(new title): Hard decision, but the answer is pretty clear.

[martinot]

On 8/27/2021 at 4:12 PM, BruceMcF said:

Well, that's useful. I just clicked on the first two links I got, but since Google is blocked in Beijing, that was on Bing, and it can be iffy as a search engine.

The sad state of living under CCP diktatorship. ?  But why not just use VPN to access Google and other censored sites?

I have done that while in Shanghai, and worked very well.

 

 

[BruceMcF]

On 12/18/2021 at 4:18 PM, martinot said:

The sad state of living under CCP diktatorship. ?  But why not just use VPN to access Google and other censored sites?



I have done that while in Shanghai, and worked very well.

AFAIU, the Great Firewall of China is actually done province by province, and the ease of access of VPN's in Beijing can vary, depending on whether there is a big meeting in town. Also, for some reason, VPN's worked better in my office building than in my apartment building. So when I was living in Beijing, most of my defaults were firewall compatible, and I turned on the VPN when I needed it more than as a default.

They sometimes say, "Heaven is high, and far away". But that is more accurate in Shanghai. In Beijing, Heaven is not always quite so far away.

[martinot]

On 12/19/2021 at 2:27 PM, BruceMcF said:

AFAIU, the Great Firewall of China is actually done province by province, and the ease of access of VPN's in Beijing can vary, depending on whether there is a big meeting in town. Also, for some reason, VPN's worked better in my office building than in my apartment building. So when I was living in Beijing, most of my defaults were firewall compatible, and I turned on the VPN when I needed it more than as a default.



They sometimes say, "Heaven is high, and far away". But that is more accurate in Shanghai. In Beijing, Heaven is not always quite so far away.

Ahh. Interesting. I did not know that different provicens had different level of censorship and different firewall rules. 

A big hassle anyway. ?

Found it so much easier and more free when in Hongkong, and even more so when i Taiwan. Just connect to any free hotspot and away you go!