99% NORDVPN obfuscated servers offline, just two location within three server online only, at that time very hard to connect server.
Next day, NORDVPN obfuscated servers a 100% offline. I ask custom support what’s going on? They said it will have new servers launch at few days, tell me wait patiently (I am being cheated at that day)!
Also custom support want me to install IkeV2 profile to my two iPhone and send me some server address list and they say it could be connect servers, I follow their instruction setup, install, input server address, after that connect successful but it is a nightmare beginning!
Every time when I connect NORDVPN at China using IKeV2 it could be success but after few minutes or a hour must disconnect automatically, so you need to connect manually again because it don’t have Connect On Demand function you can enable it. You need to eyes on your iPhone every minutes or hours to check connection, if you don’t you will miss a lot of instant message like WhatsApp, FB, Line, etc.…..
I ask custom support again when the new serves online? They always same answer, (few days will be launch, ETA, try to IKeV2 profile etc.…) I begin anger and ask again is that any way to connect NORDVPN, and they reply me it is only way I can do now! Some of custom support tells me networking reset, WIFI network reset, Renew Lease; I can say it is noting to help the connection!
One more question I ask custom support did they support iOS now? But they don’t want answers me! Just tell me manual connect IKeV2!
When you want to subscribe NORDVPN service please consider what they can provide? If you are using iOS, don’t subscribe! Android, Windows, Mac OS, I think it should be fine!
I think VPN is a must yeah things might be different with various brands but for me, I have been using Express VPN and it seems to be best for me
try the lanternvpn(getlantern.org). whenever expressvpn doesn’t work, lantern vpn works perfectly(free version!)
Hi George, Latern isn’t a VPN, it’s a peer-to-peer software, so the users act as “servers”. Als,o I suggest you to read a bit their privacy policy because it’s a bit “scary”.
Anyway thanks for the tip, it might be useful in case of emergency, though I prefer TunnelBear in those cases
sometimes expressvpn is really a crap programme.this whole week it doesn’t work at all in China. Do you know which programmes work? the FREE (yes free!) betternet vpn and the FREE lantern vpn!! This is unacceptable since we pay for expressvpn and it is considered to be the best(not any more!!)
Hi there, there is a congress in China at the moment. It’s pretty normal that during important congress the most popular VPN don’t work so well, because they are the one that get the most attention.
As for free vpn, they might not get so much attention. However, be careful with free vpns, as running a vpn server is not free, so they often come with several “catches” (like using your laptop as a server for other users etc). So, make sure to read the fine prints of the terms of services of free vpns, before installing one in your laptop!
getlantern has failed for sure,for the time being.
And what time it was peer-to-peer???
If it were that,it may not get banned so easily,even it has been surviving for enough long.
It’s the 29th of October and my Express VPN is not working in China. Express VPN have confirmed there is a problem and engineers are looking into it. The irony is I’m using a free VPN to type this message. If you are in China you can’t totally rely on a single VPN.
Hi Ralph,
I agree with you, it’s better to have at least two : )
And yes, Express seems to be aware of the pb and is offering a fix: https://www.get-express-in-cn.space/support/troubleshooting/china-status/
I think expressVPN does not work anymore. 29.10.2018 I’m in Beijing and are not able to connect to any server. Does anyone have the same problem?
Same here. Could be down for maintenance. Let’s see if it works tomorrow.
Hello David,
right, it seems there are sme problems. Note that this can happen (and happens) to any VPNs, this is not a simple technology.
The good news is that Express VPN is aware of the problem and offered a fix pretty fast: https://www.get-express-in-cn.space/support/troubleshooting/china-status/
Have you guys heard of penguinproxy? It’s relatively new but it worked well for me in China and is free and secure (and has a great privacy policy).
I think enough emphasis cannot be made over the fact how a VPN can easily help circumvent geo restrictions, hide your IP and unblock any website in any country. My experience with Ivacy VPN so far have been great and I am unable to unblock websites in Chine when I go there on business trips.
Guys, you should check smaller VPNs too. Some of your picks did not work for me and some worked like a slow slow slooow torture. I’m using Surfshark VPN right now and I dunno if it’s because it’s less known or maybe less China users have tried it but I have absolutely no issues. There’re no specific settings to pick or servers that you have to connect to so it’s less hassle and no servers seems to be blocked so far. I just hope that they will add more countries as options around the region some time soon.
Hello Brett,
I agree in principle, that’s why we added VPN Area.
In July 2018 VPNBaron worked for me in mainland china
In general, it’s a good practice to use VPN on daily browsing. Two months ago I went on vacation to China, and just before my trip got a one-month Nordvpn subscription thinking I am only going to need it for this trip, but recently extended to another two-year plan. My resume is that using VPN is a good practice for your safety and anonymity which is increasingly vulnerable nowadays
I personally recommend ExpressVPN. It works well on almost all devices plus their website isn’t blocked from China so you can easily contact their customer service just in case you encounter any problem.
Thank you for your feeback!
That is pathetic, so many things are being taken away from Chinese citizens. I know from my personal experience when traveled in China, a reliance on Google or any other services in China for a someone visiting China like me is a big problem, but there is a solution to a problem, and that is Nordvpn. Highly recommend to travelers or to someone concerned about security!
Hi Olli,
we tend to avoid “judgement” on this website, however I agree that NordVPN is one of the best, at the moment.
Hello Sborto,
I read in a review on astrill (see here vpnmentor.com/reviews/astrill-vpn/) that they have poor support and the integrity is questionable.
I was wondering what is your opinion on this?
First off Express VPN is pure and utter shit!!! Period. Every bloody website promotes their crappy service, for pure referal links. Just like the author am sure.
Shadowsock people try it, rent your own VPS at half the bloody cost of expressvpn.
We’ve used Express for years, but recently swapped over to using the browser cocoon. It isn’t actually a VPN but works the same way. It’s free and so far has been working a treat. Might be worth a quick review of that! getcocoon.com
Thank you for your suggestion. I must say that I’m a bit skeptical about free options as the maintenance of servers it’s quite expensive and in some way they have to get the money back (cocoon works exactly like a VPN), I had really bad experiences with free VPNs. Anyway I’ll give it a try.
The only problem I see is that will not unblock the apps in your cellphone as whatsapp or any other software like google services or dropbox, etc.
Hi dgs,
May I know where did you use the brower cocoon?
Thank you!
Hello,
I want to know if the Express VPN works in every city, like small cities? Also I want to know which is the best VPN to unblock snapchat, Instagram and etc?
Express VPN is probably your best bet, at the moment
Always the same vpn companies in your “updates”. ExpressVPN must pay you a pretty penny for the advertising. Not to mention they are a honeypot. China knows which vpns are out there especially when they are always mentioned at the top of these “review” sites.
There are many absolutely free VPNs that work well in China for social and streaming needs. Do some research people.
Hello Josh,
your first statement (“always same companies”) is just plain wrong. We added NordVPN only a month ago, and cut another VPN, simply because NordVPN is now working better than the other.
As for ExpressVPN, is simply the one that works better at the moment (and has for long time). As for Vypr, it’s slower than Express, but it offer more secure protocols. We state this pretty clearly. The problem is that most of people that visit our website just want to access Facebook and have a fast connection, not send encrypted information…
Also, note that in the past we were recommending very different companies. When we first wrote this article, our top recommendation was StrongVPN. Why? Because it was one of the best at that time.
Finally, good luck with free VPN that use your processor to power their VPN without you knowing it, spam you to death, and so on! I don’t blame them, run a decent VPN costs TIME & MONEY (hardware, software, electricity, etc). Very few people are giving away their money and time for free!!!
Omg, thank you so much. I was panicking because the VPN I used before didn’t work now and I can barely read Chinese (so I didn’t know about the ban) and this article really helped me find the working VPNs and knowing what’s happening now. I can’t thank you enough. Kudos!
You are welcome : )
Hi, Furio,
Can you have a update on the current situation in China? I will go to china and stay there for two months. My request is very simple, I need get access to google and google scholar.
T.
Hello Tina,
this article is updated! Google is blocked in China
I want to thank you for providing the finest answers available online concerning VPN’s.
: )
Hello guys, I know there are a few VPNs that are still available in China but I just want a freeeeee one. Who can help me?
Although it’s not a good choice.
We don’t recommend free VPNs: they either don’t work, slow down your pc or spam you
Being a frequent visitor to china, I have purchased both vyprvpn and expressvpn. Vypr service is terrible. Their staff really aren’t interested in solving your problem. I switched to expressvpn and whilst both get blocked at times, expressvpn service is fantastic, knowledgeable and patient. They have their finger on the pulse. I even managed to download express whilst in china when vypr got blocked completely and they couldn’t get it going on one of my devices … Lots of promises but no answers. Streaming can be a bit slow at times but hey that’s china.
Fyi, I bought an Anycast device to stream to my tv there, it works ok For YouTube, but does anyone know if I buy an Apple tv or chromecast will it work ok using my vpn in china?
Most VPNs have apps for Apple tv or they explain how to use it. The other option is to run the VPN in your router
Hi! I have invitation to conduct Big Data Analysis training in China during 1 year. I am very concerned that I was warned that the use of VPNs has been recently restricted. Is there any way to access Twitter , Facebook from China then ?
Using VPN is still a valid solution, and also the best at the moment.
HI,
I would like to know if I use VPN, is there any usage limit like 3 gb limit per month or is it unlimited?
Most VPNs (such as the ones mentioned here) have no usage limit
you can use photobucket to post pictures. it’s not blocked. photobucket was the biggest photo website before instagram
Thank you for the comment
Hey Guys. Thanks for this information about the Vpn services, specially the information you have provided about the China. I also traveled to the China few months ago and https://www.travelchinacheaper.com/best-vpn-for-china these are some facts you should know about the VPN service in the China, because some of the VPN are blocked in the China. Keep sharing like this.
Hi! does expressVPN still work in Beijing now? I believe there is a very important meeting in China and a lot of VPNs are blocked? What VPN service still works at the moment? Thanks!
Until tomorrow, many VPNs may not work! It also depends on the city and your internet connection though.
Hi there,
I tried clicking the links for the 3 recommended vpns and none of them worked. I am currently in shanghai and using chrome as my web browser.
It seems the restrictions got upgraded today, as I couldn’t even open ANY Wikipedia pages today, which normally is accessible w/o vpns.
