China is among the most difficult countries across the planet within which to browse websites in a free and easy manner. Shanghai, like the rest of the country, is subject to heavy restrictions on the types of website that citizens and visitors may connect to; some of the web’s more popular sites are not available to connect to or, on the off chance you are able to access them, impossibly slow to load. If you live in Shanghai or are visiting the city and you would like to be able to access the internet at will, without the restrictions of speed and blocking, you can use a Virtual Private Network, or VPN, to do so.

What Internet Browsing Restrictions Is Shanghai Subject To?

If you’re a regular user of social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter, you enjoy watching videos on YouTube or you share your photographs and thoughts through sites such as Flickr and Blogspot, you’ll find that you are no longer able to do so while in Shanghai. Other popular sites are not yet blocked, but still load incredibly slowly. Google’s Gmail can take up to 90 seconds to load, while Skype will only work at all some of the time and Google Images often has issues. The internet is not speedy in Shanghai because the government is filtering its usage and blocking many sites through The Great Firewall – but a VPN service for Shanghai can get you past these issues.

Which VPN Service Should I Use In Shanghai?

You’ll find hundreds of VPN services offering to help you bypass the censorship and website blocking that occurs in Shanghai, China, but the best VPN in Shanghai are the ones that pay special attention to their security protocols. The encryption that’s used to send your data back and forth across the internet is very important because it’s what keeps your internet surfing safe from prying eyes and will help keep you hidden from the authorities. You might want to look for a service that uses PPTP tunneling protocol because, while it’s less secure than openVPN, it also allows you to use your peripheral devices, such as your mobile phone, to access the internet through your VPN. The very best VPN for Shanghai will offer a range of tunneling protocol options and will allow you to change between them on the fly, in case you discover that one protocol doesn’t work for a particular site and would like to try another.

Many VPN providers for Shanghai have worked hard to bypass the blocking that the Chinese government has in place and has put servers in place outside China to help. Look for the providers who can boast about the safety of their services – you’ll find some of the best in our comparison tables below.

Rank	Provider	Starting Price	MoneyBack	Visit Website
	ExpressVPN	$6.67/month	30 Days
2	VyprVPN	$14.95/month	7 Days
3	IPVanish	$10.00/month	7 Days
4	Hidemyass	$6.55/month	30 Days
5	StrongVPN	$21/ 3 Months	7 Days