At first I used freegate (which is free but sucks), then express vpn (which has been inconsistent for me) and now I’m looking to buy another year of service from someone. Any ideas?
I paid for astrill for the year and a half I was there, and had very few issues over that time period. I go back in a month, and am planning to pay for it again. I rely far too heavily on facebook and wordpress to do without a reliable vpn.
Used Astrill. Switched to VPNinja. Much better.
You just don’t like freegate cuz it doesn’t let you watch porn. Admit it. 
Expressvpn can’t connect to the HK server, but connects to the US one for me. Either way, I only use it to search google, and it does the job I guess
I’m using vpnso.com. Since its easier for me to pay with alipay or a Chinese bank account, it’s great. 100 yuan for a year, lots of servers to connect. The 80gb data limit kinda sucks though… But it’s cheap. If you know any other vpn that can be paid with alipay, let me know.
I’d heard good things about ExpressVPN and was planning on using that one but I guess not. Astrill seems to be the go to VPN for most people on /r/china.
If anyone has any idea whether hidemyass VPN works over there I’d appreciate the feedback.
Strong VPN worked 2 years for me. They’ll bust balls for torrenting tho.
I’ve been using VPN.ac for 7mths now without any complaints. They have client software to connect to any server as well as tutorials for how to setup manual connections to specific servers. They offer PPTP, LT2P/IPsec, and OpenVPN-128 and 256.
You’re allowed to connect up to 3 devices simultaneously.
The closest servers are three in HK, one in Singapore, and three on the US West coast (LA, Seattle, San Jose). I get great speeds to all of them. They also have torrenting servers, but you have to use Romania or Holland. I get pretty good speeds on there though (can hit over 1MB/s).
ASTRILL
It was great for a while, but starting with this Spring, it’s very unreliable. The VPN only works sometimes on my phone, and if you use gmail, it won’t work half the time even with the VPN. This is very inconvenient on days when I need to do emails on my phone while away from the computer.
It’s been slow as shit half the time or won’t connect fairly often, to the point where I will likely be switching to Panda Pow, which was recommended by a friend that works in the security industry in China
Could you guys who are responding say where in China you are?
It’s been said that performance is likely regional. For us who want to spend money on a this it would be useful information.
I’m getting married on Saturday, I’d like to be able to get into facebook on Sunday and upload pics to my aunties etc, and I don’t want to send them individually.
Also, I’d like to see their responses.
The easiest way to bypass Chinese Firewall is to use a VPN that serves China.The Chinese government has never stated that using a VPN to circumvent the Great Firewall is illegal, and nobody has been prosecuted for using a VPN. Despite this, China blocks the websites of most major VPNs. There are few VPN that works well in China must check out the reviews of VPN providers before taking any decision. Check out list of 2014-15 China VPN and love to hear what you think of those.
A friend who currently lives in China suggested VPN Ninja (vpnninja.net) for me as I’m moving there next month.
Depending on your ISP, some will work better than others so be prepared to try a few if they have money back guarantees. Make sure it has a proxy and you can connect to Taiwan, Singapore, Japan and multiple LA servers.
I used Witopia when I was there (2010-2013) and it worked pretty damn well. If there was ever a problem, a quick e-mail would result in a fix at maximum 10 mins later.
However, I’ve been out of China for 1.5 yrs and now I have ExpressVPN because someone told me it’s the best. It’s indeed more expensive and I’m going back to China next week so it’ll be put to the test.
Seems like the comments here suggest ExpressVPN is good, so here’s hoping…
Dont get vypr its been shit for about a month now.
I have no idea about the situation now as the sophisticated Chinese firewall keeps upgrading however, last year, purevpn software helped me to bypass the restriction. One of the things it asks when it sets up the software is where you’re based - with the two answer you can give being:
- China
- Rest of the world
So I think they still have that all locked down - so I think it worth to give it shot.
I highly recommend Astrill. Lived in China for 2 years and used it, had nearly zero problems.
Even though I don’t live in China, I return enough each year to need to need it. I’ve found Astrill to work pretty reliably and good customer service.
What /u/scrappyduck said, I’ve been using astrill for over a year and it’s worked great the whole way through.