Hello Sam,
yes, that seems something quite “special”
Hello, is Viber still blocked in China? Is Whatsup blocked in China? Does there exist any “substitute ” for Viber ? I heard about iMessage, WeChat…
Thanks
As far as I know viber is blcked in China. Whatsapp is still not working but might change at the end of this month. Wechat is the Chinese an alternative to this services. Anyway if you use a VPN you’ll be able to use this services without problems
Recenly I found that VPN got filtered a lot in China, now I switched to ShadowsocksR, it works really well, and also it’s a open source project, I usually host a SSR server on ladder9.cloud
There is another good VPN service that I use and you can use it and see Netflix.
NordVPN,
they have openvpn htat you can use in China. I have not had many issues and via
chat they will solve issues immmediately.
Is there anyone that has experience with NordVPN in China?
Hi,
I experience in used NodeVPN in China. But it is bad VPN. It’s speed is low and It was often disconnected.
So currently I am using Astrill.
Thanks.
Hello Giorgio,
we didn’t test it yet. The 3 we recommend so far work fine.
Hi, I’m planning to go to Shanghai in a few weeks time. I’m thinking of using Expressvpn however they need my address and city when I want to pay. I’m not sure if this is safe as I checked other vpns but they don’t require your address. Also is expressvpn blocked in China? Will I still be able to use my social media platforms?
Yes it’s safe, it’s for billing purposes (you can add a fake address if is a problem for you). ExpressVPN isn’t blocked in China if not won’t be here. If you connect express you’ll be able to use your social media platforms
Oh, I forgot to ask my question. I’ve been hearing stories that all VPN’s will be banned in China by February, is it true?
The information isn’t true, but it’s clear that some additional restrictions will be implemented during this year to avoid VPN use in China. We aren’t sure what will happen with the private use of VPN’s as the government can be unpredictable, but in my opinion it won’t be completely banned.
Hi, Thanks for sharing your knowledge of VPN’s, I have been living in China for 7 years and would be completely bored/unobtainable without my VPN, I have tried many VPN’s and none worked well until I discovered ExpressVPN, I used to even try lesser known paid VPN’s such as Go Trusted and Break Wall as I thought that they would be less likely to get blocked, but they only worked for a short while and Break Wall kept logs and sent me warning for downloading torrents.
By the way, my Express VPN wouldn’t update on iOS even while connected to VPN, I had to uninstall it and reinstall it from UK App Store before it would update to the new V6.6.1
Also, don’t bother with IPVanish, it doesn’t work in China and it’s hard to get a refund, it took me 2 months of continuous complaining
Thank you for your feedback. About the update, have you asked the express’s support service? Maybe there is the option.
I’ve used PureVPN and VyprVPN and liked them both very much. I found ExpressVPN to be too expensive for my taste. At the moment I am in China and am using NordVPN which is also great tbh. However, I needed a special link to access it in China (try it out, I wonder if it works for others as well. While NordVPN is not that cheap either, I managed to get a coupon code that reduced the cost greatly. I’m posting it here, hope I can help someone save a few bucks. The code is ‘NordChina’. Happy anonymous surfing!
Thank you for your feedback, we have little experience with NordVPN, but I can say that ExpressVPN’s price is worth because experience it’s the most reliable in China.
hi, i’m going to study in Jinhua, Zhejiang province, I want to know which VPN is best? Which one would you recommend?
Thank you!
Hello Alex, we still recommend Express VPN!
Hi,
first of all thanks for your really great website! It’s fantastic, how much information you are providing!
I plan to go to Shanghai in October for 2 weeks and I’m looking for an easy way to get full internet access. Besides the solution via VPN which you suggest, I found the possibility to buy a prepaid SIM card from prepaidzero.com which provides 5 GB of data for 30 days. They tell on their website, that with this SIM Card you could access Internet without restrictions. They say “As the sim card is issued abroad there is NO BLOCKING of applications and websites by the Chinese government”. This offer would absolutely fulfill my needs, even if it is not really cheap. I would use my old Samsung S4 with this SIM-Card and provide a hotspot WLAN for my wife`s and my Apple and Android tablets. Do you have any information or experience if this is working? Anybody out there who already tried it?
Thanks a lot,
Jörg
Hi Jorge some people use Hong Kong SIM cards to avoid the blocking, I’ve never used the prepaidzero so I don’t know if it works or not. However this solution is more expensive than a combination of Chinese SIM card and a VPN. The VPN have also the advantage that you’ll be able to use the free WiFi available in most hotels, cafes and bars. Also having a Chinese SIM card you’ll be able to make much cheaper calls than using a foreign SIM.
Hi Sborto,
thanks for your feedback, I think then I’ll try VPN with a Chinese SIM. I didn’t think about the possibility using VPN via free hotel WIFI, good hint!
All the best, Jörg
Joerg happy to be useful
Please how can I access expressvpn when I get to China? Like the mirror website or something like that. Because of my country restrictions, I can’t buy any VPN before I move to China. International payment is not allowed. Also currently expressvpn only accepts PayPal, can I use a Chinese unionpay card on PayPal? Thanks.
Hi there, I think most of the links from our website shall work also from within china at the moment
You can use Union Pay, Wechat or alipay to pay for expressvpn
a friend of mine still lives there. says it’s almost mandatory to have one there for educational purposes and study material, not to mention, for unblocking sites too and is using ivacy and express (yes, two) to always be in a position to unblock sites, even though authorities haven’t been to happy with vpns lately.
If I understand it is a thing between EXPRESS VPN and VyprVPN.
Which one would you take or recommend to me ? Which is the best
for Kunming ?
I would suggest ExpressVPN (it’s more reliable), but you can test both of them, as they both come with a guarantee
Thank you very much for answering so fast.
Then only the question about the VPN.
What do you think which VPN works best in Kunming ?
Hi !
I want to fly to China to the Town Kunming, Chengdu, Chongqing,, Beijing and later other chinese cities.
So I want to use good internet with my android smartphones. My german smartphone is a samsung Galaxy S6 G920F with 120 GB . It is bought in germany and works with FDD-LTE hardware-system. It is working with Android 7.0 and has all google apps installed.
In Beijing in china I bought a chinsese Smartphone SAMSUNG Galaxy S6 edge plus with 64 GB named „Samsung SM-G9280“. The reason for that was that Asia use Hardware-System TDD-LTE in their smartphones. Do you know the different between Asia LTE and germany LTE ?
So my german smartphone only works witg 2G but most only edge. So after 2 minutes you do not want to use more internet.
So, because I go to china every year and I do not want to go to internet with edge I decide to bought the same Samsung Smartphone in China in Beijing but with TDD-LTE. And I bought a chinese 4G prepaid card The disadvantage ist that there are no google apps installed and working on the chinese Smartphone. But I can go to the internet with 4G. That is very good. It is from „china mobil“.
I try it in germany. I took the google-apk-file from my german smartphone and install it on my chinses smartphone. It do not work. It crashed in 1 second.
So I want to install a VPN on my smartphones for china. So I think I can use my german smartphone in the Hotel with WIFI and VPN and can use google apps.
I do not know whether it works on the chinese Smartphone ????????
I spend the most time in province YUNANN in the main city KUNMING for 3 max 4 weeks.
What do you think is the best for me ????? and this city ????
And it must be have enough Bandwith, Data, ….. And it must be easy for me to install. Because I am a normal user, no technical freak. Perhaps I need help in China
Support must be in in English or german.
The App must be in german or english language.
WHO CAN TELL ME WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO DO AND WHICH SERVICE SHALL I TAKE ??????
Thank you very much
Rainer
Hello Rainer,
honestly I have no idea as I never owned a Chinese smartphone. I suggest you to talk directly with the customer services of the VPNs you’re interested on, before you get a subscription
I have used vyper for 1 year and gave it up due to not stable connection. One of my Chinese friend suggested me Astrill, i subscribed for 3 months, the serves as compare to vyper was good.
Hi Sam, thank you for your feedback!
I leave for China June 22 and am leaning towards express VPN since I will be there for 2 1/2 weeks traveling through Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Guangzhou. I am just curious to know why on the Express VPN website it says they are only supported in Hong Kong. Does this mean it won’t work anywhere else I go??
Hello Caitlin, it works in China!
Not sure what you mean for “only supported in Hong Kong”. I don’t get the context.
Maybe it’s about the fact that they don’t have servers in Mainland China? But that’s normal, you need a server in Hong Kong or USA or another country to make work Facebook etc in China!
Hello! Travelling to China next week for a trip. Does Express VPN still work? Are there any parts of China that you may know of where the VPNs don’t work?
Thanks!!
hello Angelina,
yes, it’s working. It shall work pretty much everywhere, as long as your internet connection is not extreeeemely slow
I’m at a summer course for the next week or so. The only internet provided has a pretty draconian firewall (As far as i can tell only ports 80 and 22 are open). This normally would be fine except I can no longer connect to IRC(the server I connect to uses port 6667) and I can’t use my outgoing mail server… (evolution never connects and can’t send mail)I was wondering what i would have to do to use ssh to get around the blocked ports… I’ve heard people mention that you can do it but I haven’t found a good explanation….So i have a laptop and desktop… my laptop is behind the firewall and my desktop is plugged into my network back at work (outside the firewall)…what commands do I need to run on my laptop and what commands do I need to run on my desktop that will allow my local IRC client to connect to the IRC server?
Hi there,
I’m sorry but we can’t tell you how to bypass firewall (also, we don’t even know if it’s possible!)
Express vpn was totally useless for me. I am in beijing and for the whole 6 months it never worked, I couldn’t open even a text website, let alone youtube or movies. Customer service didn’t help either. Seems all the money goes into advertising instead of improving the sevice. The ads and “positive reviews” are everywhere! Customer service kept telling me it is the network provider problem, or my settings are wrong or whatever other excuse…..huh? I am in china, of course there is a network provider problem, thats why I paid for vpn! Anyway, switched to Astrill and so far no problem.
Hi Ian we used ExpressVPN for years and we didn’t have problems, also in our experience performance is much better than Astrill. I don’t know what was your problem but in my experience the support system is quite good solving problems. Anyway if you had problems you could get the money back (you can see the comments about this matter for Astrill).
I’m just back from Shanghai and Express VPN is still performing much better than Astrill.
