China is considered as one of the most restrictive country in terms of internet access around the world and its IT sector strictly ensures that people do not log on to any website or anything on the internet that has not been approved or allowed by the government.
VPN for China got increased attention because Chinese people are not allowed to use even the social networking websites if they want to contact people outside their country or want to watch an independent online news service. They can never do so unless they have been permitted by the Chinese government. Also, people who want to view certain educational websites cannot do so if that site has not been approved by the government. Consequently, many people started using VPN for China to bypass this limitation.
Using VPN in China
Using a VPN service to bypass the Chinese firewall needs a technology that was developed many years ago for completely different purposes. Now this technology is improved by increasing its security mechanisms.
Therefore VPNs for China has now developed a line which goes around or through the Chinese firewall and is being used for bypassing the firewall and this line is protected with various protocols to make it secure. An example, are the systems that use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) type protocols that can bypass Chinese firewalls. A lot of the new lines are being encrypted with these SSL protocols therefore the Chinese firewall cannot censor the line and that’s the reason why using the right provider is such an important part of getting through the firewall used by China.
Connecting a Chinese VPN
Once you find the right VPN for China with the right protocol to get through the Chinese firewall, now you have to connect to that provider. This might require certain steps including registration, device set up and setting up your account. During your account set up, you also have to select a secure sockets layer type protocol which is a must to bypass the censorship firewall used by China.
Finding VPN in China
After an extensive research on the flood of available VPNs for China that offer all what you need to get around the firewall in China, we found the following five VPN services to be the best VPN for China, ranked according to their listing order:
Express VPN
Pros
High Speed, servers in 47 countries, operates on all devices, multiple VPN protocols, 256-bit OpenVPN, 30 day money back guarantee
Cons
High price and US based company
Boleh VPN
Pros
No logs, fast, great OSX and Windows software, website not blocked at time of writing.
Cons
128-bit Blowfish OpenVPN encryption could be stronger.
Air VPN
Pros
No logs at all, transparent service, accepts Bit coin, 256-bit AES encryption, dynamic port forwarding, real-time user and server statistics, SSH tunnels, good speed.
Cons
Website blocked by GFW.
TorGuard VPN
Pros
No logs, very fast, shared IPs, SSH tunneling, DD-WRT routers, server status information P2P: yes, servers in Hong Kong, Japan, West Coats US.
Cons
Encryption on most servers a bit meh, customer service could be better, jurisdiction uncertain.
Vypr VPN
Pros
fast, 256-bit and 160-bit (Pro only) OpenVPN encryption, Android app, Available in Hong Kong, iOS app, 1 Week money back guarantee, Zero usage logs, Three simultaneous connections.
Cons
P2P: no, pricey
