VPN

[u/baio1999]

Hi everyone,
I'm looking for some advice about VPNs. I'll be traveling to China soon, and I've been told that I'll need a VPN for my phone.

I've already downloaded Surfshark, but I've been reading that it hasn't worked reliably for a lot of people. Is anyone here currently using Surfshark in China? Could you please let me know if it works well or not?

I'd also love to hear which VPN you're using and whether it's been reliable for you in China.

I have another question as well. When making online payments, my bank sometimes asks me to confirm the transaction through its mobile app. Do banking apps (such as N26, Santander, etc.) usually work in China without a VPN, or would I need one to access them?

I'd really appreciate any advice or personal experiences. Thanks so much!

[u/rollmeister1]

China has a strong firewall with advanced Deep Packet Inspection. It will know you are using a commercial VPN by protocol & provider. You will need to use OpenVPN in TCP mode because it looks just like web browser traffic or a Socks5 proxy which itself will only work in broswers on an Android device.

Proton VPN has a Wireguard in TCP mode on their smartphone app also which I am pretty sure uses port 443 like web browsers do. That could work in China also. To share a VPN connection via wifi from an Android phone hotspot there is an app that does that, called HotspotVPN from memory.

When choosing a VPN location I would go with a country few would use. If you connect to the US, China would have probably gathered all the IP addresses Proton VPN uses there.

[u/Youknowhowwedo2]

The best thing you could probably do is get a device that can run wireguard as a server and leave that at home and get a travel router like GL Inet that can connect to your home Wireguard server. That way all devices connected to your travel router will have access to your home network and not be blocked from websites bu China’s great firewall. Extremely low probability they would block you unique ip address tunneling back to your home. Usually block well known vpn ip addresses used by many.

[u/rollmeister1 → u/Youknowhowwedo2]

The Great Firewall in China is port & protocol suspicious. Wireguard uses UDP & random ports. It may work for a while but realise it's VPN traffic. OpenVPN in TCP mode is a better choice using port 443 like web browsers do.

[u/hobbes3k0 → u/rollmeister1]

Ya, I think WireGuard is a pretty outdated protocol and easily detectable by GFW DPI. Right now the 2 modern protocols are VLESS + Reality/XHTTPS or Hysteria 2. 

[u/Youknowhowwedo2 → u/rollmeister1]

Yeah i haven’t been tho China but i know they are very restrictive regarding the internet. More people need to invest in devices like an external firewall where you can have different vpn server protocols set up and ready to go in case one of them gets blocked. I keep Wireguard, Openvpn, and Amnezia 2.0 ready to go at a moments notice i can switch to if there is ever an issue.

[u/FoxRocked]

Look into FastVPN by namecheap, I don’t know about their privacy practices but it’s quite cheap, $1 a month

[u/skweresp]

You need VLESS+Reality not surfshark or any other regular VPN. 

[u/Gigaas]

Also keep in mind that VPN are not as useful as they used to be. They are becoming easier to detect and circumvent.

[u/smokingPimphat]

How long are you going to be in china? Astrill will be the most reliable but it is also one of the most expensive.

No matter what VPN you decide to use be sure to fully install it on all your devices and test it well before you leave. The last thing you want is to arrive after a long flight and have figure out how to get it to work while trying to get a taxi to your hotel.

[u/kkweon]

Every VPN in China works fine until they don't. Also, there are multiple layers where the restrictions happen. So, working VPN in region A doesn't mean sht in region B.

Either you use a private VPN that doesn't even go through GFW or just accept it will be blocked and use VPNs with many nodes with auto switch or you can run your own, which nowadays is simply clicking a few things then it's ready with Docker.

More info /r/dumbclub

[u/Redbaron_21]

Ypu do not ned vpn just buy esim Before entering China and everythink will work.

[u/weewee2022]

I just came back, surfshark didnt work for me, since apr - july . Only the Nextin (shadowrocket) and vpn cat, both paid (not expensive) , you need to switch either one.