Hi Ian, I am totally agreed to you. I regret my decision to switch from Astrill to Express. I had seen too many good reviews about Express but it doesn’t really work in China. Finally, renewed my Astrill subscription.
one a year I visit Vietnam for 2-3 month.they control Internet,open my email,block many website as I read this I wonder how can be safe there ?(without Human right )event they shut down my connect with technician in US ,they lock my laptop……
Hello, I’ve read. http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2064587/chinas-move-clean-vpns-and-strengthen-great-firewall and was wondering is express vpn unauthorized? and if yes would they really be able to find out and fine you?
Hello, we talk about the new regulations in this article, it’s all explained there!
I’m in China, using Express VPN and never had an issue logging into my social media accounts, Facebook, twitter, YouTube, etc. My VPN is working out perfectly well.
I’d recommend that you try ExpressVPN, just like this great post has. Their service is in a class of its own.
thank you for your feedback Ian!
Hi,
I’m leaving for Shanghai in a month and I found out a VPN with a limited/free version that allows me to use up until 10GB, with a code I managed to get 50GB a month. They also offer two more paid options. I would like to know what you think about it as I see you only recommend those 3 paid options, the name is Windscribe. Do you think it sounds legit? I’d probably still be getting Express VPN just in case, but I read your article about free VPNs and I got a little concerned about my privacy.
Hello James, I never heard of Windscribe.
As we wrote on the article about free vpns, running a VPN costs money, so if the VPN is “free”, they usually make money in other ways (spamming your web browser to death, for instance).
So, before installing a free VPN make sure to read their Terms of Services carefully
In their terms I just see they can send some mail I could unsuscribe from by reducing my 10GB plan to 2GB, in my case maybe from 50GB to 10GB, but everything else looks good. It’s just it is a limited version with not many locations. I guess it works if you’re our of China and don’t need it to send an important e-mail. I’ve used it from Spain to enter a couple of blocked pages here and it works just fine. But as I’m seeing in different blogs like yours I guess the best option is ExpressVPN.
I was wondering about WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage, too. I think I’ve seen Telegram’s web is blocked I don’t know about the app, and I don’t know how they behave under a Chinese carrier. I guess, as I’ve managed to discover China Unicom works better for data plans. Do you know if they offer VoIP?
Hello James,
the fact that it works in Spain doesn’t mean that it will work in China, but sure, you can try it : )
Whatsapp and iMessage shall work just fine without VPN.
I’m not sure China Unicom offer VoIP services
Fantastic article! Headed to China tomorrow. Was wondering if you guys ever tried some of the free VPNs out there? I have used Psiphon in the Middle East before and it worked swimmingly. Is it reliable in China?
We are not really fans of using free VPNs (here we explain why), a part from that free VPNs in China tend to not to perform well and are blocked quite fast
Greetings!
Thanks for making this page. I’m going to mainland China for 7 days next month. Is there any vpn with a week or shortvisit option? I don’t really need a vpn for the rest of the year.
Thanks :)
Hello Matt,
never heard of 7 days VPN! I think the minimum period is 30 days
Hi Matt, you can check free trials offrered by vpn providers like Astrill. Don’t know though if it is available in China.
I love ExpressVPN’s interface, plus the HK servers work EXTREMELY well in China. They also have more servers near China than any other vpn, so you have plenty of options to choose from. All in all I think it’s the best choice for Asia.
Thank you for giving your opinion I agree in most of your comment.
Do you have knowledge on internet speed in Beijing ?
i think the vpn ( express ) can work 99% of the time if you have very fast internet ( beijing standard ).
however the apartment building seems to be set that on which providers you can use. ( i’m not sure this part )
mine obv not super good but when i go to other place that seem to have fast one. i could easily play facebook youtube almost as good as outside china
also connecting with your 3g data seem to be faster as well but it eats up a lot of data in mobile.
Hello Pan,
thank you for the feedback. Yes, a VPN can only work well if you have a fast enough connection!
I might be visiting China next month, what VPN provider can you suggest folks? A Chinese friend of mine says he is using Astrill and it works well.
In our opinion, the best one is Express VPN
Today (2017-01-23), I just read that China’s government is planing to ban all VPN’s unless they allow censorship and block the west.
I hope they stop this firewall thing. It just makes them look scared. Good luck to all of you in China! Happy New Year! 鸡年快乐！
Hi Christopher, last week many confusing information have been published about the government statement. You’ll find here the updated information about this issue. It isn’t clear the consequences of this statement but at the present moment nothing has changed
Hi there,
Thank you for such useful information! I am looking to work in China for the next few months, and a colleague recommended VPNGFW, but I’m unable to find much information about it. I was wondering if you knew anything about it?
Thanks,
Sarah
Never heard before… I would go with Express VPN, which has been proven to be the most reliable
I am headed to Beijing and Shanghai. On Jan 6. I’m in Manila now. I really only need access to Gmail and text to stay in touch w my business and friends, T-mobile says my text will work anywhere. Does it make sense to install expressvpn and vyprvpn? I am going for week and don’t care about price for a month but want to be sure I can communicate.
Hello Connie,
yes, go for Express then!
If i install express VPN in china will it work?
Am already in Guangzhou
Yes, you can install it wherever you want. As long as you can accede the website to download the software, it’s not a problem where you install it
Hi, I’ll be visiting Beijing this Friday and will only stay there for 4 days. I’ve beeb reading this blog so I downloaded ExpressVPN. I signed up and they gave me a 7- day free trial (I only gave my email address as my detail). Will the free trial work in China? Or do I have to upgrade (wherein I will pay around $12 for 1 month subscription). I’m wondering if theb7- day free trial will do since I’ll be staying for a few days only. Hope you can advise wether the free trial works the same as the upgraded/ paid version. Thanks!
The free trial should work. I never tried it before so I don’t know if the free trial version have all the features.
This page comes up as a fairly large result on Google and it is very educating.
One question : does TOR VPN work in China?
Hello Alan,
for what we heard it shall work, however we didn’t test it yet
Thanks for the helpful post. I had been looking around and I also heard of Opera, a free VPN. I was wondering if you had any information on it. Is it secure? Can I access Facebook and Google apps with it?
I’m in China for less than a month and was hoping to find a safe and cheap VPN.
Many thanks!
Hello Annie,
we dont recommend any free vpn because it costs money to run a vpn so the free ones usually come with some drawbacks (see article for details)
hi,
later this month I am travelling to china (as a short trip) and I know this article is old, so I was just wondering if these VPNs still work? thanks
Hello James,
we update this article almost every month, the info are up to date
hye,
to be honest im not tech savvy at all but im gonna have to migrate to Beijing soon and i would like to know if i need to set up my VPN from my home country or can i do it in China? Will changing the sim card from my phone affect the VPN settings if i were to set start subscribing the VPN from my home country.
HELP!Thanks!
Hello,
it’s much better if you set up it before entering China. No, changing phone card shall not affect the VPN settings as a VPN is just an app!
Thanks Furio Fu !
I have tried Express VPN for almost a year on the 1-year subscription. The experience had been very smooth until they took the Hong Kong 3 away. At first, I was wondering what’s going on, as every Express VPN user knows that Hong Kong 3 is the best and the fastest location to connect. So I went to talk to the customer support and he somehow tried to beat around the bush, saying that the team has no control over this matter.
Luckily, I still have my company’s corporate account to try on. I logged in using one of my corporate accounts and found out that the Hong Kong 3 is still there! So I went back to him and asked what really happened. Surprisingly, he still keeps saying the same thing. I was kinda upset so I told him about how I would let my subscription end (which is about next month) without extending it because there’s no point to continue using it when I can’t use it like the way I used to.
Maybe it’s because 1 month that I have left came from recommending my company – for free. So they don’t think I deserve to use the best? Who knows. Anyone experience the same situation, please let me know and for those who are considering about buying this VPN to use in China, please take my comment into your consideration too.
Hi! I’ll be visiting Beijing next month and will only stay there for a week. I’d like to know what’s the best VPN to access social media sites like FB, Instagram, etc? Also, are there any free vpns that actually work?
At the moment we recommend Express.
As for free VPN, we don’t recommend them. There are a ton of reasons for this (they seldom work, they often install non-wanted software on your laptop etc – see the article for the details)
Trish, ExpressVPN is always the safe bet, but the 3 we suggest in this post work. About the free VPN’s I never use them here are my reasons
I would say that too if my ride had been smooth from the beginning to end. They specifically took the Hong Kong 3 away from my account, which only has 1 month of subscription left, and that subscription came from recommending my company – for free. I tried to contact the support team, but no luck.
Be careful if you are thinking about buying this VPN. They take the best out of the product you buy. It won’t worth the money you pay for it.
I strongly do not recommend vipervpn！I have tried to use them on two occasions based on the recommendation of this site but with less than satisfactory results. The first time I was using express Vpn and thought I would give viper a try because I wasn’t completely happy with the connection speeds. (Although extremely happy with their tech support!). When I tried viper I couldn’t get it to work even one time. The tech support was horrible and would only reply through email which could take days for a reply. They even blocked me from live chat when I got frustrated and complained. The second time I true because I thought maybe the problem was because I was inside China at the time I joined. So, when I went on a trip outside China I installed it and it worked great….until I got back to China where I couldn’t use it at all again. Great service that only worked where I didn’t need it!
I also tried Pure Vpn but couldn’t get it to work either. After the experience with viper I just cancelled it before the free trial ended and went back to express vpn.
Whioe express Vpn isn’t as fast as I’d like with video and it interferes with the regular internet connect occasionally (especially on iPhone). It is the best of the three in my opinion and there tech support will work with you to resolve issues.
Thank you for your opinion Dalton, and I agree in some points.
1) As we say in the review the best customer service is without any doubt ExpressVPN
2) About Vypr, I must say that it works great for me, once I get a decent connection. The problem is that in China many times the connection is bad and in those cases Express is the only one that manages to connect (this is my personal experience). Basically, what we explained in the section “Performance of VPNs in China”
3) About Vypr customer service, we got similar complains here. However, my experience as a user has been different, maybe I got lucky
4) About PureVPN, I must say that you get what you pay for. We included it here because it’s a relatively cheap VPN that gave decent performances in China.
Hi there. I’ll be leaving to Shanghai tomorrow and i’ve already subscribed to the express one month VPN. Can i know how come there’s no “China” option in the Smart Location to choose from? So how can i still access Facebook or Youtube there?
Hello,
that’s simply an option from which you can choose a server outside China. Note that your VPN must be outside China, if you want to accede to Facebook etc.
