Discuss VPNs and ESIMs here. Comments with affiliate links or any comment that advertises/self-promotes a VPN service will be deleted; spam-only accounts or promoters with zero history in the sub may be banned without notice.
NOTE: Just because people are allowed to leave their recommendations here about vpns/esims and other tools to avoid the great firewall, it does not mean r/chinalife mod team endorses those comments.
Always take caution and do extra research when you see a recommendation. Be careful.
Is there any risk of getting hacked or breach of financial information/key logging when using vpn’s? Particularly shadowfly?
Moving to China soon and need to use vpn for brokerage accounts and bank accounts.
Sorry if stupid question, just don’t understand how it works /not technical sauve.
How do I use shadowrocket/ shadowfly?
I’m use to using vpns where you just clicked the country you want to connect.
I downloaded shadowrocket.
I created a shadowfly account.
I clicked shadowrocket subscribe, not sure what I need to do next?
Thanks
Go to the proxies page and click on which server you wish to connect to.....I just pick the one closest to me - Usually Hong Kong or Taiwan. Go back to Dashboard and click on the "Play" icon.....You will see the flag change from the PRC one to the one you are trying to use when it is connected.
How many VPNs are you subscribed for at the same time in order to feel "safe" and always have a working vpn?
Also, is there any difference in vpn reliability if you are staying in one of the greater towns (i.e. Shanghai) compared to smaller towns?
Is there anyone who has previous experience with Bytesim? You can ourchase China Mainland compatible esim, does it really work? If so, how reliable? Thanks!
Hi all, i just moved to China and have Wifi in my apartment with Xiaomi router (HZ based). On my Samsung phone I have no issues connecting to VPN (Anycast VPN seems to be the better one) but on my Huawei computer it's impossible. It looses the signal as soon as VPN gets connected. A few months ago that didn't happen. Is it bc it's a Huawei? Any tips? It's frustrating so spend hours a day trying to connect and can't work.
I‘m quite new to this. What’s the difference between eSIM and VPN? How do they work? I will be in Beijing for a semester starting in February and I’m quite confused as to what I should get. I have an eSIM on my phone from my German phone number/ contract. I will get a Chinese sim at the airport when I land. Should I get a VPN or can I access. Everything via my German eSIM? Sorry I don’t know how this works.. :)
Your German eSIM will not work in China. Mobile providers in China do not sell eSIM. You can buy an eSIM for Hong Kong that also works in Mainland China, so you will have Internet access when you land in China. If you're staying in China for a semester, you should then buy a physical SIM card from China Mobile and install it in your phone, this will allow you to use Chinese apps as your access to them is tie to the Chinese phone number of the physical SIM card. Then to get pass China's GFW, you subscribe to a VPN service like ShadowFly or Let'sVPN and install their app on your phone, so you have access to sites outside of China that are blocked by the GFW.
Throwing this out there just in case . LetsVPN banned me for some reasons unknown to me, i got a new pc and was downloading my games when it decided to ban, thankfully my sub was ending in a week.
Downloaded Shadowfly and it seems to be good so far at only 40 rmb for unlimited devices and 100TB per month. Works well on my iPhone, samsung and Windows laptop.
https://preview.redd.it/eirfckxm6scg1.jpeg?width=1320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=21307ab93ccc72017feeb5f876adb78a1042d2f0
heyyyy is this shadowfly that you recommended? i am working in china remotely for my company based in the u.s. so a high speed and reliable vpn will be my lifeline during my stay in china. would you say this vpn is good enough for work purposes (mostly just google meet and querying databases)
Hey there, definitely! We have been mainly using Shadowfly since we got it and I had no issues. I had one thing that I could sort out jut the support quickly solved it:)
How did you manage to setup shadowfly if you did not have an active vpn? Or did you have a backup one?
I luckily did, but thankfully my wife's devices are IOS so the app that needed to be downloaded Hiddify was easily done without the vpn
2ヶ月中国に滞在するならVPNかeSIMどちらを優先した方がいいですか？
vpn cheaper but with sim card from china maindland, and esim is more expensive. if only 2 weeks i'd take esim.
anyone tried to use tailscale+remote desk tool?
anyone knows anything about AHAspeed VPN? a friend in mainland told me it was the best option available but i’m unsure if it works correctly on iOS and Windows the same
astrill sucks ass right now and i hope it gets better
How is it working now?
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Anyone know how to use shadowrocket?
Should I Leave My Foreign eSIM On In China?
I have a foreign eSIM and a physical Chinese SIM card that I just got.
Am I able to keep my foreign eSIM AND Chinese Sim on while in China? Or will I get charged for roaming due to my foreign card?
I find it useful to keep both on. I make sure "roaming" is switched off for my foreign sim plan in my phone's mobile data settings to avoid any roaming charges on it.
