Hello, everyone. I am traveling to China soon, and something has been bothering me about the Chinese internet : The Great Firewall of China(GFW) is blocking many daily websites, like YouTube.
For anyone who wants to go to China, no, BiliBili is not as good as YouTube. But here is the trick:
You see, for the GFW, it cannot decide if you are Chinese accessing or not when your IP is concealed or changed, so, if you use software that can do either of these things.
Now, if you spend a lot of time on the internet and have an interest in cyberpunk concepts, you will know of a network called Tor.
If you are not familiar with Tor, this is the explanation.
Tor is an anonymizing network that uses ‘relays’ to route traffic. When you use Tor, your request has an IP that is first encrypted, and then it is sent to another IP, which is encrypted again to another IP which is again encrypted, repeating the cycle. However, the problem with Tor is that Tor is open source. The source code for tor is found here Tor Source Code, at /core. You can find other source code here The Tor Project Repositories. So, you would probably think that GFW will fight Tor, yes, so don’t use Tor there.
Now, so much about Tor, Eason, you might currently say, what is the solution?
If you are interested about the solution, it is way easier than you thought. The solution is not a high stakes encrypter software that secures you or using Tails, or stuff like , Whonix or Qubes.
The real solution is using a Virtual Private Network or VPN. If you are living in China for short term performance, Cloud VPN is a good option. If you are serious about using VPNs and will spend your time in China for long periods of time, you should use a dedicated VPN like AdGuard VPN or NordVPN.
If you want to go further and install Adblockers, I recommend AdBlocker Ultimate or Incognito Adblocker.
I hope this post helps you have the average experience in holiday in China! Remember to not use Tor there as the GFW fights Tor. See you at my next post! Have a blessed day ahead.
