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I was directed here from lifehacks SE. Basically I am a student who would need access to gmail, Google in China (mainland).

From my past experience, Gmail is not blocked sometimes, blocked sometimes, but I would like something more reliable.

I am using MacBook Air. Does anyone know a reliable VPN that suits this purpose? I am just looking at mail/googling normal academic (English) websites on Mathematics, not searching for sensitive/prohibited content.

Relaxed
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yoyostein
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3 Answers3

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A bit of advice to choose and use a good VPN in China:

  • Don't pick the most famous VPN services, since they get blocked more often
  • Choose one that offers different protocols to switch between.
  • Register to the VPN before going to China.
  • If it is free, the bandwidth probably won't be very good and might be unstable. So yes, it is worth paying for it.

Personally, I have been using PureVPN for a few years in China, and I must say I've had a good experience and they have rarely been blocked. Also I was able to use Netflix and stream very smoothly.

Also note that your experience may differ depending on which Chinese city you live in.

hippietrail
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guigui42
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Check with your ISP, as they may have a VPN service you can use. Also, some smaller providers such as Boingo offer VPN services worldwide for use with any access network.

By the way, in general, it's best to not bring any of one's regular devices into China. It's better to bring loaner/burner devices that are wiped before and after the trip.

jetset
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If you're a bit tech-savvy and willing to invest in a private server (whether a regular shared hosting or a cloud instance), have a look at a great blog post detailing how to evade China's VPN filter. There are also several open-source projects that can help:

  • Streisand - automatically sets up an obfuscated VPN server and other helpful tools on any machine

  • SoftEther VPN - another obfuscated VPN software project

  • Obfsproxy an obfuscating wrapper over any OpenVPN

Overall it seems that it's best to have 2-3 private VPN servers set-up and tested before you travel to China in order to guarantee a stable VPN connection.

JonathanReez
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