My name’s Terry, I’m a British expat living in China and I’m writing to tell you that if you want to access any western website in China, you’re going to find it impossible without a VPN.
If you want to skip ahead and get started with using a VPN to access blocked sites in China with the fastest speeds, we recommend you pick up a free trial of Express VPN, which is undoubtedly the fastest and unblocks the most sites in China.
- The fastest of the lot for streaming western services like iPlayer, Netflix, All 4 and Channel 5. Seriously, I’ve been in China long enough to know.
- Easy to setup for Windows, Mac, iPhones, Android phones, PlayStation, XboX, Apple TV, Fire TV, smart TVs, your toaster, etc. – it just works.
- The only VPN in China with no restrictions– a rarity!
- Protected from government surveillance. You don’t want the Chinese government to know you are using a VPN and you can have total peace of mind with Express VPN.
- 30 day money back guarantee
Express VPN Setup Guides
I have painstakingly prepared these guides to setting up ExpressVPN so your setup is as fast and hassle-free as possible. Enjoy!
Windows setup guide for ExpressVPN
Mac setup guide for Express VPN
Android setup guide for Express VPN
iOS setup guide for Express VPN
The Great Firewall
China’s Great Firewall is notoriously restrictive to expats trying to access sites that they miss using from home. BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter–you name it, it’s probably blocked.
Instead, the Chinese government prefers instead for its people to use an alternative set of sites that closely mirror their Western counterparts. Baidu instead of Google, AliExpress instead of Amazon, Renren instead of Facebook, Youku instead of YouTube, and the list goes on.
The Great Firewall of China is set restrict access to websites that represent a potential threat to the government. Every time a user in Mainland China connects to a website, the Internet Police scans the URL, IP Address and page content. With a VPN in China, you can bypass censorship and also reduce its range.
List of popular websites blocked in China
All these websites are blocked. However, you can access these while in China with a good VPN. The best VPN for China cloaks your IP address and hides you behind one of its own IP Addresses. If you’re located in China, I’d recommend you to connect either to UK or USA servers.
| Alexa Rank | Domain | Category | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | google.com | Search | BLOCKED |
| 2 | facebook.com | Social | BLOCKED |
| 3 | youtube.com | Sharing | BLOCKED |
| 8 | twitter.com | Social | BLOCKED |
| 32 | instagram.com | Social | BLOCKED |
| 51 | xvideos.com | Porn | BLOCKED |
| 54 | xhamster.com | Porn | BLOCKED |
| 64 | pornhub.com | Porn | BLOCKED |
| 87 | dailymotion.com | Sharing | BLOCKED |
| 108 | nytimes.com | News | BLOCKED |
| 110 | dropbox.com | Sharing | BLOCKED |
| 112 | vimeo.com | Sharing | BLOCKED |
VPNs vs China: A raging war
Many VPNs don’t work in China, like free VPN services. Because the Chinese government knows about VPN. And they want to have total control over the Internet. Therefore, they block VPN servers to maintain surveillance and censorship. Only the best VPN for China will give you access to unrestricted Internet.
The Chinese Internet Police keeps blocking the VPN servers. How? By using two techniques to disrupt service: First, deep packet inspection, examines the data in Internet packets to try to determine if it’s a VPN connection. Second, IP blocking, shuts off traffic destined for the Internet addresses used by VPN servers.
The only answer from the VPN companies is to improve the encryption of their packets and to constantly renew the IPs of their servers. This way they guarantee you can keep browsing an unrestricted internet.
How to choose the best VPN for China?
It’s hard to select the best VPN for China. Because you can’t try it before you get there… And because many companies claim to offer the best VPN, rightfully or not. But not all VPNs can unblock content from China.
Important update! China started blocking the OpenVPN protocol, in their latest round of VPN blocking. Therefore most VPNs are down! China increased Internet censorship greatly in 2017, a trend which appears to be continuing… And an all-out VPN ban is slated to take effect in February!
Knowing that OpenVPN protocol is now blacklisted, I decided to keep only VPN providers which offer un-blocked solutions. And unfortunately, there aren’t many who can boast to have proprietary protocols to bypass Chinese blockade. Express VPN is the only service I know and trust.
Best China VPN 