Internet in China

Not everything is as it seems, but don’t fret, there are ways to solve it all!

Three ways to survive:

Method 1: Just get by

Yes you will survive regardless, with a just entirely different internet usage profile than normal. If this is the way you choose to do it, get things ready far in advance and have everything you need written down. Many people underestimate their access to information without all of these tools.

Method 2: Use ‘recommended apps’

There are many apps people will generally recommend and some occasionally swear by; most are freely downloadable with a pay-to-go service. They are overall a subpar user experience and might fail a few times a day, causing you to switch servers and adjust, and turn on and off many times. Also keep in mind, that apps and functions that work in other countries definitely do not here.

That being said, if we had to recommend one app for simplicity of getting things working with least headache and a reasonable price it would be Astrill. Use this included link to get yourself started really quick. For those looking for a more robust solution, read on further.

Method 3: The best method = get a socks proxy

Get a socks proxy designed for use in China. There are only a few. I can recommend one. It appears to be similar to simply getting a ‘recommended app’ as discussed above, but this is very much different. You sign up online for a service, and then get a free or paid app to access the service. With the right combination of service and app, it works like magic!

If you are already quite savvy about installing and enabling a socks proxy then you can go right ahead and get this one on the right. Be aware that you’ll also need an alipay account set up to pay. This is reasonably easy nowadays, thankfully.