If you use a VPN with server in China, it’s the same as not using a VPN!
hi! i’m going to beijing on august 31st and will be having my degree there. is expressvpn still the best one?
As far as we know, yes
PureVPN is the worse one. It’s even worst than the free softwares out there. I bought it 5 months ago and wasn’t able to connect not even once using my phone. I had to spend again on a VPN that actually works.
Hello. I am jon. I will be heading to harbin institute of tech for my Msc. I will be staying at the student dorm. I know you strangly recommend Express. But can I get testimonies or recommendations of actual users of Express in Harbin. I want to commit to a 1yr contract before moving out
Hello,
ask to ExpressVPN team for this!
You need a speedy VPN too. You can check this list of top VPN providers who dont compromise on speed. http://www.vpnanalysis.com/fastest-vpn-services/
Well I personally use OneVpn at Free VPN access with no restrictions. Huge variety of servers in different countries. I advise to everyone…
Do any of these vpn’s allow access to snapchat?
Yes, all of them
After signing up for a year service and buying the Wi-Fi router, I received the Wi-Fi router in the mail (after my seven day trial period had ended), that’s when Astrill told me I needed to spend another $60 to make the Wi-Fi router work. Even if I bought the service that included the Wi-Fi router.
Don’t be tricked by the positive reviews, they’re mostly fake.
Hi, sorry to hear that. We don’t review Astrill here, so I’m not sure about what happened to you
For anyone who has not downloaded a vpn and already in china:
Just download the apk version.
yep, that works too. However if you have the chance it’s much simpler to download / install it before you get to China
Hi – I will be in China (near Shanghai and Beijing mostly) for the month of July. I want to download a VPN and I know that ExpressVPN is the one you recommend. Thank you for your article- it is very helpful. But I’m wondering, should I try to download two VPNs (Express VPN and VyprVPN) just to make sure I will have something that works for checking social media sites? I don’t know much about technology so I don’t know if that’s even a possibility. Also, once the VPN is downloaded to my iphone, how do I use it? Do I have to click on something to use it before trying to access apps like facebook or whatsapp?
Hi Andrea,
you could download them both. Downloading them it’s free. The VPN looks like a software on the pc and like an app on the smartphone. They are pretty easy to install / use
Hi Furio- one more question- I’ve downloaded ExpressVPN on my laptop and iPad and iPhone. I am only going to bring my iPad and iPhone to China. Will this be a problem if I don’t have my laptop with me? Again, I’m really not tech savvy at all so my apologies if this is a ridiculous question.
Hello Andrea, no, that’s not a problem at all as the app is independent from the desktop version!
I am Travelling to China. Just subscribe to Express VPN one month plan. In Singapore airport now. What setting I need to do before the flight?
Hi,
just install it and see if it works fine. We explain the basic settings on this article
Thank you so much for all your info – massively helpful! I’ll be in Kunming in China for the whole month of July. As it’s in the mountains (no idea if that matters but seems like it might), I thought it might have different needs, or would you think Express VPN would be the best in this case too?
Hello Maureen, it doesn’t change much if you are in Kunming or Shanghai , )
Image Sensors: The image sensors inside camera are responsible for that image clarity and sharpness
inside the picture. While you might be trying to maintain yourself calm, do your very best to cause a commotion and have the attention of several passersby as is possible.
Cctv low vision When installing a CCTV camera
in your house or business, it’s very important to create sure it covers the areas within your properties that you
are most concered about.
The most popular sort of CCTV video cameras is the dome camera
that is the type you frequently see at variety
store ceilings. s safe to say that this money is wisely spent especially in places that surveillance is really
a must.
Got a new social media project with tencent in shenzhen, and we need the fastest vpn in china, what do you guys think of 51chinavpn.com ? I heard they are fast but seems they are new.
We never heard about it!
Hi,
Thanks for the article.
I am in Chongqing. Is it possible to buy and install the software for Express VPN inside Chongqing? Or does the software have to be downloaded outside of China?
Hello Paul,
it shall be possible if you follow the links to Express VPN on this page. If it’s not possible, you will simply not see the website of Express so you’ll find out as soon as you link : )
Thanks to your article i chose express vpn and used it during my stay in China. It worked perfectly the entire time. Thanks for your help.
: )
Hi, I shall be in Beijing and Xi’an in July. I’ll take my Mac Air and iPhone 6 and subscrbe to Express VPN. Judging from the comments so far, Beijing should not be a problem, but no one has mentioned Xi’an. Any advice please? Thanks. Brian
Hello Brian,
Express shall work pretty much everywhere, in fact Beijing usually is one of the most difficult cities, because there are more controls (it’s the capital after all)
HI, I am moving to Beijing at the end of July. What VPN would you suggest I get before I go? I currently live in Australia and need to be a blue to access work emails and content that are hosted by google (gmail, google docs etc.) Also, do iCloud emails work in Beijing?
Thanks,
From Jono
maybe icloud but not dropbox, box or some other clouds.
Hi, Thanks so much for this article. I will be in China starting this weekend. Does Express Vpn work well in Beijing and Shanghai? Would you recommend that i download it today or should i wait till Friday.
Hello, so far express seems to be stable. It’s better if you install and activate it efore to go to China
Hello! I will be going to China (Fenggan, Dongguan) this summer for about a month and I mainly want to use instagram, snapchat and youtube. Which vpn would you recommend? Also would it be better to use with wifi or data? Thank you.
Hello, Express seems to be the more stable these days. Wifi is better, especially if you dont have a Chinese sim card as if you pay for the internet connection with your foreign data plan it can be very expensive
You have mentioned that you have little experience outside of Beijing .. Perhaps some who has experience in Chongqing. Would appreciate any response!
Hello,
we have experience in many cities as we gather feedback from our writers and readers. I’d say that for Chongqing Express is still the most stable
Hello! Just wondering about the multiple connections, I’m leaning towards expressvpn, however it says it can only connect to one phone at a time right? So if i’m using it my brother wouldnt be able to?
Hello Pan, right, Express only allow 2 connection. If you want more simultaneous connections, then you shall go for Vypr or Pure
hello furio. Nice article. Just want to ask between express and Vypr. U said that express vpn can only allowed 2 connection in one time. If I want to use 5 device in one time, how? How about Vypr and Pure.? Thanks in advance :)
Hello Nurul,
Express recently changed is offer: now you can connect 3 devices at the same time. Vypr and Pure allow 5 devices at the same time!
Thanks for your information!
My wife and I will travel to China for our grandson wedding. We need to stay in touch with him in china, between wife and husband in China, and with family in USA. My wife has Android and I have a windows phone 8.1. What solution do you thinks will work. Ease and reliability are most important.
Thanks so very much.
Hello, we recommend Express VPN at the moment as it’s the one that seem to be more stable
Hi! first of all thank you SO MUCH for all this information, it’s very helpful! I’m going to China in a few days for about 3 weeks. The only thing I will absolutely need is social media such as facebook, twitter, instagram and snapchat. My whole family is looking forward to seeing a lot of pictures so will I be ok with ExpressVPN? Also, I’m planning to have my Data usage from the U.S. off and just rely on wifi. Would that be a problem? Do I need to have data on?
Thanks again!
Hello Daniela,
yes, we suggest you to activate Express VPN before you go into China as Google Play may not work, without a VPN already installed.
I think you will spend too much if you switch you your US data plan in China. I suggest you to double check with your phone provider in US. However, wifi shall work well on Hotels, bars etc
Hi … can you you guys and girls out there give me your thoughts on the best “telco” in China to use .. either with Wi Fi or fixed landline! And if you have found any difference in connectivity between the two mediums or the various “telco’s”? (Just thought it would be interesting data to correlate)
Sorry should have stipulated “when using VPN’s”
Hello What do you mean with “Telco”? You mean internet provider? In this case you find more info here: http://www.saporedicina.com/english/internet-in-china/
Hi all,
I would like to advise everyone not to go with PureVPN. I have the impression that they are a scam!!! It never worked for me and they won’t even give me my money back… Please try on of the others or Astrill.
Hi guys,
I have a bad experience with PureVPN. I have a HTC One M8 (android) Asus transformer tablet (android) and a Iphone 6 (iOS) and most of the time the VPN doesn’t run on any of my devices. With my tablet and my HTC phone it doesn’t work at all. I’ve been online only once and it was terrible slow. I tried over 40 deifferent servers they gave me and with the customer service they couldn’t make it work at all. With my Iphone I can go online 50% of the time and it’s really slow. I really don’t recommend to any people who going to China to purchase the PureVPN. Also they advertise on there website that they have a proper app. But after I purchased the VPN I asked customer service for the link to the app and they told me that the app doesn’t run on Android at all… My last thing is that I can’t refund my money as I need a VPN to go on there refund page. This is all based on my experience! Hopefully Vyper will work better
Hello Alex, thank you for your feedback
Hello!
I will be going to China at the end of June until early August. I’m only looking to use social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Gmail, Snapchat) and I don’t think price is a problem. Would you recommend ExpressVPN then? Is it still working fine in China as of April 2016? Thank you!
Hello Emily,
yes, it’s still working and, as for today, we still recommend ExpressVPN
Hey guys! I buy the purevpn before coming to China but when I arrive here I’m not able to connect at all, is just send a message that the isp block purevpn ports or the server is busy, any idea why is the problem or how to fix this?
Hello Neo,
please contact Purevpn support, this seems a problem due to your laptop configuration and we cant help with this, it’s better to discuss with the support team of the vpn you bought
Are there also accounts for only 1 month? I only go for a few weeks.
Hello,
all the VPN we recommend offer monthly subscription plans. Just remember to cancel your subscription before 30 days so that they don’t charge you for the second month!
Thanks for your helpfull article.
Update for the number of devices with ExpressVPN:
“Note: You can install on as many devices as you like, though only 1 computer, 1 mobile device, 1 streaming media console, and 1 router can be connected at a time.”
thank you thomas!
Hi! I’m attending an upcoming study tour in China. I’m sorry if my questions may sound stupid but I know literally nothing. Are apps (messenger,fb, skype, etc) Included in the ban? What are the differences of Proxy and VPNs? Thanks so much!
