6 VPNs that can help you break through China's 'Great Firewall'
The Great Wall of China was originally built to keep barbarians out, and now the Great Firewall of China strives to do the same kind of thing in our digital era. Allowing the Chinese government to block access to foreign websites and slow down cross-border internet traffic, the Great Firewall is the largest system of censorship in the world. But if you’re traveling to the vast country, you can circumvent it using a virtual private network, or VPN. Take it from us: You don't have to get blocked in China.PandaPow — Best easy-to-use China-centric VPN
As its name suggests, Hong Kong-based PandaPow is designed to pack a punch in China, with decent speeds and security. But its biggest selling point is its simplicity.
The self-dubbed "hassle-free VPN service" boasts instant activation with users able to get started in minutes thanks to a one-click set-up. While this may be a bit of an exaggeration, setting up the VPN is reportedly very easy. There is software for Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS accompanied with straightforward set-up guides. PandaPow is perhaps best known for its router/Wi-Fi set up, which is handy for anyone staying in the country for a while.
The company also offers unlimited speeds, bandwidth and speed test usage, and unlimited server switches between 120+ servers in 16 countries. There’s also a filter feature in PandaPow Wi-Fi, which allows you to exclude or include the internet traffic traveling through the VPN connection, a feature typically seen in more expensive VPN offerings.
When it comes to security, PandaPow does not log browser activity and reportedly offers strong encryption, but the details are a little vague. Some users have reported that sometimes when a VPN connection fails, which is common in China, the VPN doesn’t automatically resume, which could pose a security risk.
PandaPow offers a number of plans, but its classic option costs $9/month on a monthly basis, or $84 for a year. They all come with a seven-day money back guarantee, which is really handy if the service isn’t right for your needs.
TunnelBear — Best free option
When it comes to free VPNs some experts are skeptical, but for those looking to save money on their travels, there’s TunnelBear. The Canada-based VPN is packed with features and has a sense of humour with a strong bear-theme running through its programs. For example, to connect to the VPN users choose a country and then another to connect to and watch a bear tunnel there when the connection is secure.
There are apps for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Chrome and support for five simultaneous connections for premium accounts. When it comes to security, TunnelBear uses strong AES 256-bit encryption by default, the same level of encryption as many expensive services. There is also a feature called "VigilantBear," a kill switch that blocks all unsecured traffic when you lose your Wi-Fi connection, until a device has safely reconnected again.
"GhostBear" or stealth mode is another handy feature — particularly in China — which makes a user’s VPN-encrypted data less detectable to governments, businesses, and ISPs. It disguises OpenVPN traffic to help people get around firewalls by using obfsproxy, but can take a toll on speeds.
The VPN has servers in 20 countries, but one downside is that not all of them are available to non-fee-paying customers, meaning potentially slower speeds. It’s doesn’t allow P2P torrenting, so users of BitTorrent should look elsewhere. Unlike many other VPNs TunnelBear doesn’t have a no logging policy, but instead keeps minimal logs for one month in order to comply with Canadian law, which could worry some users.
TunnelBear has three types of subscriptions: Little Bear is free and gives users 500MB of data/month, while Giant offers unlimited data for $9.99/month on a monthly basis and Grizzly offers the same for $5/month based on a user signing up for a year.
ExpressVPN — Best all-around VPN for China
ExpressVPN has a great mix of security, reliability, speed, and customer service, making it ideal for use in China.
China’s Great Firewall is sophisticated enough to block basic OpenVPN connections, but Express VPN’ can circumnavigate the wall, with users reporting fast speeds, especially if they connect to Hong Kong, Los Angeles, or some other US servers which are said to be optimized for users in China. The service automatically finds the fastest server for you.
Expats say the VPN works well to watch geo-blocked content from Netflix and YouTube, as well as other popular foreign streaming services. Users can enjoy unlimited bandwidth and they can connect to three devices simultaneously if they want.
In a country where there’s censorship, security may seem particularly important. Express VPN boasts strong 256-bit AES encryption and support for lots of VPN protocols. The company offers a strict no logging policy and there’s a handy kill-switch, DNS/IPv6 leak protection, and a split tunneling feature for Mac and Windows, which allows users to protect their torrent client only. There’s also TOR compatibility.
Customer service-wise, ExpressVPN offers 24/7 customer support and a bunch of apps for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Linux to make life easier for users. Expats are particularly complimentary
The downside is that it’s a little more expensive than its competitors. A one-month subscription costs $12.95, but there’s currently a deal for $6.67/month if you sign up for 15 months. There’s no free trial period, but there is a 30-day money back guarantee.
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