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.
VPNs with Main Domain Blocked
Setup of PandaPow is super simple. I wouldn’t say it’s “one click” setup like in their advert, but setup is limited to clicking a few buttons. There’s no unzipping of files, no moving of this or that. Just find the “OK” button and it’s pretty much automatic from there. Simplicity seems to be part of their niche, and their site is easy to navigate, and doesn’t confuse you with bits about 128 bit encryption SSTP vs OpenVPN and all that other internet stuff no one understands anyway.
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One is that it’s a bit more difficult to install 
But they’ve only got 5 sever locations, which when compared to services like Hide My Ass and 12VPN which have upwards of 10 or 20 locations, 5 is a pretty small number. HOWEVER, most of the time this doesn’t matter for users in China. We’re trying to get OUT OF CHINA, not get into anywhere else. 1 VPN server is enough to do that, so what do you need 20 for? Do you really need to browse the Internet from a server in Siberia? No.
The biggest deciding point for most people is the cost. Their cost plan is pretty straightforward, especially for users in China. Because PPTP and L2TP are blocked in most places, that means that there’s only the monthly SSL/OpenVPN plan available. At 20 dollars a month, it’s a bit more expensive than others, not by much, but it is. For any decent VPN service you can expect to pay 10 to 20 dollars a month, but 20 is pretty much the top of the scale..png)
I haven't been able to connect to the StrongVPN site for the past week. I'm living in Fujian – I don't know what the rest of the country is like. I contacted StrongVPN and they maintain that "some areas are having connectivity issues", but I'd like to know how you guys are doing. Of course, if you've already got the VPN downloaded, you shouldn't have any problems. The problem is that the main site is blocked – so you'll find that the links here to the StrongVPN site aren't working.
I've just complete quite a few site updates. After that crazy period when vpn companies were dropping like flies I did a lot of quick-fix site changes including putting big signs in bold and crossing out prices and stuff like that. Ugly.
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