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4 Best VPNs for China

China is the world’s largest to enforce internet censorship. It doesn’t just stop their citizens from accessing all the content we find interesting. It prevents any user from accessing content outside of China or accessing content on the inside.

You can find hundreds of different websites and service facing blocks. Facebook, Google, and many others we take for granted. Luckily, with the use of a virtual private network, you can bypass these restrictions.

What makes this worse, the government blocks the use of VPN’s. Because of this, there is only a handful of VPNs, which are still working in China.

Here we look at the four best VPN to use in China that still work and offer many benefits besides bypassing the Great Firewall of China.


What is the Great Firewall of China?

The “Great Firewall of China” is a term for the Internet censorship
system of mainland China. The entire project is part of the information project “National Public Security Work,” also known as the “Golden Shield Project.”

As such, there are legislative and enforcement technologies they use to regulate China’s Internet.

The Great Firewall will block foreign websites, apps, social media, email, instant messengers, or other information they consider inappropriate or offensive.

The range of topics can be anything from obscene content like depictions of violence or pornography to sensitive political propaganda that goes to promote democracy or show the Communist Party in a less than beautiful light.

All social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and others, along with content sites such as YouTube face blocks. What makes things even worse, are tools like Gmail, and other online applications users use for their business also face blocking on a massive scale. (Learn how to unblock Facebook in China)

If they comply with Chinese laws and regulations, they are allowed to work and bypass the firewall. The government and local ISPs to censor content and data use various technologies.

These can include keyword filtering, IP address blacklisting, deep packet inspection, and other appropriate enforcement measures.


Best VPN for China

1. ExpressVPN

Pros

  • Works in China on all devices
  • Delivers impressive speeds using optimized servers
  • No DNS leaks
  • Servers run in RAM, not hard drives

Cons

  • No ad-blocker
  • Lack of further configuration

ExpressVPN is one of the most popular VPN’s for use in China. It is seen as the number one go-to VPN that works in China because of how easily it can bypass restrictions from the Great Firewall.

On offer are a high number of servers, 3,000 across 94 countries. It has strategically placed servers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan that help to circumnavigate the checks. ExpressVPN uses AES 256-bit encryption, a no-logs policy, kill switch, and others to stop the Chinese government or anyone else looking at your online activities.

ExpressVPN delivers exceptional performance and comes with dedicated apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, and certain routers. Devices with no app can use the MediaStreamer DNS installation that can help.

Users who have issues can use the 24/7 live chat option from the customer service or the email support options, which are not blocked in China. It also allows five simultaneous connections on one account.

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Without user intervention, the ExpressVPN uses advanced technologies and obfuscation protocols to provide the best and most reliable experience for their users in China.

While sitting behind the firewall, it still delivers the best speeds for accessing and streaming from Netflix, iPlayer, and many more, as well as accessing all your favorite social media.

Using the 30-day money-back guarantee, you can try risk-free, or you can find this is long enough to cover your next China trip.

Read our ExpressVPN Full Review

2. NordVPN

Pros

  • Large server network
  • Very secure connections
  • Great restriction unblocking
  • Unlimited bandwidth

Cons

  • Can be slow on some servers
  • Desktop client not easy to use

NordVPN dedicates entire teams in the pursuit of bypassing restrictions from countries such as China. It remains one of the leading VPN’s in China that still work effectively.

It is using obfuscation servers in locales such as Japan and Hong Kong, the double VPN feature, and other ways to enforce anonymity in Taiwan or any other Chinese countries that may impose restrictions.

Besides this, NordVPN is one of the top two VPN services you can find for many other reasons. Nord has 5,100 servers with many in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and others. It is these that help to bypass Great Firewall restrictions.

Besides this, they use obfuscated servers, which they design for accessing heavily censored locations or bypassing censorship.

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Users have speedy connections, unlimited bandwidth for use on six simultaneous connections. Now, you can connect to Google, Facebook, or any other services that are otherwise on the Chinese block list.

