Are there certain websites such as Facebook and Twitter that you are unable to access from your computer? Duh, you're in China. There are tons websites that are blocked But, there is a solution on how to visit blocked sites in China, and it's not by asking, "Pretty, please…". So read on.
Though tricks like using the IP address instead of the URL work in places like Vietnam and other countries that aren't that serious about Internet censorship, it's not going to work in China. In the past, sometimes, you would be able to visit blocked sites by changing URLs such as www.moumoumou.com the IP address of the site. You can try it again if you like – When on a local computer, using the ping domain.com command returns the IP address. Put this in the address bar and it might just give you access to the blocked site – but probably not.
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In most cases, the URL that you are trying to access will be banned. Actually, China's been known to ban whole lists of URLs just because they woke up on the wrong side of the bed. But you can try converting them to a shorter URL which will help you bypass the settings. There are short URL services available which can help with this. Again, I haven't had much luck with this.
You can even use Google cache. If you are not bothered that the content isn't latest on a website, you can do a Google search for that particular website. Clicking on the cached link underneath the search results can help you access the blocked site. However, Google and China aren't on the best of terms, and a lot of Google Tools are blocked. Plus, Facebook has been blocked for almost 4 years now, so old sites like this aren't going to get unblocked like this
Another technique I read about the other day is using an online translation tool. Sometimes if you translate sites into lesser known languages that version of the site won't be blocked. However, understanding what's on the site will be a problem.
Another technique that most people have been successful in using is the use of IP anonymizer. You may have heard of proxies, web based proxies, rolling proxies, anonymous proxies, open proxies, or stuff like this. In this technique, you have to access a third party site which redirects your request to the required server. Though open proxies are famous for being free, most of them have been shut down in China. There is one particular service that seems to be doing well, which is SecuriTales. It's a paid service, but I've tried it myself, and it's a very quick way to visit blocked sites in China. There's no setup required, and it'll only cost you $6 a month (36 RMB).
Get their FREE trial HERE
The most secure and guaranteed way is through a VPN service. I won't go into the whole "which VPN is the best to visit blocked sites in China" speech, but, I will tell you that VPNs are very handy. I leave mine on all the time. Most sites will have unlimited bandwidth, or limitations that only affect people that download billions of movies every month. Proxies can be annoying because you have to open up the secure browser each time you want to unblock stuff, and they don't work on software running on your computer or apps running on your phone.
Check out the top 5 VPNs in China (My review), or browse the sites for other stats on VPN services that operate in China.