Hello,
Facebook is blocked, Skype is not. Here you find a fairly complete – although not comprehensive – list: http://www.saporedicina.com/english/list-of-blocked-websites-in-china/
Hi! First of all, thanks for the article! I wil be moving to China in 3 weeks for a period of at least 6 months and I have some questions about VPN. I have read all your article and I still can’t figure out which one I prefer, I will be in Ningbo (near Shanghai) do you know if there is one of them that works better in this area?
My second question is, how do I install the VPN? Do I need to do it before arriving to China? I know this might sound like stupid questions but I am a bit lost with all of this and I would really appreciate the help.
Thank you for everything!
Laura
Hello Laura,
I’d suggest Express!
Yes, it’s better if you install it before to move to China. Or at least, that you download the file for the installation.
In order to install it, just download the file at Express’s website, install it like any other software you installed, and enter the activation code that you will receive by email once you subscribe
Istock photo 6073985 purchased by author and used under license.
This may be done by making use of pressure that has a finger or toy
towards the prostate area. How to make a girl squirt Believe it or you cannot, it may be reported that some cats
don’t like the odor of bananas.
Selfishly these coaches and association presidents realize that does not
only is playing one sport detrimental into a players’ body physically, additionally, it creates the ‘burn out’ factor.
Now, we fully understand in case you are tired of seeing the same sort of showers
again and again.
There are no perfectxxxx–GOOD– VPN’s. Some periods one will be good then it will become slow. Some days one will be good, but on other days and at other times they will be slow. Basically you can’t win. One commenter said they were not getting their 50mb’s or whatever, going through extra servers it will slow substantially, of course. Also some pathways are slow. It’s like driving on a fast highway and then turning into a slow side road.
For me: Express ok for a while then became very unstable, constant disconnections. Pure I just didn’t like that much. HMA ok at times patchy at other times, likewise for Astrill. Am on !2VPN now, again ok at times, slow at other times. The new version of Freegate is also ok at times but no good at other times. If anyone know of a fast one for Beijing please let me know……..I don’t care what it costs.
James totally agree with your comment, in my experience ExpressVPN is the one working better at the present moment.
Hi, thanks for the review.
I finally gave up on Astrill after using it for about 5 years, and in the last year or two, because of suffering through it’s constant ‘issues’ and rude customer service announcements.
I’m currently test-driving ExpressVPN. So far, I’m very disappointed, especially having read many, many awesome reviews and the March 2016 comparisons. It is really hard to connect (most of the connections they offer don’t work at all). I get kicked off constantly. And downloading anything is impossible because of the slow speed and the constant disconnects.
I did one online-chat session that they ended up ditching me on, as well. So nothing was resolved. I’m frustrated. I had expectations. I’m wondering if it is possible that it is a ‘Guangzhou thing’ or whether the university campus where I live and connect to for internet access is able to play a role in what is going on.
At this point, I’m thinking ‘money back before 30 days’ and may try another service. Damn! I was looking forward to this one.
Hello,
that’s weird. I’m in Shanghai at the moment and Express works just fine, while my friends that are using Astrill are always complaining that it doesn’t work.
Did you try different protocols/servers?
Did you try to re-install the VPN, if the first time wasn’t working?
Did you try to contact Express support?
Finally, are you sure this is a VPN issue and not a laptop/network issue?
I have no experience in Guangzhou, maybe another reader can give you a feedback, in other Chinese cities Express is working much better than Astrill. However, you should try outside the campus, when I was working in a campus in Beijing sometimes the VPNs worked worst than in my home (outside the campus).
I live in Shenzhen and to me Express VPN is a slug and get you disconnected. I actually switched from Express to Astrill in 2014 which i enjoyed alot better.. but since Dec/January 2016, Astrill has become a complete waste of money and time. Going by this post, I may have to consider VyprVPN. really confused though
Hello Stan,
our recent experience says that Express is doing much better than Astrill. Actually, on March Astrill stopped to work unless you purchased the more expensive addon “Stealth” and, even there, Express was way superior.
Since you tried Express in 2014 last time, I suggest you to exploit the money back guarantee of express and Vypr, try both and see which one works better for you.
Remember to try out the different protocols, as one may work better than others. Also, if you have problems, get in touch with the support teams of Express/Vypr as often the problem may be due to an incorrect configuration on your laptop.
I have the same problem here in Ningbo. Everytime my Astrill subscription comes to its end I shop around to find a better vpn: express, vypr, strong, pandapow, ghost, the list goes on. I’ve been doing this the last 2 years and currently trying Express once again. Most of the locations don’t work or I get kicked off or it is sooooo sloooooow. I haven’t contacted customer service yet, but the way it’s looking, i’ll be testing other vpns again and most likely go back to Astrill, which I don’t want to, because it has so many problems, too.
How can I do only one month of Express VPN?
It feels that I am starting an automatic process where the system will be debiting my account every month. Did not find a button for “non automatic” debiting.
TIA, great work Furio
Ron
Probably you have to stop your subscription before the end of the month
So how about with the next proxy blocker from Netflix? What can I do to still watch Netflix?
get a vpn!
Hey guys, I will be living in Huaihua, Hunan Province for 8 months from next week. I will die if I cannot look at Australian football or Netflix! I have been watching the comments here closely for a few months now but still undecided on a VPN given the propensity of the Chinese government to knock them out. Any advice greatly appreciated.
Thanks guys
Adam
Hello Alan,
the fastest is certainly Express at the moment, and in order to watch streaming TV you primarily need a fast VPN. If you want a more secure VPN, ie. the encription of your data is paramount, then probably Vypr is better. However, if you just want to watch tv I guess secure connection is not as much as a priority as a fast connection
Had a look at other posts and don’t think I’m replicating any, but sorry if I am – Just want to give a shout out to Astrill – good for Harbin, Shenzhen, Chengdu, SH and even the Northern Capital, so far… But also around the rest of the world – eg watching Aussie Open on Channel 7 in Hong Kong. I know quite a lot of local Chinese use it too. I was very pleasantly surprised by it and it has a special site to download once your inside China – getastrill.com.
Astrill is OK too. However, in our experience, every time China tighten the controls, Astrill is often the first to go down (it also happen last week, probably due to the Chinese New Year)
Hello everyone!
I’m going to Changsha in a couple weeks. And I will stay there for at least 1,5 yrs. Now I’m looking into the different VPN’s. I think a lot of people are saying Express VPN to use it while in China. However, I am using my laptop, Iphone and Ipad and saw that I can only choose between the Iphone and Ipad when using the VPN simultaneously. Or can I switch, for example, the ipad and use it on the iphone? or is it tied to the device?
I am thinking of taking a contract of a year before I leave to China. As I have heard you can’t set the VPN up while you’re in China.
Could someone give me advice? Thank you for the help!
Hello Marcia,
you can install Express on all your devices. However you can use it at the same time only on 2 devices.
Thanks for the advice. However, does this mean I can always switch from device if I don’t use one of the devices?
Also, will it be a good idea to get straight into a year contract? And if I would buy a new phone in China could I transfer the VPN to the new phone?
Thanks again for all the help!
Yes, you can switch. Yes, if you buy a new phone, you can use the same account on the new device.
I can’t tell you whether is better to go for one month or year account. This depends on you!
Hello, with this vast knowledge of so many subjects please help me with mine.
Year and a half ago I purchase a “SuperIPTV English package”. It worked fine for close to a year than it started to buffering every 2 minutes , stopping completely, never could get any service from any body . Couple days ago I get a note on my screen to contact my dealer because this service will stop on the 8th of Feb, today is the 6th they already cut it off.I paid for renewal this past OCT 1500yuans. Do you have any Ideas?
Hello Carlo, sorry but we have no direct experience with IPTV
As of today, PureVPN has issues in China. Very slow, connectivity problems and it’s not working more than 3 minute or so id you go to banned sites like youtube/facebook (you are kicked off and can’t connect anymore to the same server for 20~40 minutes). Talked many times with their live chat support and they finally acknowledge the situation. They are working to solve the issue but its been more than 2 weeks and still unusable. On the other side, no problem with ExpressVPN (both windows and android)
Hello Arthur,
thank you for the feedback!
Yes, it’s possible: This month many VPN seem to be working on and off (I’ve heard from many people that Astrill is not working at all in Shanghai, there is also a thread on https://www.reddit.com/r/China ).
This may be due to tighten controls during Chinese New Year, which is the day after tomorrow.
Hi, I’m going to china in a week. Just like to check the ‘latest updates’ of which VPN provides the best stability? ExpressVPN or PureVPN?
Hello Devin, so far both are working well.
Thank you
Devin,
Unfortunately, PureVPN did not work for me in China. I may need to go there next week as well, I am not sure of any of the VPN apps mentioned in this article.
Don’t try PureVPN in China. The result is terrible, when I have been kicked out every 90 seconds by PureVPN server. It is cheap, but you get what you paid…
Hello, we tested PureVPN this month and it’s working fine in China.
Not saying you’re not telling the truth, however sometimes a VPN doesn’t work for somebody due to software compatibility problems or your own connections problems.
So, you shall certainly get another VPN, but this doesn’t mean Pure doesn’t work in China
Actually, I have another service to compare, which I was very satisfied. Avoiding the advertisement, I won’t suggest the name, but no comment for PureVPN.
I have absolutely new Alienware 17 R3 and clean system for internet browsing only. The PureVPN can works proper sometime. But it would run something wrong suddenly, such as kick off me every 90 seconds. I submitted the service tickets and got direction for change. But I couldn’t find the same option in terminal for changing… No comment again.
During last kick off me again in 10 minutes ago, the PureVPN is working 12 minutes now. I can’t rely on its performance for stable internet browsing. It is just luck problem, relating the stability of PureVPN.
From a couple of month it isn’t working for me neither, SH area
I’ll be travelling to China for two weeks and heard they block essentials like Google and Google Map. I won’t be bringing my laptop but I use my mobile phone religiously to check google and google map to get around. Will I be able to use two mobile devices to connect to the VPN using the app function (while using China simcards?)
Hello Jane, as long as you download and install the VPN app before going to China you shall have no problem!
Hello!
Thank you for a good page. I will maybe move to China. I guess I will be using Express VPN or some of the other VPN that you recommend. Lets say that I insall ExpressVPN before I travel to china, how big is the risk that the government suddenly will be blocking ExpressVPN when I am in China and what shall I do then if I want to have free internet? I understand that you can not give an exactly answer about how big the risk is but I would appreciate a lot if to know what you think about this.
