VPN for China: How to access Facebook and Youtube behind the Great Wall

The first part of this article explains what a VPN is and how can be used to access Facebook, Youtube and the other websites that are currently blocked in China.

The second part is a comparative review of VyprVPN and StrongVPN, in my opinion the two best VPN services for China. We’ll compare prices, functionality and performances of both VPNs.

As you probably already know Internet doesn’t work as we wish in China and a large number of websites are blocked by the Great Firewall. Among the websites that you can’t access there are Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Google+.

There are many other blocked websites, and according to what you do it will be virtually impossible for you to work without a VPN (Virtual Private Network) from China. The most striking case is probably given by Google.com, which often returns an error message when used from within the Middle Kingdom.

But there is still hope…

In order to solve this problem you can install a VPN, which masks your I.P. address so that your laptop appears to be connected from U.S. or Japan even if you are in China.

A VPN will allow you to bypass the firewall and access any website you want. But you need to choose wisely: even if there are tens of VPN services available, only a few works well in China. We have tested several of them for more than a year and today we’re going to review the two we like the most.

What VPN should I choose?

In a nutshell, if you’re looking for a cheap, fast and reliable VPN, I suggest you to get StrongVPN.

However, if you don’t mind to spend 1-2 USD more (per month) in order to get a VPN that has a more user-friendly set and works well also on smartphone and tablets, then you shall get VyprVPN.

Even if there are several free option such as Freegate (which is actually a proxy, not a VPN), they aren’t reliable at all and extremely slow. The practical result is that, resorting to a free option, you won’t be able to do nothing beside checking your Facebook or Twitter feeds. Yup, even posting a comment on Facebook will become an impossible mission. Let’s forget about watching a video on Youtube.

Since they only cost 7-8 USD per month, the best option is, without any doubt, to get a decent VPN service.

Nowadays there is a great number of VPN services on the market. During the years I’ve spent in China I tested many of them such as Witopia (which was really good back on 2010), Astrill (probably the most popular on 2011/2012), Webmaster, Hide My Ass and more.

Independently of what the review that you find on the web say, many of them aren’t working anymore because the Great Firewall is being constantly updated and it’s becoming every day more difficult to bypass it.
Source: http://www.saporedicina.com/english/vpn-how-to-access-facebook-in-china/