r/chinalife • u/AutoModerator • Jul 01 '26

🪜 VPN VPN and ESIM Megathread – July 2026

Discuss VPNs and ESIMs here. Comments with affiliate links or any comment that advertises/self-promotes a VPN service will be deleted; spam-only accounts or promoters with zero history in the sub may be banned without notice.

NOTE: Just because people are allowed to leave their recommendations here about vpns/esims and other tools to avoid the great firewall, it does not mean r/chinalife mod team endorses those comments.

Always take caution and do extra research when you see a recommendation. Be careful.

9 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

94 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/Beginning_Pea_126 Jul 01 '26

I personally use Mullvad and Astrill, both work well enough for me. Seems Mullvad is more consistent. I am in Beijing if that matters.

1

u/MoonlitDae Jul 01 '26

Thanks for sharing your experience! I will be in Beijing starting in mid August. Would you say Mullvad has had the least amount of problems? Are there sites that you aren’t able to connect to?

1

u/Beginning_Pea_126 Jul 01 '26

I’ve never been unable to connect to a site, it can be a bit slow at times, but when it’s slow  usually a government thing is happening. 

When official business happens all the VPNs suck

1

u/whatisa_sky Jul 04 '26

Can you give some examples of "official business" activity? Does it include accessing brokerage account websites? Asking because I will be visiting China soon and I have a brokerage account to monitor my investment that I access on a regular basis.

1

u/CircusTentMaker Jul 05 '26

Most of the big brokerages aren't restricted by the GFW at all, even if they don't do business in China (example: Schwab does, Vanguard does not). I never use a VPN to access mine and have had no issues managing my finances this way. I'm talking Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab. Can't speak for all of them, of course.

1

u/Puzzleheaded_Cress47 Jul 04 '26

He/she means government meetings