It’s a quite limited risk. Express VPN has been up and running for years
But If something happend with my computer ( I have had the same computer for 7 years) or I buy some other reason will have to fix a VPN when I am in China, will that be possible and how do I do then?
You just need to install again the VPN software on your new computer and login with your account… same as for other softwares like Skype, just to make an example.
Ok, so that shouldnt be a big problem even if I lets say have to buy a new computer in China.
Yes, that’s not a pb
Hello gentlemen, i have a diferent question, it deals with IPTV. I Bought a contract for one year but now the people are gone and I have problems such as stop and go like buffering. is it the internet speed slowing down or the IPTV box? hope you can help me. Thanks
Hello Carlo,
could be both, we aren’t on the position to evaluate this without testing your IP TV
Furio, could you suggest a test to measure internet speed when this hapen ?
Hello, please read the section on test speed towards the end of this article. It’s all explained there!
Hi , ive been in china for 4 years and and been using astrill for all 4 years with almost no complain regarding browsing speed .
but as lately i play games alot (steam mostly )
as most of my friends is in Indonesia and playing in a singapore based server , astrill’s SEA(south east asia) servers is mostly crappy . im using their “stealth” vpn to connect to the game server since their openweb and openvpn wont even connect to the game server.
so which vpn is good for game in general ? (low latency and the equivalent of that so called stealthvpn )
Freegate works just fine for me! Why the specific insult directed at them? I’ve been in China since January 2015 and I use Freegate for Facebook, Google services, YouTube and even to watch Netflix. Occasionally I need to turn it off and back on again a few times, when I first connect… but after I’m connected I have no problems at all. Your evaluation is not accurate, in my experience.
We aren’t insulting anybody. We used Freegate as example of free prooxy because it’s the most famous. And, in our experience (and the experience of our writers and readers) free proxies rarely work fine for Facebook, let’s forget Netflix (they are simply too slow and unrelaible).
Hello
Would you explain about spontaneous connection again?
I’m using my iPhone, my laptop
Friend is using his iPhone, his laptop, his iPad
Can five devices access Google, paying for one PureVPN account, at the very same time (in order to save money)?
Thank you for your website!
Paul
Hello paul, yes, it shall work
Hi, Thanks for your site.
PureVPN did not work for me in Beijing and Xian in China in April 2015. I was only able to access Gmail once and it never worked again. I have a 2-year old MacBook pro. I am scheduled to go there again, Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Hello Sky,
weird, we are testing it this month and it works perfectly fine. Maybe some problem with your laptop… I’d rather take Express or Vypr this time!
i am also using vyper vpn and have no problem using in China.
Used expressvpn before but for me vyper works better.
Thank you Daniel for sharing your experience.
Thanks Daniel!
Hi Furio Fu, Thanks very much for your reply. I will try Express or Vypr this time.
I can’t believe so many countries block facebook! I’m using arcvpn to unblock while traveling in china for work. It’s so frustrating.
Just wanted to add a thumbs-up for expressvpn. I’ve been using them for nearly a year now (In Changchun). The only thing I don’t like is only being able to connect on one computer at a time, but I’ve learned to deal with that. They’ve got excellent speed. It’s easy to use. And any time I’ve had a problem or question, it’s been handled quickly and professionally.
:)
Hi there, thank you for the feedback!
Too bad you are testing and evaluating VPNs that you are promoting, offering links to their referral sites. In plain english, you are getting paid when someone signs-up from your site…
In plain english: http://www.saporedicina.com/english/disclosure/
I fully understand you with this one Furio Fu. Owning and maintaining blog servers isn’t free and easy. We bloggers share to the public valuable information that they can use and asking anything in return – we’re not forcing anyone to click anything just to get money. I don’t see any harm on the referral links and they are not encouraging people to click it.
: )
I made the mistake of buying vyprvpn. It’s useless. Never connects. And when it occasionally does, it just says “resolving,” and refuses to load any website. Refuses to connect me with my app store.
Maybe the problem lies with my phone, or the part of China I’m in. I contacted customer support to see if there’s any way to fix this. I never heard back from them.
I wouldn’t recommend vyprvpn.
Hello Julian,
yeah, the problem may lie with your phone. However, customer support shall still reply. Since we recommend them, I forwarded your comment to Vypr’s team right Away. They told me the following:
I’ve just contacted our Support Director, and he’s going to have one of our Support Representatives reach out to Julian directly.
Also, I wanted to let you know; according to our support logs, the last time this customer contacted us was on 7/27 and it appears that our Support Team did respond to that ticket. If he’s contacted us since then, it’s possible that there was a technical issue that prevented the ticket from reaching us. Just figured I’d let you know on that as well.
By now, they shall have already contacted you! Hope this helps
Cheers
F
Hi! I will be visiting Beijing next month for a few days and I am planning to get Express VPN on my iPhone. Can you suggest a good mobile network with data services that I could pair with Express VPN? Thanks!
Hello Ann, here you find all the info you need about Chinese mobile internet providers: http://www.saporedicina.com/english/internet-in-china/
Dear Furio Fu,
Hi, I have recently moved to Shanghai from Singapore (originally from the US) and overall I have found your website to be extremely useful.
However, I must say, that I naively followed your advice with regards to VyprVPN, and I regret it now. Half the time the connection doesn’t work at all, and if and when it does actually connect, the connection is painfully slow (as in, 1990s speeds), to the point where it is functionally useless. Yes, maybe 10% of the time it works enough to browse facebook (slowly), and even watch a youtube video after ages of buffering. This is irrespective of device or location (I try on my tablet + my phone), and my internet without VPN is perfectly fine and normal (minus Google, etc, of course).
Moreover, their customer service is horrible (whereas in your article, you said they had great customer service). I could excuse the slow speeds if it were an internet issue, but the customer service is really disappointing. They take upwards of 24 hours to respond, and give me pointless tests to do (that don’t solve anything, and that I’m unable to complete) over and over again.
So in the end, I wish you could reconsider, in all fairness, your recommendation of VyprVPN. You say that it works in China, which is simply not the case, and people who read your otherwise extremely helpful website should not be fooled. By browsing your comments, it seems that I’m not the only one having issues with VyprVPN.
Thanks all the same for the website.
Hello Ryan,
I’m sorry to hear that. Please consider the following:
1. Vypr overall is still one of the best VPN for China. We monitor VPNs constanly and ask feedback to readers we know are using them. The problems on the comments is that usually only people that have issues let a comment. People that aren’t having issues are happy so they don’t feel the need to let a comment here.
2. VPN are a complicated technology. Sometimes a given VPN will work better or worse on a given laptop/network, according to many factors such IPs, other installed software and so on.
3. As for customer service, I don’t know what’s up. I wrote an email to Vypr and asked them to get back to you ASAP
4. We make our best to only suggest the best products, however it’s not easy to always be on top of everything. If we would think that a given VPN is not working in China as it should, we would update this article as soon as possible.
I hope this helps!
Cheers
F.
Thanks, I appreciate your quick and helpful response. I will keep trying with them. Otherwise, next time I leave China, I will try a different one and see if results are better.
Thanks again for your useful website.
You are welcome, Ryan. We are glad you like SDC : )
Hi Fu,
I just wanted to update you (and other readers) on my situation.
I decided to give Express VPN a try….. and everything works perfectly! So far I would recommend that service instead of VyprVPN. But maybe I was just unlucky…
Hi Ryan thanks for sharing with us.
Hi Ryan,
thank you for updating us! I also received an email from Vypr telling us that they reached out to you.
Cheers
F
I am not in China. Want a vpn that can access chinese apps. Any recommendation? Thank you.
Hello, our recommendation are on the article!
Is there any restriction/problem with any of this VPN services if I use a usb 3G stick with a laptop? if not, which one is a good brand or where can I find one to work in China? I just need it for 2 weeks…
Hello,
I don’t think it’s a problem at all. I guess you can find it on a electronic store; I never bought a usb 3G stick myself!
Hi could you display and compare the speed test for each one of them.
Currently express vpn is crapy. Always disconnected, slow speed on my current speed of 20mb/s i have after expressvpn service only 50k to 800kb/s. The speed look like 20 years ago.
Also their platform have difficulty to connect now to the server in hongkong, japan, syngapore etc..
They 72 servers but most of them can connect or if connected crazy slow. useless.
Please comment and show us the speed after china telecom to hong kong vpn service to compare the speed. Please also do a tracert to see the number of hope for anyone.
At least make a smart compare of VPN service.
Thank you
Hello,
we plan to add speed tests in future and to have a routine to compare more VPNs on a regular basis. However please understand that this is just one of the hundreds and hundreds of articles published on SDC; we publish new articels every single week in 3 language and we are only two people handling all this.
There is a limited time we can devote to the VPN article…
Also, notice that speed tests are affected by 1. Your connection 2. Your location 3. Your laptop 4. The particular condition of the Chinese net on a given day… so our speed tests most likely will be differently from yours. We receive a ton of feedback and so far Express is mostly getting positive feedback. Then sure, another VPN may work better for your specific case.
Express VPN is crappy
The only thing that is powerfull on Express VPN is their advertisement
I have a 100 mb/s T1 line ,my internet is good untill i connect with ExpressVPN then everything slow down , it is like im using a dial in modem
72 servers and none works decent , complains do not help
Calling the “help”desk is useless , they dont care
Management never answer on the emails you send them
vyprvpn: I read that chameleon does not run on iOS devices, which is a problem – Also while testing vypr on ipad within the us, netflix stopped working during playtime – warning that “this content may not be available for your country” – Turning off vpn fixed the issue, which means vypr is no use on ipad (at least without chameleon).
Hello,
may I know what server you chose to test Netflix? Cause if you tested it on a server that wasn’t in US, it’s perfectly normal that Netflix gave a problem
Hello,
I am going to Shanghai in 2 weeks and I don’t really know which VPN to get. I am going to stay there for a year until next summer and my priority is to use Facebook, Youtube, Instagram normally. Could someone advise me what should I do, please?
Thank You
Hello, at this moment ExpressVPN seems the one that’s going better in China.
Hi, im moving to Shanghai in 2 days and this is very helpfull about the blockage of the Great Firewall. But I have a question, is this ilegal? Could I get in trouble if I start using a VPN? I dont really know anything about this.
Thank you very much
Hello,
as we said on the article, is borderline and we can’t really reply to you as we aren’t lawyers.
