How to access Facebook, Google, Twitter and Youtube in China?
Anyone who has traveled to China knows how difficult it is to access many websites in China. The China government has blocked access to Facebook, Google, Twitter and Youtube among some other websites we are used to frequent.
There are chinese equivalent websites which the chinese use like they use Baidu instead of Google and youku instead of youtube. But the problem is that you can only see what the chinese people are searching for. Still as a foreigner in China, you will need access to the whole internet and to be able to see what the whole world is searching including the chinese.
We did some research and found the solution to connect to these sites as you would be able to from your home country. Let’s take a look at the methods available.
Here’s some free options that we have found
TOR (The Onion Router)
A great group of people run this service, to provide a free software for enabling online anonymity. Unfortunately, China has tightened its grip on the TOR network, and has made it more and more difficult to use this method in order to unblock blocked websites and get around the firewall of China.
Free Proxies
It is not easy to find one that works, and when it does work, the speed will be extremely slow. In my experience, users will spend more time looking for a new proxy than actually using the service.
VPN (Virtual Private Network)
VPNs are typically used in big companies or universities, but there are personal VPN services that allow you to bypass blocked sites. You can use VPN to change your device’s address.
I think ExpressVPN is still working in China.