The Chinese government uses sophisticated software to block various internet services in China. Some of the blocked services include YouTube, Google services, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, The New York Times, and Bloomberg. Note that the blocks change daily. You may have to try different servers and protocols until you find one that works. Sometimes you will find that nothing works at all. Unfortunately, this is normal.

The easiest way to bypass the Chinese Firewall is to use a VPN service that is focused on China. A VPN or “virtual private network” is a service that encrypts and redirects all your internet connections. 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.

Here is a list of the top 3 VPNs for China in no particular order that we recommend using.

Astrill VPN
 

Astrill VPN is among the few VPN services which allow users to enjoy open internet in China. One can attribute this success mostly to its StealthVPN and OpenWeb. These protocols supposedly modify internet traffic in such a way that even deep packet inspections are not able to detect the nature of traffic. StealthVPN is more successful in getting through the Chinese firewall, and we recommend you use it. Astrill will let you enjoy open internet and access popular websites which are blocked in China. You will be able to send and receive important emails through Gmail and socialize on Facebook by using Astrill VPN in China.

They have got servers in 65 countries around the world. A lot of them are in Asia, and you can connect to servers in neighboring countries of China. You will generally have a better experience if you connect to such servers as there will be fewer latency issues. It will help to minimize the loss of internet speed as well. They allow port forwarding, and you can manage proxy settings as well. It generally provides good speed so you may be able to watch your favorite shows in China. It has got AES 256-bit encryption, which is the best one available. And since they follow a no-logs policy, there should not be much to worry about privacy and anonymity while using this service.

ExpressVPN
 

ExpressVPN has got servers in neighboring countries of China, which makes way for one to easily access open internet from mainland China. They have got servers in more than 94 countries. It should be enough to give an idea of the vastness of their server network. They have more than 3000 servers in their network, which makes it difficult for the Chinese government to selectively identify and ban IPs related to ExpressVPN. Even if some of their IPs get banned, they come up with new ones. ExpressVPN encrypts and masks your traffic such that it can get through regional firewalls such as the one of China and bypass geo-restrictions such as the ones present on streaming services like Netflix.

It follows a zero-knowledge model and does not store any information regarding your online activity. They have a British Virgin Islands jurisdiction which does not mandate them to keep any data logs of their users. Speed is often a concern for people using VPNs in China. They find it difficult to seamlessly browse and stream content when connected to a virtual private network. ExpressVPN is known for allowing users to enjoy their high-speed internet connections. You can expect faster internet when connected to this network.

NordVPN
 

This Panama based VPN service hasn’t got any servers in mainland China, yet it is one of the best for use in that country. Having servers in China would have made them agree to data retentions laws of the state, and this would have put user’s data at risk. Instead, they have got servers in neighboring countries like Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, etc. These servers are close enough to China to allow users to establish a connection with minimal latency issues. Not just neighboring countries of China, NordVPN has got servers in 60 countries of the world. They have more than 5000 servers, which is tough for other services to beat.

They provide obfuscated servers which disguise VPN traffic as a regular one. It prevents firewalls from detecting it, and users get to experience an open internet. NordVPN have not been very vocal about methods they use to get through such firewalls, but there is no doubt that their system works. They have a few more features which aid anonymity on the internet. Double VPN redirects your internet traffic through two VPN servers which makes it even more difficult to trace it back to you. You can connect to the Tor network while using NordVPN, and it takes privacy to a whole new level.