What are
/r/guangzhou's
favorite Products & Services?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
The most popular Products mentioned in /r/guangzhou:
The most popular Services mentioned in /r/guangzhou:
Airbnb
OpenStreetMap
Wikitravel
calibre
GSMArena
The most popular VPNs mentioned in /r/guangzhou:
The most popular reviews in /r/guangzhou:
ExpressVPN is popular and my only experience with them several years ago was bad, but I think that was an isolated incident, but in the same week, both me and a friend who just started using them had our laptops hacked and I guess they screwed with the firmware or something and both of us had our laptop screens turned off and wouldn't come back with reboot. Also, a malware tried to destroy data on my external hard drive, but failed because of my encryption software. That was like 5-6 years ago and probably not related to Express, just a strange coincidence.
This guy has the best information I've seen.
Astrill has been having issues. Look for less known vpns.
Baidu maps is best. Uber and lyft work here too.
You can buy a Sim on the street. IPhone is pretty universal. But if you want data, need to go to a China Mobile or China unicom store.
Astrill, as always is the king. I've only in extremely rare instances ran into a problem. They have many different servers to pick from, and a handy speedtest tool to find the fastest server with the lowest pings.
I've been using Astrill for 3 years now, I can't recommend enough.
Astrill- the most popular VPN in China, has been experiencing problems of late. I had a chat with my VPN provider, Strong, and they assure me that whatever updates the government attempt, they will not get blocked. As for fast internet, it depends which building/ garden you live in. Most newly built gardens of a mid- high standard have fibre optics throughout, and you can usually get internet of up to 20mb (advertised speed), through either China Telecom or China Unicom. The actual speed varies with distance from their street-side equipment (not sure of the name of the thing I'm looking for sorry). As an idea, my building doesn't have fibre optic cabling, so I can only get speeds (advertised) up to 10 or 12 with the two mentioned companies. I actually get typical speed of 1.5, though sometimes it picks up to 2mb. Apple software updates seem to go faster, but I have no idea how. Torrents, streams, all usually around 1.5mb.
(If you do get a VPN with Strong, you cam earn a referral credit of $15 per person referred. So if you feel inclined to help me out, if you send your email address I can refer you to them. The cost to you will be the same, but I will earn $15 into my account with them.)
Good news! They sell kindles at the electronics mall next to the Gangding metro stop (line 3)
If you have any trouble linking the kindle to your amazon account, you can install the free Calibre software on your computer:
To find drm-free ebooks, you can go to the following site:
libgen.pw
There are other sites for ebooks of course. Doing a search on Reddit can be helpful for this. Sometimes I find drm-free ebooks just by typing the book title and "ePub" into a bing.com search.
Anyway load your ePub books (or whatever ebook format) into calibre, convert as needed into mobi format. Then plug your kindle into the computer and you can transfer mobi books right over to your new device, no amazon needed.
Note: all web sites listed in this comment do not need vpn :-)
I used Astrill from 2015 to 2018, which was decent enough. I had two subscriptions, though - one through work and one for personal, which was helpful in that I could use one to log on if the other was blocked (or if work accidentally forgot to renew it and it lapsed).
I've heard good things about Nord VPN too, but I haven't tried it in China.
I edited/published this literary magazine in the 90s. Kept the username for decades afterward 🤗
Still impressed that people are selling it on amazon....
For VPN's, Astrill works well on iOS, Android and Windows.
Never got Nord to work on iOS, but haven't tried it for a year.
If you're entering through Hong Kong, you can stop in a Hong Kong China Unicom or Hong Kong China Mobile and get a pay as you go mobile/cellular data card with a Hong Kong number (no mainland China voice number) and use that for mobile social media.
It's better than a VPN, more reliable, and not horribly expensive, between $12-18 USD for 1-2 GB of unblocked/uncensored LTE data.
Issues are no mainland Chinese number, but if you have dual SIM or another phone, you could run a mainland SIM for that. And your phone would have to be compatible with mainland China Unicom or China Mobile 2G/3G/4G frequencies.
