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This article tells you about the best VPNs for China in the year 2023. Since the start of the pandemic, China’s firewall restrictions have become stricter, making it even harder to get to your favourite content when you’re there. Get a VPN so you don’t lose access to sites and apps like Google, WhatsApp, and Facebook.
You must download the best VPNs for China because many VPN websites are blocked. You also need a safe VPN that has been tested and shown to work in China. If you live in China, downloading a VPN that is approved by the government puts your privacy and safety at risk. Even if you’re not in China, it’s a good idea to install the best VPN on your devices.
Without one, you’ll have a much harder time. But it’s important to know that many VPNs can be unreliable in China, so it’s a good idea to sign up for a service and contact the support channels to make sure it works. Here, we’ve put together a list of the best ones that really work and can get you connected quickly.
Best VPN For China
NordVPN
NordVPN said that it now works from China, which is good news for people in Beijing and Shanghai who want to connect to many sites at once for a low price. NordVPN is the best deal because it lets you connect six devices at once with one cheap subscription. It also works with streaming sites like Netflix US and Hulu, which most VPNs can’t connect to.
People can torrent, and there are servers in more than 60 countries. NordVPN’s policies include not keeping any records of what users do, giving users unlimited bandwidth, and using AES-256 encryption standards that are strong enough for the military. Some servers are better at speed and security than others.
Surfshark
As of 2019, Surfshark works in China, which is great news for people who want to watch their favourite shows from western streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer. Surfshark is great at unblocking things, and almost all of its servers work with Netflix, though most of them will send you to the US version.
You can also use it on as many devices as you want with one subscription, which makes it a great choice for a family or group of roommates to share. Surfshark doesn’t keep any logs, uses encryption that is strong enough for the military, and has an automatic kill switch. P2P filesharing is allowed, there is no limit on the amount of bandwidth, and speeds are fast enough to make downloading and streaming easy.
ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is one of the most popular VPNs in China, and many people use it because it can get around the Great Firewall so easily. Express’s many server locations are a big plus. In this case, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mongolia, and Japan servers are especially useful. ExpressVPN has smart apps for most devices, including routers, that give you consistent and reliable performance. It even just released Aircove, a piece of hardware with VPN built in, to make things even easier.
Also, its fast live chat and email support from China will help you with any problems that might come up. This provider keeps an eye on how well its network works in China and ensures its software stays ahead of the censors’ attempts to block connections. ExpressVPN uses obfuscation protocols and advanced technology to give users in China the best experience possible. Overall, it is one of the best VPNs for China that you can download from here.
Astrill VPN
To be honest, we don’t recommend Astrill VPN in many of our VPN guides because it’s expensive, has basic mobile VPN apps, and doesn’t have a good track record when it comes to accessing overseas streaming services. But if all you want is a VPN for China that lets you get to the sites you want and hides your online identity from the government, Astrill VPN might be worth the money.
The tool that makes it a good choice for this list is called Smart Mode and is part of StealthVPN. It says it adds another layer of encryption on top of OpenVPN to make your connections even more secure and hard for firewalls to find and block. In theory, that should make it more likely for you to jump over the Great Firewall of China in a way that is fully encrypted.
VyprVPN
VyprVPN is a great choice for China, especially if you need support for Apple TV, QNAP, or OpenELEC/Kodi, which are less common platforms. VyprVPN has a strong server fleet with more than 700 servers in 64 countries. It also has servers in Macau, Hong Kong, and other places near China. This provider almost can’t be beat when it comes to security and privacy.
It has a no-logs policy that has been checked by a third party, the Chameleon protocol to avoid Deep Packet Inspection, and strong leak protection. It now uses Smart IP technology, which changes your IP address but keeps your connection going. The next-generation WireGuard protocol makes VyprVPN a fast service.
Windscribe
Windscribe is one of the two VPNs for China that lets you use your account on unlimited devices. It also has apps for Nvidia Shield and Kodi, which are often not supported or have to be set up by hand. Servers for Windscribe are in more than 60 countries. For even better performance, you’ll be able to choose servers in two places in Hong Kong and more than a few places in China. Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand are the countries we’re talking about.
Windscribe has AES-256 encryption, protection against leaks, and a blocker for malware. Even though Windscribe is registered in Canada, which is a Five Eyes country, you shouldn’t worry too much about this because it doesn’t keep logs. With the WireGuard tunnelling protocol, your connection speeds will be stable.
PrivateVPN
With PrivateVPN, you can easily get to any website. This software for a virtual private network lets you browse the Internet safely. With this programme, you can encrypt the data you send. This programme works with both IKEv2 and IPSec. PrivateVPN is one of the best VPNs for China if you want to stream live videos quickly and well. It makes security better by using a 2048-bit encryption method.
This VPN works well and has a kill switch that stops network traffic when the Internet connection goes down. It is one of the best free VPNs for China because it protects you from DNS leaks, IPv6 leaks, and WebRTC. Strong protections for security and privacy Gives you fast speed. This free VPN for YouTube lets you control it from afar and talk to people in real time.
TorGuard
Like Astrill, TorGuard is a VPN that we don’t often talk about in our guides because it can’t handle some of the most common VPN tasks. But when it comes to being a China VPN, the TorGuard is a great option. To get around China’s deep packet inspection, TorGuard uses its own Stealth VPN servers, which “help you make VPN traffic look like regular web traffic.”
It looks like the provider also updates its apps often to keep China VPN support, which can only be good. TorGuard is also pretty good for everyday use. In our review of TorGuard, when we used WireGuard, it had the fastest connection speed of any VPN, at 950Mbps. But if you want a VPN for streaming services, TorGuard is a good choice.
Private Internet Access
Private Internet Access is the best VPN for China because it got through the Great Firewall 97% of the time when we tested it, has a lot of servers in Asia, has a reliable kill switch, and can unblock streaming services. A subscription to PIA for two years costs only $2.19 per month. On the other hand, the best monthly price for Astrill VPN is $12.50, which is almost six times as much as PIA’s. Even though the prices are different, there is only a 3% difference in how reliable they are.
When using a VPN, it’s important to connect to a server in your own country or a country close by. If your server is too far away, you’ll have to wait for it to catch up when you’re browsing the web or watching a video streaming online. One problem with PIA is that it uses servers that aren’t really in any one place. A virtual server location gives you an IP address in the place you choose, but the real server is in a different place.
VPNArea
VPNArea is a newcomer to our list of the best VPNs in China. In our Great Firewall tests with our Shanghai server from last year, VPNArea worked 70% of the time. Since then, the reliability has gone up to 83%. It has US, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and Singapore servers. Unlike PIA, however, it does not have a server in each of the 50 US states. But VPNArea does have servers in nine states, which is enough for the average user.
Use any of VPNArea’s X-Stunnel servers with TCP port 443 to get around the Great Firewall. It also has AES-256 encryption, DNS leak blocking, an ad blocker, double VPN, and the option to buy a dedicated IP address. VPNArea only collects an email address, information about how to log in, and a transaction ID for refunds. It does not record any timestamps, IP addresses, usage data, or DNS requests. It couldn’t if VPNArea was ever asked to give up information about its users.
Final Words
Here are some of the best VPN for China. China is one of the countries with the most strict rules about what people can do on the internet and how private they can be. So, you need a VPN to protect your online anonymity and get to sites and platforms that are blocked behind the Great Firewall, like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.