You only need to download the application from the website of a VPN service, and start the application, click the button that reads connect to get your device connect to a remote VPN server, you can choose the cities or countries where the servers located among up to a hundred of countries in the world.
Using VPN software is very easy, easier than the use of most other applications. Running and maintaining VPN servers all cost money, so VPN service providers will charge their costumers a small fee that ranges around $10 to allow them using VPN software connect to those VPN servers.
Most VPN are not free to use, though the VPN applications are free to download and use, the software can only run with the support of VPN servers that are located in countries other than China, it’s these servers disguise your IP address in China to a foreign one. With a VPN running on your device, you can access free and uncensored internet in China, as if you are in a different country where the internet isn’t subject to censorship, GFW can’t block you from visiting the blocked sites since it determines the location of internet users based on IP address, it can’t block other countries’ users from accessing those websites. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, it can hide your real IP address, and gives you an IP address of other countries that have no internet censorship.
For travelers in China, the most effective application is VPN. So it’s really necessary for travelers to know the method to access YouTube in China.Īs mentioned in the beginning of the article, although YouTube can’t be accessed directly in China, it still can be easily accessed by using a sort of desktop or mobile app on device. Chinese people generally stream videos on Youku, a domestic video site that similar to YouTube, but only available in Chinese, and the videos hosted are mostly things of Chinese culture uploaded by Chinese users. While alternatives are available for Google and Facebook(Travelers can search with search engines that are not blocked in China, and connect with their families or friends via phone calls), no alternatives is available for YouTube in China, Vimeo is blocked, too.
Many most used websites are blocked in China, because Chinese authorities are unable to control the content shared on these foreign sites, it simply block them all.Ī wide range of popular websites are blocked, including Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc., the video streaming site YouTube is also one of them, so the site can’t be directly accessed in China.Ī large virtual filtering system called Great Firewall(abbreviated as GFW, don’t be confused with Great Wall) is being used to achieve the blocking, the Firewall can monitor Chinese internet users’ web traffic, and will block their traffic when it detects that their browsers or web-based apps are interacting with the blocked websites.Īs a result, the browser will only display the text of “Unable to connect” on the screen, and the apps of blocked sites just show blank space. In fact, YouTube can still be accessed with the help of some applications, in this post, I will introduce the methods to unblock YouTube in China in 2020.Ĭhina has strict internet censorship, contents published or shared on popular websites must comply with some special rules. China is one of the most visited countries in the world, a major problem for people traveling to China is that they can’t directly access to YouTube in China to stream videos, and many other most used websites also can’t be accessed from within the country.