Use ExpressVPN. This is what I am using for work in Beijing, not just for personal fun. It is reliable in both PC and my iPhones. I also tested in Shanghai and it did well. The speed is good. Though it is $12.95/month, it is worth every penny!
Hello Terry,
yes, we are keeping receiving good feedbacks on a steady way for Express VPN
Hi Sborto,
As I read the latest comment from some readers here, I saw that VyprVPN doesn’t work anymore in China. But actually, I prefer not to believe them unless you tell me it is not working anymore. If they are not working anymore, please advise which VPN service should I go for now. VyprVPN is my 1st choice because they can sign up by monthly as I will be in Shanghai for only a week, probably will get the yearly package later after my move on October.
By the way in my personal opinion, what’s the point for bro to explain whether you are earning commission from the VPN company or not? I mean this is really a stupid question, at least to me. You are scratching a lot of useful information just for public convenience, therefore, you deserve the commission for the hard effort. By signing up either personally or provided link, it is still the same price I need to pay for. So why not I rewards someone who have put in some effort and convenience to us without paying more? Therefore, I don’t see a point here by asking this kind of question just because of their jealousy mindset and not happy with someone that get rich on true efforts.
Thanks
Regards
Kimi
Hello Kimi,
VyprVPN is still working in China, as well as ExpressVPN and StrongVPN. Some people may have problems for so many reasons (their operative system, other software installed that make a conflict, their internet connection, and so on).
When they have such a problems, they blame the VPN and, sometimes, they stop by and let a comment. Also, notice that many people that let comments are just working for other VPNs (there are a ton out there). However, since we can’t know who is letting a genuine comments and who is just trying to discredit a given VPN, we prefer to let all comments (unless they are overly spammy or offensive).
As for the commissions discussion, we don’t only earn money from VPN; we also do for hotels and more products. If it wasn’t like that we would have closed the site years ago cause we spend a lot of time on it and we have a lot expenses (especially writers and translators, we publish in 3 languages, but also hosting, webdesign and more).
Thank you for your understanding and good look for your new adventure in China!
Thank you for your honesty. Cheers..
Yeah, VyprVPN is shady. What’s worse, I never managed to get it to work in China. Switched back to Astrill, never had any problems… Bad and very, very slow customer service (guess why). Since I am not the only one with the same issues, Vypr certainly cannot be considered as one of top 5 VPNs for China IMO.
Hello, thank you for sharing your opinion. However our experience is different and we think that Vypr is overall superior than Astrill. There will always be someone having problems with a given VPN; and since here we review Vypr, people complain about Vypr.
I remember that when we used to recommend Astrill, back in 2012, people would complain about Astrill : )
The truth is that often, when there is an update on the Great Firewall, Astrill is the first VPN that stops to work, probably because it’s the most popular. And if you already paid for 6 or 12 months, it sucks.
Hi, Woohoo,
Thanks for sharing your vyprvpn experience in China. That’s what I am worried about. PureVPN worked once there for me and I couldn’t use any Google Apps there for the rest of my trip. I really wonder why this article puts vyprvpn and PureVPN in its top three VPNs comparison list when they don’t actually work!
Further, I’d like to learn how Furio’s team actually tests Express, Vypr and PureVPN. Where are their servers located in China if any there.
We don’t have any servers in China. We are not a test company for VPNs… We are a website that writes on topics related to Live and travel in China. Our writers – based in China – test the VPNs on their personal laptops, exactly as our readers.
We get a ton of feedback (both positive and negative) and this article, which we update often, it the result.
FYI,
I am still dealing with vyprvpn bullshit. And yes, I’m being profane, because there is no other suitable word for it. If you’re sensitive to such matters, I apologize for offending by calling a spade a spade.( And yes, I’m posting this on multiple blogs. In fact, the same ones that I read, in order to find a new VPN provider.)
So the deal is, is that I tried to pay using Paypal. Only, Golden Frog said the had to do a security review. So, would I please provide them with with:
1) The name of the financial institution associated with my PayPal account
2) My location
3) The email address associated with the financial institution.
I replied:
Nunya business
I’m in China, logged into a VPN sevrver in LA, California
This email (the one I was using to communicate with Golden Frog, aka the “from:” header)
(Now I realize just how stupid it was to give them the email, and am now going to have to change it with Paypal, as that’s HALF the info needed to log in to my PayPal acct.)
Anyway, they say, Ok, you need to log out of your VPN, then go to their “what is my IP address” site and then provide that to them. Oh, and they still need the email address associated with my financial institution…
I told them “meh, I’m done. I’ll be sure to let Paypal know to take you off the approved payee list”.
They say, if I don’t respond, then I get no service….. I though fine, and didn’t reply.
It was a few hours later… I get a notice from PayPal saying that Golden Frog had added themselves to my payee list. Those bastards. I’m not compliant enough to get their service, but they’ll bill me anyway?
ExpressVPN.net is working well for me at the moment, but I’m mostly just sad that connections to AirVPN’s servers are so problematic. Both services took my Paypal payment, and in the case of ExpressVPN seem to be nice and steady. AirVPN served me well for YEARS outside of China, but I can’t keep an SSL tunnel up very long, now that I’ve been in one location for a month.
S
Hello,
it seems that you had a payment issue with Paypal… this can happen (it happened several time to me with several services, not related to VPN), but we can’t certainly help you with that. I always solved it discussing with Paypal or the service that was causing problems (the last time was Skype).
WHY DID YOU DELETE MY PREVIOUS QUESTION???
DO THE VPN YOU RECOMMEND OFFER YOU ANY KIND OF INCENTIVE???
SEEMS LIKE THIS IS A PAID FOR ARTICLE.
We deleted it because your email address ([email protected], I covered it for matters of privacy) and name looks like the exact profile of a spammer. We receive a shitload of spam on ALL our article and we are sick of it.
Yes, we get a commission for the VPN, as well as for other services we recommend. It’s certainly not a secret, in fact we link to our disclosure from each page of this website, from our e-book and so on. Here you are: http://www.saporedicina.com/english/disclosure/
Having said that, we receive emails from VPN services every single week offering us higher commission and so on… However, we only recommend product we tested and liked.
Hi there! I’m visiting China in a week and a half and I was wondering if these VPNs still work. Thank you in advance!
Hello, yes, they are all working!
hii, im moving to beijing in 2 weeks and i will stay there for a whole year, are these vpns still working?? :) thank you
Hello,
yes, they are still working!
Thanks for the article.Why using a VPN when you can use a DNS service like UnoTelly? The DNS option is much faster and easier to use.
“When you are connected to your VPN you are acting from the country where the server is located (typically U.S.). This means that you’re subject to U.S. copyright laws (and not to Chinese laws, which are much more relaxed on this matter). Do it at your own risk!”
I don’t think anyone in China has anything to worry about. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act has no power there and since the Chinese government doesn’t really like the US government, they’re not going to do anything US courts may demand or even request.
Probably, nothing is going to happen to you directly, but the VPN provider might be forced to close your account. Anyway, for obvious reasons we can’t promote the violation of the copyright laws.
Well, if you are a US citizen (or if you plan to visit the US in future) I’d be very very careful before infranging US copyright laws!
So, we recommend you don’t infrange any copyright law (from any state, not only US), either you are in China or another country.
Is this a paid article? Honestly none of the services mentioned in here worked for me and my friend in China! We had to try among the long list of servers from purevpn before we paid, thanks to their free trial. You may wanna look and compare!?
I heard Pure VPN is also a good choice! We are actually considering to review it too. It does take time and effort as we keep monitoring the VPNs we recommend to make sure they are still working.
What you say is incorrect: all the VPN we mention work well. There will always be somebody complaining that a given VPN is not working. Sometimes they are “honest” readers, other times they work for VPN that we don’t recommend. Difficult to assess, especially when they use anonymous emails address & names as you do! Andrew / [email protected]? Come on!
Astrill is also a viable choice. Personally I used it for years and I stopped because it does have a drawback: since it’s the most popular, when China decides to enforce more control (near elections etc), it’s one of the first VPN to fall.
As for paid/not paid articles, you can read our disclosure: http://www.saporedicina.com/english/disclosure/
It’s quite straightforward
Thank You, Andrew!!!
My friend is recently went china without install vpn.she is struggling to get google,gmail.how to get vpn or anyother bypass for gmail.after arraive china
Just contact the support team of the VPN you bought and tell them to send you the software to install without using Google Play
I’ve been using Witopia since 2010. It’s still a robust VPN. If there are issues, all that’s required is an email to them, and within half an hour to one hour the problem is solved. Superb service and support.
I’m familiar with Witopia. I started to use it on May 2010 and it stopped to work after 6 months. It didn’t work at all in 2011. Therefore we can’t recommend it.
Well, I have to say that I’m surprised as so many foreigners have managed how to pass through the Great Fire Wall (GFW) in China. However, buying an existing VPN seems like a rather popular solution for them. On one hand, it’s convenient because there should be some customer service agents who will be helpful especially for new users. On the other hand, the VPNs are uneconomical, and it will probably increase the latency while browsing Chinese local websites. If they just want to access the full internet in China, they could have made their own private proxies instead. VPS, the abbreviation of Virtual Personal Server, is less well-known in the strictly censored country. Being famous here as an VPN, as some related articles of this websites have mentioned, could be quite awful. The fact is, PPTP/L2TP/OpenVPN all have their own issues, Which means these VPN services might become unavailable anytime without a notification. GFW has cracked the encryption methods of them, thus they could be simply blocked. What about a VPS? As far as this is concerned, it works fine, unless we want to play an online game outside China. A VPS is much stabler and safer.
Well, I figure it’s a little bit long for a casual comment online, so I’ll end it here. Don’t hesitate to reply me once you need more details.
Very interesting comment, Amell, could you provide a bit more details on how to work with a VPS to set up a personal VPN? Can you provide some online resources as well?
yes please!! :D :D :P
Someone told me that Astrill is working well in China, what is your opinion on Astrill?
Although we didn’t test Astrill in the last months, it shall be a viable option too!
I also found strange that the most popular Astrill was missing from the comparison. Astrill had problems in January after the big attack but they fixed the issues quickly and they provide some fine extra features that others don’t. I use their service on all my devices. Definitely recommended.
Astrill is a viable choice too!
However we don’t think it makes into the top 3 or even to 5 VPN for China. The main problem is that it’s the most popular VPN, so it’s more subjected to attacks/problems.
