VPNs 101: A China Necessity
I'm entering the homestretch of my semester abroad, and as I've battled poor network signals and VPN errors all day, I found it appropriate to write about the ins and outs of VPNS and why should seriously consider using one when coming to the People's Republic.
VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is a little slice of heaven for those of us living in China. The purpose behind a VPN is to essentially reroute your network location to better get around the network of the country you're staying in. If that sounds confusing, let me elaborate.
When I am in China, my network is of whatever is provided to me in China. This means that I am limited to what the Chinese government allows me to see, and since we've all heard of the Great Firewall of China, you ought to infer from there what I mean. Naturally, coming from America, I am used to having access to essentially all media. A VPN allows me to use the internet in China, but my phone shows that I am in, lets say, Tokyo. The VPN has just allowed me to get around the Great Firewall and I can get back to watching videos on Youtube, writing blog posts on Blogger, and liking status updates on Facebook.
Occasionally, there will be problems with the VPN you use, and it could range from bad connection to a government shut down of the server. Lately, with the Shanghai International Expo, more of the latter has been happening, causing me to have some serious setbacks with my VPN. You can imagine how troublesome this can be for a foreigner whose only means of communicating with family is, essentially, google.
For anyone interested in one day coming to China, I want to stress the importance of finding a VPN. Below are three of my favorites:
1. ExpressVPN
2. NordVPN
3. VyprVPN
Finding the right VPN can be a little tedious, but I promise nothing has made my trip go as smoothly than using a VPN.
For anyone interested in one day coming to China, I want to stress the importance of finding a VPN. Below are three of my favorites:
1. ExpressVPN
2. NordVPN
3. VyprVPN
Finding the right VPN can be a little tedious, but I promise nothing has made my trip go as smoothly than using a VPN.
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