China - VPN Experience

I use Astrill and with my iPhone I’m constantly switching servers at this point. Planning on switching to LetsVPN soon though. Astrill is too expensive for what little I get in return.

Was in Tianjin in April, my old go to was express but it was utterly useless so very interested to hear about Let’s, same a fortune on mobile roaming data next time

Hi folks, I will be travelling southern China - namely Dongguan and Guangzhou. Which VPN should I try? Geezzzz… have not been to China since 2019, feeling a little lost :disappointed_face:

question about your tsimtech esim- if I buy it before my trip, does it start counting down as soon as I scan the QR code?

hey guys, try this. This is based in HK.

http://www.vps000.com/?ac=BB3F88&promote_id=323604

If there is free wifi in China, say at a hotel, are we able to connect our devices there even tho we are from out of country (us, Canada)

I’m wondering if I should get vpn or an esim or both

hi everyone, do i need to download and activate say LetsVPN before arriving or is it possible to do it after I’m on the ground?

VPNBaron.com offers a VPN app with DPI protection which works fine, but the extra DPI encryption costs a bit of speed.

They also offer Trojan Proxy, which is not a VPN, but works great for browsing and streaming at high speeds.

Both protocols work well in china

I just returned from China, where I visited Beijing and Harbin. Mullvad VPN performed flawlessly, I had fast and stable internet without a single disconnect throughout my trip.

In China now, using V1VPN without any issues at all. I turned on TLS fragment.

I have an openvpn server at my house in the States, and it won’t connect at all even on random ports.

So an E sim alone is perfectly fine ?

this helps ! thankyou

I’m currently using Astrill in China - works on my computer but hasn’t been working on my iPhone

LetsVPN is controlled by Chinese Communist Party.

Mullvad is also working very slow for me… see download speeds. Just using automatically chosen servers.

At this point it’s limited by let’s vpn, not your own connection

It depends. Reality is not as reliable as you think. For some specific areas, it won’t work either. But in most cases it works well. Reality is not the only workable protocol though and there are some physical tunnels that are not censored by the GFW, like IEPL, IPLC. That’s the ultimate solution but it’s not cheap.

For most users, setting up their own servers is not easy and the maintenance of the vps is the main issue. Technically, the GFW can block any traffic encrypted by any non-standard web protocol. Bc traffic encrypted in another protocol is distinguished from normal traffic that only uses TLS for encryption and website visits are usually based on port 80/443 while relay servers use other ports. And it makes it more suspicious when the connection is kept for a long time with high bandwidth usage. That’s all it needs to tell if there is an ‘illegal’ connection to bypass the GFW. Normally it doesn’t go extreme to block all traffic encrypted with non-standard web protocols but during sensitive periods, like Spring Festival, National Day, it does take it that way. So setting up your own server may work for a while but the risk of getting blocked is high and when it got blocked, changing the IP is costly and time-consuming.

Going for commercial providers using other protocols is just fine as long as the providers keep changing the IPs of relay servers. If you can afford it, you can purchase high-end service based on the IPLC tunnels. Wgetcloud is one of these service providers.

For me I just use Just My Socks service provided by BandwagonHost. It’s one of the most popular vps providers that individuals in China use to set up their own relay servers. Just My Socks uses other common protocols like ss+vmess/vless+tls and that means it might get blocked by the GFW. But changing IPs is its main tactic and does work well. I have used several providers like ssrdog, speedcat, bygcloud(they claim to use IPLC/IEPL to set up their services); they do work but not quite well because their service is oversold for profit. They work 99% of the time but sometimes the bandwidth is limited and you cannot even play 1080p videos smoothly on YouTube. Scrolling reels on Instagram can be lagging too. But these problems don’t exist when using Just My Socks. It works perfectly for me.

I‘ve tried surfshark, You need to frequently contact customer service, they will guide you on how to use OPENVPN. It’s quite troublesome.

I don’t think surfshark works, and I doubt Netflix works with let’s vpn

How’s the speed of letsvpn compared to Astrill? I currently pay for Astrill and Mullvad I just want the best vpn don’t mind the price can’t live without