As you said, sometimes it just stops to work. So far, they always fixed it after awhile, but I find it annoying.
You state you do not agree with illegal forms of downloading. Illegal from a certain point of view as many countries world wide do not agree. Please note therefore that VyprVPN is based in Switzerland and will terminate your service without moneyback if they receive a DMCA. ExpressVPN is based on the Britisch Virgin Islands. It’s not clear to me what they will do in the case of a DMCA but I read there service is so private they can’t even find out who did what. Awesome.
Hi, I am from India. I am going to be in Jining , Shandong early may this year. I am going to be staying for a period of 6 months. Can you please suggest the best VPN services to go for? When i contacted with Vyper VPN online , they mentioned that they do not guarantee access to facebook, gmail and other sites.
As i am going to stay there for business purpose, gmail and Youtube are necessary. Can you please guide me accordingly. I am a little worried after the recent gmail ban.
Also, should i pay and decide for a vpn service before coming to China or after? And are the VPN services safe?
Kindly reply on this one so i get a email copy of the same.
thanks in advance.
Hello,
they can’t guarantee because protocols may change any day. So far both Vyprvpn and Expressvpn works well. These are the 2 VPNs we recommend at the moment.
You shall get the VPN just before you move to China.
Hi, so between vypr and express, which one would you recommend more?
They are quite similar; just check the feature of both and see what works better for you
Hi Furio and everyone,
I am back with another questions
1. Does vyprvpn have any servers in mainland China? I can’t seem to find that information.
Here is a list of servers from vyprvpn with China on the list except for Hong Kong:
https://www.goldenfrog.biz/vyprvpn/features/vpn-server-locations
2. PureVPN definitely did not work in China for me last time I was in China. My MaBook Pro normally can get connected to the Internet effortlessly in various networks. I’d appreciate it if you could confirm that you are using Windows that works with PureVPN in China.
Thanks.
Hello, yes, our tests were done on Windows. However we got positive feedback also for Mac. Notice that in this article most of reviews are negative simply because the people that take the time to write is either complaining or has a question.
The fact that has VPN hasn’t work for you, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work for anybody.
Vypr has no servers in China Mainland.
Hello again! As my date of arrival in China approaches, I am strongly leaning towards securing VyperVPN for my VPN needs. I have an Iphone and Ipad both running on IOS 8.1, and a netbook running on Windows 8.1. I have seen the available VyperVPN packages for 1, 2 or 3 connections on their website. But it seems the packages are on a per OS basis, i.e., a 3 connection package can only be used for all IOS devices or all Windows devices and not a combination of both (in my case, 2 IOS and 1 Windows-run devices). Is my understanding correct that I will be subscribing to a 2 connection package for the Iphone and Ipad and a separate 1 connection package for the netbook? Please do walk me through the process. I highly appreciate it. Thank you very much!
Hello, I don’t think the operative system makes any difference. However I’m not sure. Please contact VyprVPN support to make sure!
Hi, when should I get the VPN software, before I arrive in China or when I’m already there?
Thanks!
Hi there,
the perfect time would be the day before you move to China so that you can starting using it right away
Cheers
Thank you!
Hi,
Was wondering if you knew if these VPN services still worked well? Will be traveling to Hangzhou next week!
Hi Andrea, yes we tested them last week and they are all working well.
I always used Witopia which worked fine for me…they have an alternative website when you are in China as the government try to ban these VPN websites.
A very popular topic.
Any updates in the light of the recent gmail block?
Hi Artur,
for what I heard Vypr was one of the few VPNs that kept working!
This article was published after the gmail block, the information is still valid.
What is the significance of android app? My employer would be providing free wi-fi to me. If I access using android mobile do i need vpn app to access facebook, youtube? and also can i access banks websites in china (in my case HDFC bank i would be looking for), Thanks in advance.
Yes, you need a VPN to access Facebook, Youtube etc. You shall able to access the website of your bank without the VPN
I live in Haikou six months every year and I have been using ExpressVPN with good results. I use it on all my phones, tablet and laptop and it seems to be very dependable. However, it is a little more money than the ones in the article.
Hi John, thank you for your comment. I never been to Hainan, it must be awesome!
I read somewhere else that before going to China I need to install VPN first and they recommended to choose VPN with Hongkong server for better internet connection. Is StrongVPN also has Hongkong server? Does Hongkong server really helps?
And also another site recommended me to check https://zenvpn.net. Would you be able to give your input about this VPN if it is working in China. Thanks.
Hi Marcus,
I don’t know Zen VPN so I can’t help. A server in Hong Kong is a bit closer so it may help. However I never had problems using servers from US or EU so I think it’s not so important.
Yes, I think StrongVPN has servers in Hong Kong too.
I’ll be in China for two weeks, this winter. Is the information in this article still valid?
And I would also like to know: Can I use VyprVPN on my Nokia Lumia smartphone (running Windows Phone 8.1) or will I be able to use it only on my iPad?
Thanks.
Yes, those information is still valid.
I don’t know about your phone but on your iPad it will work just fine.
Thanks Daniel, on android devices and iPhone also works fine
Adrian it should also works on windows phone, but I never tried. You can dowload the software first (free of charge) and try it
Thanks for your answers. There is no VyprVPN app for Windows Phone (or, at least, I haven’t found one). I was wondering if I could set it up manually, in the VPN settings of my phone…
I’m moving to Nanning, China in about a month, are these two VPNs still the best out there? I know gmail and Youtube are important for me to access, but what is gaming like from China? Anyone know if connecting to gaming servers in the US is restricted? I’m thinking I might get VyprVPN, seems like the better of the two.
Hi Vince, I’m still using VyprVPN and StrongVPN and both of them works pretty well, I use more often VyprVPN because I can switch servers easily and I prefer their app. I don’t know anything about gaming servers but I don’t think they are restricted, but sure they are going to run really slow without VPN.
I am using the express vpn now….strong vpn has limited changes of server and vypr didn’t work well to me…I am now testing the express and it is working well, I can also download movies and programs from piratebay or yify without problem…but about gaming online I don’t think it is that good…I tried to play online on my ps3 and the connection is not good…about gaming online on your computer I don’t know because I don’t play on my computer…hope I helped you…
thanks for the post and great topic by the way, i ve been many times i China but always for short time and buzy so i never really miss many of the censored websites. 17 April I`m going again to China but this time is diferent because i will have to connect to webbinar and conference sites, vimeo and others so i gess better i buy the one month licence of express vpn, thank you for all the advises… by the way, is vimeo.com working in China without vpn?
hey Bruno,
As far as I know Vimeo is working in China
Hello
you wrote “Avoid to download or share files protected by copyright while you’re using your VPN”
I’m no expert.. i want to understand if i can download torrents through bitcomet, or u torrent, or any other program like that actually..
thank you so much! great article!
Hi liron, of course you can, the VPN don’t put any restriction, but this is illegal in many countries and the VPN provider may be forced to close your subscription by the country you are using the server to connect your VPN.
Sborto, how are you?
Thanks for the tip.
But i have two questions for you.
Between StrongVPN and VyPrVPN, which one you think is the best on the speed? and which one is more stable?
Thanks for helping the people in China to connect to the world!!! haha
Hi Daniel, I think both of them are quite equivalent (talking about speed and stability). Personally now I am using more vyprVPN for many reasons, but the most important is I can switch servers easier to get better speed.
This is very helpful, thank you so much for your information. I’m moving to China soon, I’ll be dying, if I have to live with out YouTube.
: )
hey I m also in chaina . plz tell me how to get vpn. thank you
I’m in China too. After lots of free methods to bypass China’s GFW been blocked, I started using paid VPNs. I’ve tried a lot, ExpressVPN is the only one I’ve found so far that’s a always working & allows torrent traffics & unlimited data and speed. Sure sometimes it got difficult connecting, but by retrying and changing locations (and connecting methods) it worked good, even when times that other VPNs been blocked here in China. It one of the more expensive ones, but dada and speed is unlimited is nice, so I don’t have to constantly checking a dashboard to see how much I’ve left.
I don’t know how this VPN performed on other countries, but it worked fine for me, it’s nice they’ve got clients for just about any platform, make things more convenient. (You can use OS default ways like L2TP to connect too. With or without a client) I’ve tried setting this up on my DD-WRT router and it worked great, making everything go through VPN, without having to set each device up individually. I’ve made two Wi-Fi signals for my house, one with this ExpressVPN and one without, needs a bit of work to set this up, but it’s fun and convenient. Pretty much any DD-WRT router can do it, you don’t have to buy theirs (those routers on ExpiresVPN website), they’re over priced.
Thank you for the comment
i was using the StrongVPN and the expire date was until december of 2014 but yesterday (2014 June 17) they just blocked my account and said that i had to pay more.
already sent an e-mail to them but had no answer yet.
If i have no answer today, i am not using it anymore and i will try the VyprVPN.
Hi Daniel, no need to send an email, you can talk online directly with them.
Thanks for the suggestions. I wonder if someone tried Torch browser or Hola unblocker? Would they work with China Great Firewall?
Hi Artur, I don’t know this two, are they VPN’s or proxies? Thanks for the comment, next update of the post I’ll consider them.
I am always worried using a VPN unless I know 100% where I am downloading it from. As long as you use a secure proxy, which is what I do, it shouldn’t be a problem. Always make sure that there is a free trial to test it out first.
Hi Guys,
First of all, great site! I am in China for 6 weeks now and read a lot of tips here!
To get acces to facebook/yahoo/youtube etc.etc. I use proxy-center.com.
You don’t have to install anything, just go to the site, hit ‘ start free trial ‘ and enjoy it for 10-30 minutes. ( it changes every time ). After your trial has ended, simply remove your cookies and you can use it again, and again and again!
Kind regards,
Andreas van Giezen
Hi Andreas,
thank you for reading and for the tip : )
I don’t know the site you suggest so I can’t really judge. My experience with proxies is that 1) they are often slow 2) they are quite unstable.
It may however be a solution if it works and your are just interested on check Facebook and stuff : P
Thanks for the tip, I also don’t know the site and don’t have so good experiences with the proxies. However it can be useful if you want only to check your Facebook once in a while. I normally need to use the VPN everyday for more than one hour so it is not good solution for me ; )
Sborto, try senvpn.com. I’m connected to it all day and everything works well and fast.
Got it, thanks for the comment