The most important social media app in mainland China is something called Wechat and you might have to have a mainland Chinese number to use it, not sure, but you could setup your account in HK with that number before crossing over. Personally, I wouldn't put Wechat or other Chinese apps on my primary mobile device unless I were going to reset it after leaving China and were careful how I used the device while Wechat was installed. This is more important for business people with sensitive data than most tourists, but still, all Chinese software and most hardware has increased risk.
Haven't noticed anything weird with VPNs
I'm using Express and Ironsocket - but they're nothing compared to running SS through a VPS
I've paid for Vultr but basically using Aliyun (free trial) all the time - I used Azure's free trial as well - so far nothing compares to Aliyun cos of their data centers in HK with CN2 access
Maybe getting a HK-China card is a better option. Unless you also need VPN for a laptop. In that case, use the ExpressVPN trial. It's 30 days free if I remember correctly, and can connect 2 devices simultaneously.
A decent free VPN is Lantern, but it's a bit slow. I use ExpressVPN, but it's $10 a month. As far as hotel internet speeds go, it really depends on what hotel. Out of the 4 hotels I've stayed at here, only 1 had fast internet.
Can confirm, Astrill has been awful since late Jan/early Feb.
Also can confirm, You can get a HK prepaid sim card from china mobile with 2gb data (good for 30 days, refilable online for about 6-10 USD/gb), 2 phone numbers (HK/CN), and it jumps the firewall without needing a VPN because data is routed through HK.
Details about the sim card can be found here:
Use to use ExpressVPN on PC but it has pooped out on me a while back. Worked pretty well before it did.
Reindeer on Android is really good too. Currently using it and can say am 100% satisfied with it for the six months I have used it.
about a year ago Astrill offered one month free for new users and I gave it a try. Very good, fast, no issues, so I bought one year of service and everything changed. Astrill totally disappointed me, customer service replied saying, essentially, oh so sorry got too many new users..... tech support ranged from professional to downright sarcastic... after one year I switched back to my previous VPN, which is far from perfect, but satisfactory.
By Astrid do you mean Astrill? If so, I highly recommend, it's very reliable, and there is a phone app you can use for free.
Definitely Binjiang Dong Lu is the best road to rent on, there are lots of places to choose along this road, but definitely you may need a Chinese friend to help, though some of the agencies have English speaking help. Someone from your student office might be able to help in your apartment search, or look for rooms or places to rent on .
The campus is in the center of the city, though if you live on Binjiang you will have to rely on bus or taxi to get out, there is no subway there. However, all the bus lines connect quickly to the subway, so you can easily transfer.
Chinese campuses don't have much life, i'll be honest. Chinese students tend to study hard, or pretend to study, and usually their idea of going out is to have BBQ at some shop likely using gutter oil. The campus is always very quiet. Foreigners usually congregate in the couple American like crowd bars. The most popular one being Perry's, and also there is Casablanca near the North Gate. Those are pretty much all your choices around campus, there is no bar/food street unless you travel out of the area. Also, there is no shopping and coffee shops are even a little sparse, though a couple new ones opened up this Summer. If you like sports perhaps you can find some people to play with. I usually go running/walking at the river, lots of university students exercise there, and it's quite a relaxing place to unwind in the evening.
I quarantined in Guangzhou in late 2020. Hotel WiFi was ok, and free. I also already had a Chinese sim card so I used that to hotspot sometimes too if the speed seemed slower than usual.
I was also able to get both food and courier deliveries. Ordered delivery every day for lunch. Had a couple things delivered off Taobao/from family. So I'd guess you will probably be able to get internet somehow. Obviously remember to get a VPN BEFORE you go. Astrill seems most reliable lately.
You definitely won't be able to get a sim card in the airport. On arrival you get shuffled through testing and put on a bus, no shops etc available.
Worst case scenario, hotspotting using data roaming.
You can look up the specs for the model of phone on the Huawei web site and see if it has CDMA.
Also can check bands and carrier compatibility on:
https://www.frequencycheck.com/
I don't think it matters if the SIM is in your name. When you tell the bank or tell Wechat what your phone number is, I don't think they check to see to whom it's registered; I guess you'll find out.
I'm not sure if that's the right place, but I sure do see some power tools there. I was in a place just outside the Jiangtailu station exit C. It's a wholesale market for F&B businesses. Chebei has a few wholesale market for woodcraft materials if I remember right. So you might find what you need there.
