published on 16th December 2025
People who have already traveled to China know that the internet there is heavily controlled and that it is difficult to access certain apps or websites. To continue using these blocked apps or sites, you therefore have to resort to a VPN. A VPN lets you connect to a server located in another country, thereby bypassing the imposed blocks. These blocks are particularly robust and hard to circumvent, which means that not all VPN services work. In reality, only a few VPN services are operational in China despite the large number of VPNs that exist.
I carried out a practical test to find a VPN that works correctly. I first started with free VPN apps available on the App Store, but they rarely work. And when they do, it’s usually only for a few dozen minutes before disconnecting, making it hard to obtain a stable connection.
I then performed more thorough tests with three major VPN services: Proton VPN, Nord VPN, and LetsVPN.
I began with Proton VPN because I was already familiar with their email service. However, a quick web search soon taught me that Proton VPN is not known for working in China, and their website even contains an article questioning the effectiveness of their VPN in that country. Still, I wanted to run a practical test to evaluate its performance, so I subscribed. This wasn’t an issue because virtually all services of this type offer a 30‑day money‑back guarantee, which was also the case here. If there were problems, I could request a refund.
I quickly realised that Proton VPN indeed does not work well in China. I tried tweaking the settings and manually selecting servers different from the automatically chosen one, but obtaining a stable connection proved difficult, if not impossible. When contacting customer support, I understood that no solution existed or was offered, confirming that Proton VPN is aware that its service is not optimised for China. Nevertheless, I received a refund for my subscription without difficulty after just one day.
Next I tested another service, LetsVPN, which a friend recommended. The app can be downloaded directly from the App Store, and during the first download you receive one hour of free usage, allowing me to quickly assess its effectiveness and performance. At first I was a bit wary because ads in Russian and Chinese appeared, making me doubt the reliability and security of the service’s data. However, after visiting their website I learned that LetsVPN appears to be based in Hong Kong or within the Sinophone sphere and specifically offers a VPN that works well in China.
I was quite surprised by its stability and speed. LetsVPN guarantees a connection in China in three seconds or less, and the connection to a server happens automatically. It is also possible to switch servers manually. I managed to use this service with YouTube, where a constant stream is required to watch videos. There were occasions when the connection could not be established and the VPN failed to find a functional server automatically. The automatically suggested server is often in Hong Kong or Japan. In those cases I manually selected a server in Germany, and the connection succeeded each time.
The last candidate is Nord VPN, a very well‑known service in the French‑speaking world. My online research seemed to indicate that it is reputed to work in China (according to various test articles). So I subscribed to their VPN plan with the money‑back guarantee, which also allowed me to try it without constraints. However, after subscribing and downloading the app, I could not establish a stable connection.
Digging deeper, I discovered that to use Nord VPN in China you have to configure the VPN manually. This requires a fairly involved manual setup, despite the many articles praising Nord VPN’s effectiveness in China. I found a tutorial explaining how to configure different devices (iPad on iOS, macOS, or Windows) with a detailed Nord VPN guide. On iOS this can be done relatively quickly—in about ten minutes—while on macOS it takes a bit more manual work, but still roughly ten minutes. The longest part is finding a server that works. Indeed, the manual configuration is done for a specific server, and Nord VPN cannot guarantee that any given server will function. Nord VPN provides a list of six servers, exclusively located in the United States and Japan, which must be tested one by one until a working one is found.
After trying the first four servers, which did not work, I succeeded in connecting with the fifth, located in the United States. I could use various services such as YouTube, which worked perfectly. After a few days, however, the connection stopped establishing, and I had to switch to the sixth server, also in the United States but with a different IP address. I remain puzzled, because the original promise was a reliable, China‑compatible VPN. The result is that there is only a short list of servers to test with manual configuration, and no fallback if none of them connect.
To sum up the three VPNs tested, only two worked, and only one did so consistently and stably.
Proton VPN was advertised from the start as a VPN that does not necessarily work in China, and a practical test confirmed that. LetsVPN works well and is surprisingly stable. The downside I noted is its price, slightly higher than Nord VPN’s, and the fact that it only allows connections on two devices (versus ten for Nord VPN). Nord VPN only works if you spend time manually configuring the VPN and testing each server on the list. The positive aspects are its competitive price—especially when a special offer is available—and the ability to connect up to ten devices across many platforms.