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0 pointsseanmcdirmid8y ago0 comments

> the Great Firewall is trivial to circumvent with the right VPN subscription.

We tried this for a few months. We would subscribe to a VPN that worked, we paid our yearly fee, and it stopped working the next month. We did this a few times before finally giving up, it is far from trivial, the GFW is real.

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8 comments · 2 top-level

TeMPOraL8y ago· 5 in thread

And, at least two years ago, could be trivially worked around if you bought appropriate SIM cards in Hong Kong, which - apparently completely legally, and with cooperation of one of China's telcos - gave you completely unfiltered access in the Shenzhen area.

Sadly, I learned about this only a month into my stay in Shenzhen; before, I was playing the BPN cat&mouse game.

China seems to have a weird dual stance about GFW. I even heard rumors that companies could pay someone to get a legal, unfiltered link.

seanmcdirmidOP8y ago

A hong kong SIM wouldn't work well in Beijing. Also, I noticed hotels in Guangzhou had GFW-free internet, something that would never happen in Beijing or Shanghai.

starky8y ago

I've always been surprised by how decent the internet is in Shenzhen most of the time, but I have still had a lot of blocking on some trips. I barely used my VPN on my last trip because nothing I used was blocked. This hasn't been the case when I've even been in neighbouring cities like Dongguan or Zhongshan.

rahimnathwani8y ago

You can get Hong Kong SIMs that have data plans that can be used on the mainland without extra roaming fees. They're more expensive than regular data plans.

richardknop8y ago

Companies in China definitely can pay to get a fast VPN to get unfiltered access. Especially western companies & tech companies do this as you really need unfiltered internet access to do any productive development (an even for non developers, management is using tons of web tools hosted outside of China so they also need VPN to be able to do their work).

janekm8y ago

This is still an option, and last time I was passing through the HK airport I noticed that a shop next to immigration was selling very reasonably priced data bundles with that kind of dual-network SIM. Highly recommended for those who only stay for a week or two.

yorwba8y ago· 1 in thread

I have been using ExpressVPN for the past year (just renewed my subscription) and although throughput sometimes drops to abysmally slow levels, it has never completely stopped working for me.

vfulco8y ago

It has for friends of mine in SH to the point they had to switch to other companies until EV engineers caught up with new restrictions.

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