All connections come with 256-bit AES encryption so that nothing will be seen. The choice of 2 kill switches, one for apps and one for your device. The company sticks to its zero logs policy, and the headquarters are outside any 14 eyes jurisdiction.

They now come with an improved 24/7 live chat customer support. Moreover, they offer a welcome 30-day money-back guarantee. Users can test all the features, or use it as a free VPN for China for the month.

Read our NordVPN Full Review

3. VyprVPN

Pros

  • Based in Switzerland outside 14-eyes
  • Uses Chameleon technology for advanced obfuscation
  • Owns and maintains all equipment
  • Dynamic server switching

Cons

  • Small server network
  • Can suffer from slow servers depending on load

VyprVPN is another great option for Chinese VPN as it is very safe, secure, and offers reliable connections.

VyprVPN uses advanced obfuscation methods they call their Chameleon protocol. It was developed to obfuscate all VPN traffic and make it appear like regular HTTPS encryption and combat deep packet inspection. It is this that helps this VPN easily bypass restrictions and be one of the best working VPN’s in China.

It offers WireGuard as one of the secure protocols, Vypr DNS, kill switch, and many other security features.

Get VyprVPN

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VyprVPN owns all the servers and maintains them themselves. While the small network does offer lots of security and generally fast speeds, the small number of servers (700) can be overloaded.

Users can use five connections on custom apps on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and routers. VyprVPN subscriptions come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Read our VyprVPN Full Review

4 Surfshark

Pros

  • Located outside 14 eyes
  • Speedy connections
  • Great censorship bypassing features
  • Blocks ads, malware and stops tracking

Cons

  • Small server network
  • Still a new company

Surfshark has 1700+ servers in 63+ countries and has plenty close VPN to China. You can select servers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Singapore, some of which have a static IP if you find this works better.

It delivers excellent speeds for HD streaming of iPlayer, Netflix and can easily access Facebook and other social media inside China. To bypass restrictions, it uses sophisticated NoBorders and the Camouflage features to hide it is a VPN and to obfuscate the servers.

Together, these make it almost impossible for China’s government to detect you. This makes it one of the best VPNs in China. You will have full security with AES 256-bit encryption, a kill switch, complete zero-log policy, secure DNS, and leak protection.

Get Surfshark

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In addition, you have the CleanWeb features to block ads, stop tracking, and prevent malware from reaching your system. For additional security, there is the MultiHop feature, and you have unlimited connections available on Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, macOS, among many others.

You can use the Whitelister (split tunneling) specific apps or websites to skip around the secure VPN. With this, you can access domestic Chinese websites while accessing sites and services from back home. Like the others, you have 30 days to test all the features and access Facebook, YouTube, or anything else.
Read our Surfshark Full Review


FAQ

Q. Does ExpressVPN work in China?

Yes, ExpressVPN is the number one working VPN in China. While it doesn’t allow users to configure settings, it just works like using a VPN in another country.

Q. Does NordVPN work in China?

Yes, NordVPN is among the best VPN China Choices. It uses top levels of encryption and masking technologies.

Q. Do Free VPNs work in China?

No, Free VPN’s won’t work reliably in China. Besides, we know them to harvest user data for marketing purposes, or worse.

Q. Are VPNs legal in China?

VPN’s are legal, although any VPN providers are meant to register with the Chinese government by law.

Q. Are VPNs banned in China?

VPN’s are not banned in China if they register their operations with the government. You will find any working VPN sits on the very borders of China to avoid such registration.


What’s the bottom line?

VPN services can bring back a sense of normality to any user in China. You can see from the above; it isn’t a matter of selecting any VPNs and hoping they will work.

What catches many visitors out are when they want internet access; you need to be sure your VPNs in place before you get to China. It isn’t just VPN blocking that takes place; you won’t be able to connect to the VPN website and sign up inside China.

Every one of these VPN’s is among the few still working VPNs in China or other countries with such restrictions.

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Streamr Go

StreamrGo is always about privacy, specifically protecting your privacy online by increasing security and better standard privacy practices.