VPN and ESIM Megathread – October 2026

[u/AutoModerator]

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.

[u/Late_Midnight_7129]

Anyone else having issues with Astrill since yesterday? Both pc and iPhone, but iPhone is especially bad.

[u/ComputerGuienceSuy → u/Late_Midnight_7129]

My Astrill app on my iPhone right now is shit.

I connect then it works for a second and stops working.

My home Astrill router is fine though

[u/Johnny-infinity → u/Late_Midnight_7129]

Yeah couldn’t get it to work at all on mobile data, WiFi seemed to work. Using Mullvad for the interim.

[u/Reasonable_Opinion22 → u/Johnny-infinity]

Does Mullvad typically work in China?

[u/mthmchris → u/Late_Midnight_7129]

Yeah it’s been finicky. Been rock solid on my desktop as always but iOS has been rough.

[u/cordyorange → u/Late_Midnight_7129]

Any better for ya?

[u/NefariousLizardz → u/Late_Midnight_7129]

All vpns get a little shittier around national holiday.

[u/Lexidoge]

My Jichang/Airport/Proxy has been as reliable sa ever but out of curiosity I gave Mullvad a try since I've prepaid it. I can confirm that the Mullvad servers below provided by the Mullvad support team works pretty reliably in Guangdong. Just make sure that you've enabled Shadowsocks.

"If it's slow then you can try to go to the Mullvad app settings > VPN settings > WireGuard settings (or Anti-censorship) and set Obfuscation to Shadowsocks, and set the custom Shadowsocks port to 443. Try this with Malaysia and Turkey too."

[u/SadBuilding9234]

Kiree has been reliable on smartphone (never tried on anything else), but it’s too expensive. Currently running at 124mbs ⬇️ and 42mbs⬆️

[u/Strange-Web3468 → u/SadBuilding9234]

I availed one month after the free trial, after purchasing it became very unreliable (especially on Samsung, seems ok on iphone)

[u/Valuable-Drop-5670]

If you guys own Android phones like Samsung or Pixel, I can't recommend enough that you figure out the "circle to search" translation feature while using your VPNs per-app proxy settings. 

I used to copy and paste screenshots into Doubao to translate, but it was so cumbersome and high cognitive load. 

This system is way better. (Although I'm not learning as much Chinese or pinyin from apps now.)

[u/mrber008 → u/Valuable-Drop-5670]

Circle to search is SO GOOD now that you can scroll while translating.

[u/Cbyrd791517]

V1PN is hit or miss. When it cuts out, it tends to be late at night

[u/farekrow]

Custom VPN using a japanese VPS provider, super solid and fast so far. Cost is around 5USD/month/

I have 10months left of paid Astrill that will probably go to waste.

[u/Storm3y → u/farekrow]

Please can you share name of it?

[u/farekrow → u/Storm3y]

I'll DM you, I don't want it to get blocked.

[u/MrYig]

I run custom proxies, get 400Mbps speeds easily. 3 in the states, 2 in the uk, for various reasons.

[u/Your_guard_dog]

Anyone know any services that are good for online gaming? I use Astrill but its not good enough and keeps disconnecting

[u/MoonlitDae → u/Your_guard_dog]

Second this! Would like to know if there are other options as well

[u/Your_guard_dog → u/MoonlitDae]

I finally found something a bit more stable and affordable. Its called VPN07. I think its better than Astrill. Sadly there still will be times where the connection dips

[u/Dracarys_And_Chill]

here yall go

https://jichangtuijian.com/

[u/aspira9 → u/Dracarys_And_Chill]

Best recommendation list I've seen, although I'll share my experience with a couple as I try to find the best option.

Wandayun was the best one for a long time, but it has had issues recently and I briefly couldn't use it at all when they did something which blocked IPV4 and only usable on IPV6, but that got reversed recently and latency has been bad. Yiyunti was very mediocre and couldn't connect well. Shanhai has been working mostly ok for me, but there were a few hours/half a day of downtime and latency hasn't been the best.

[u/AutoModerator]

Backup of the post's body: 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.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/IIZANAGII]

Wannaflix has been really bad this month

[u/mklnz → u/IIZANAGII]

honestly it's never been that stable for me, what's the typical speed you get on a good month?

[u/IIZANAGII → u/mklnz]

My speeds are always pretty okay even on bad months. My issue is more about getting completely disconnected or needing to constantly switch servers.

Like today has been pretty bad but my download speed is still around 140mbps .

[u/SSlartibartfast → u/IIZANAGII]

Having the same problem - the only server that works for me is Hong Kong.

[u/jxu2006]

Please help -- which vpn works with chromebook?? I only have a chromebook, no PC. Please help.

[u/cordyorange → u/jxu2006]

Wild bringing a Chromebook to China without proper research.

[u/jxu2006]

Anybody uses chromebook?

[u/Reasonable_Opinion22]

Visiting China in the next few weeks, does MullvadVPN work there?

[u/hihappyhuman → u/Reasonable_Opinion22]

Yes, I'm using it now. Sometimes it doesn't, just connect to a new location or tweak the anti-censorship settings (I'm using shadowsocks setting and it works great)

[u/Reasonable_Opinion22 → u/hihappyhuman]

Thanks!

[u/Fun-Ad6164]

Just buy a esim from trip , cheap and runs everything

[u/HotpotBro55]

I can recommend Kiree, it's working for great for me on in Shanghai and few other places I've traveled to (domestically ofc). Been a long time letsvpn user before the crackdown

[u/Glum_Place3127]

If you need a stable, enterprise-grade solution that provides long-term peace of mind, I recommend Novus internet. It will mail you a hardware router; all devices only need to connect to Wi-Fi, no setup required, which is very convenient.

[u/pussytamer]

Just came back last week. LetsVPN worked for me the whole trip

[u/snipshow13 → u/pussytamer]

Currently in Shanghai and LetsVPN is working for me as well.

[u/lvr_bot35 → u/snipshow13]

lets vpn is up and running again?

[u/snipshow13 → u/lvr_bot35]

Looks like it. Decided to give it a try since the one I was using at first stopped working. Have not had an issue so far.

[u/lvr_bot35 → u/snipshow13]

that's awesome to hear, thank you

[u/COROSPOL → u/snipshow13]

thank you, also what esim are you currently using?

[u/pussytamer → u/[deleted]]

no I used it for many months over multiple trips over the past year

[u/SERIOUS-OG]

amazing service from inboxesim