Also if you need a place to stay, I run a Airbnb place right next to the GZ East station. A 2 min walk from both the metro and train station. And it has a nice view of the GZ skyline, go have a look to see if you're interested. https://www.airbnb.com/s?host_id=38101360&page=1&s_tag=OevB4I6U&allow_override%5B0%5D
Are you specifically looking for an agent with well established contacts?
If you are just looking for a guide to the physical layout of the various markets, so that you can then go and explore and negotiate, a guide book like this one should be fine.
It is a bit late notice to find anybody now, especially at this time of year. How about suggesting to your friend that he get a good guide book and explore by himself?
It depends what you’re trying to access. Many sites restrict their content by region because of licensing, localization, etc... For instance, Canadian Netflix is better than it is anywhere else. Sometimes a website will suspect an IP address is being used to circumvent their region restrictions and they’ll block it. This is more likely to happen with some services like ExpressVPN because you’re sharing an IP address with many people. Who knows what they get up to with it? So, if you suspect you’re being blocked, maybe that’s the reason. I suggest you search for servers from ‘All locations’ instead of just the most popular ‘Recommended’ locations. BTW, sometimes I think it seems like the VPN is broken, but that could be the DNS leak protection halting packets until a secure connection can be re-established. I choose ExpressVPN because it’s outside of the five eyes countries and I think it’s great. Good to hear you’re using it (mostly) effectively from behind the great firewall.
I’m actually in Guangzhou right now for vacation so I can definitely provide advice. Use ExpressVPN, you’re going to need to pay for it since you’re here for a month even though there is a 7 day free trial. In my experience, ExpressVPN is the most reliable one for me, all the free VPN’s do not work in China. Also, about the Cantonese thing, I am in the same boat as you since I’m a Chinese Canadian. However you should be aware that half the population in gz speak Mandarin. With that being said, what works for me is that if I speak to them in canto and have them respond to me in mando, it works pretty well for simple chinese. So as long as you can understand Mandarin, you’ll be fine.
Shopping is the most interesting thing to do, especially all the big wholesale markets. I would recommend that you get a good guide book that gives addresses in both English and Chinese if your reading is not so good. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013NNBI0G
VPN? No. I used to be with ExpressVPN one year ago, and wasn't impressed with the speeds...
However, shadowsocks is great. I can get up to 60 Mbps even at night, and watch YouTube in 1080p no problem. Plus it's cheaper, @around 50rmb per month.
Pm me if you want more info
Yeah all three of my VPNs went nutty this week. After two hours of tech support with express VPN I've got things more or less back where they were.
And yes I pay too much for VPN services. But every time I drop one I find the other two give me problems. I will say that express and FlyVPN have really excellent tech support.
It doesn't affect that many people, but I was discussing with someone here about China Telecom because we were both trying to use the Astrill router app for DD-WRT and it simply does not work on China Telecom.
Other problems that are reported is that China Telecom seems to either throttle and/or oversell its international traffic and most people, myself included, find that it can be useless from 9:30-11:30 PM, but certainly not every day.
There used to be a special international package for China Telecom that is no longer available, but people said was great. Other than that, all my experiences and info. are that China Telecom is the worst for getting outside China.
I just bought a month of in order to try it out becuase I wanted to get off Astrill (although Astrill does still work well), but I can not find a way to get good speeds on after a few days. Have put a request into them for suggestions.
wow thank you so much. You definitely answered a lot of my questions fully.
As for the VPN, I have ExpressVPN (which I hear is the best). Now with the VPN, I have it all installed in my phone, tablet, and laptop. Do I need to have the VPN running still or as long as I have it installed its fine? Im just worried that the consistent VPN while im on the plane will drain the battery.
Astrill works, but currently the Stealth option is the only reliable way to use it, so be sure to get the StealthVPN upgrade. Openweb and Openvpn only sometimes work, but not reliable recently.
Western credit cards are ok at ATM's, and at hotels usually, but perhaps more problemmatic elsewhere. Definitely bring some cash with you just in case of a card failure.
Look at my answer in your other thread.