Anyone successfully using Private Internet Access (PIA VPN)?
I am here in China now and I tried PIA and Open VPN. Neither work. Let’sVPN works great.
Nope, none of the popular VPN providers that advertise on YouTube works even the one claims to work like ExpressVPN and NordVPN.
It was garbage in 2012, havent heard of anyone using it recently
Hiddify is currently working well for me.
I downloaded it on my iphone, but it's not obvious how to use it. It's not a VPN on it own. Do you have to download other app to make it work ?
I can do u the link for shadowfly if you want to download it, works great for me.
You need to sign up for shadowfly online and then connect it to Hiddify
I know it as a client? Is that a server? What protocol does it use? Does it run in docker?
I've used LetsVPN, Mullvad and a generic Shadowrocket provider. IMO, a Shadowrocket provider with LetsVPN backup (or the other way around) is probably the best price-availability.
I've also used Mullvad, but China really seems to hate them.
LetsVPN. So far so good. Only issue is that you can install on 2 devices. If you install on your smartphone and close the window, the VPN disconnects.
I dont know why Astrill is mentioned, it stopped working for me approx. 18 months ago. Anyone using Astrill at this time, who can first-hand confirm that it still works?
I use Mullvad and Veee+ at present, but Veee+ cannot be reinstalled on Apple devices at present.
Does Astrill work in China? It definitely works. I use Astrill on my iphone and macbook. On laptop it works flawlessly. On my iphone, god... it was a nightmare of frustrations figuring out how to get it to work. It works as long as I'm not using wifi, but it often cuts out. Often = here and there throughout the day. Contacting their customer support, they suggest tweaking the settings and reconnecting. So I'm often fiddling with settings like turn on/off smart mode, and delete/reinstall VPN. Sometimes, on major holidays it'll just cut out completely until the next day. However, I wonder if it's a general internet issue (I'm with China Mobile). I've been using it since 2023. I find it to be more reliable than vpn.ac. I used that for about a year, and gave up as it started giving me issues. The biggest issue with Astril is that it is ridiculously overpriced. I'm sharing it with my girlfriend, so for two people it's a bit more reasonable, but probably about 4-5 times what other VPNs cost. One strong point they have is that they have a sever in basically every major city in the world. When I connect in France, I get ads in French. When I connect in Amsterdam, I get ads in Dutch (this is about 90% reliable). Other things I've noticed are when I connect to Canada, I can't go to archive.ph (paywall unblocker). When I connect to Canada, I can use local websites and banking etc. So, as a VPN it's pretty reliable.
OK, great. I will try it again / I used it from 2021 to April 2024, with big success. In April/May 2024 it totally stopped working (in China), both for me and several friends, all platforms, so I had the impression it was dead. Used Mullvad and Veee+ since then.
Recently resubscribed to Astrill for 2 years because they had what I thought was a good deal, but it’s been nothing but trash since then. Astrill is just not what it used to be, to anyone considering it please just find a different VPN and stop paying for this overpriced garbage.
I steam YouTube tv in 4k with astrill running on my router. I get about 40 Mbps that way or 90 running on my phone directly.
Glad it works for someone then. It has only become progressively worse for me over the years, on desktop/iOS.
Astrill on a router has worked fine for us. Sometimes it’s hard to get past streaming service filters but the internet itself never goes out. We did buy the router and have it configured by a tech shop here so that might make a difference.
I have been using astrill just fine with no issues since 2020. It continues to work on my Android phones, PC, and router without any issue. Obviously there are occasionally hiccups, but reconnecting or using a different server works 100% of the time. I'm living in BJ if that makes any difference.
Maybe it's different on Apple devices I can't say.
OK, thanks, this is useful. I loved Astrill, but it went downhill mid 2024 for me (Guangdong) - I guess I will try again.
I just arrived in China and I’m staying at my mother in law’s condo. I bought a Slate AX and I configured it with AstrillVPN and mullvad as a backup. I confirmed it was working in the states before I left. But no servers are working. I tested my phone as a hotspot to see if it’s my configuration that’s failed but my hotspot worked just fine. Meaning that the firewall is blocking both AstrillVPN and Mullvad.
I’m not sure what I should do as that was my only option. I read countless reviews claiming how great both vpns were and how great the AX Slate was. But I can’t access any internet and I only have 5 gb a month to use my phone.
Any help would be greatly appreciated as I will be here for over a year. Thank you!
Backup of the post's body: Discuss VPNs and ESIMs here. Comments with affiliate links or any comment that advertises/self-promotes a VPN service will be deleted; spam-only accounts or promoters with zero history in the sub may be banned without notice.
NOTE: Just because people are allowed to leave their recommendations here about vpns/esims and other tools to avoid the great firewall, it does not mean r/chinalife mod team endorses those comments.
Always take caution and do extra research when you see a recommendation. Be careful.
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