VPN – Is a VPN needed in China?

Yes. There is the odd foreigner who does not have a VPN in China but almost all do.

If you do not have a VPN you cannot check Facebook, twitter, plus other social media, anything google will not work (including some website that use google plugins), some random sites wont work, Dropbox and a number of other downloading or uploading issues will happen.

Technically China does not accept VPNs to be used. Some say it is risky to use a VPN but any teacher that I have heard of not using a VPN has said they didn’t really use any of the blocked social media or sites, so they didn’t get one.

That said, other than block them occasionally, they allow them to exist and be used. I think if they wanted to stop them from being used and they really cared, then the Chinese government would block them.

Note: It is important to get your VPN on your phone before going to China. Especially if you use Google Play (as that will not work).
Also many of the app stores read your location and when your in China there is a chance that the VPNs will not come up.

The best VPN keeps changing. In the past Express was the go to, and then Nord VPN.
Those are both paid VPN services. It costs roughly $10 per month.

For Nord VPN they say you can test it and cancel without needing to pay. You can, but I tried this as I only needed it for a 1 day project I was doing and they made the process more difficult than simply cancelling it, forcing me to give a reason.

I had Express VPN for some time. There were times when it didn’t connect or work, but generally it was reliable.

Another one that seems to work is Surfshark.

There are Free VPNs but most people find them a lot less reliable. Please leave a comment if you have had good luck with free ones, but from my experience they either didn’t work or I would go back to the app or the browser with the VPN inside and it didn’t work soon after.