BREAKING DOWN THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

SNAPPED IN PU MING LU, SHANGHAI.

Not the great almighty wall you’re thinking of. I'd like to shed some light on China's other GREAT WALL. The wall that surrounds most of the country blocking & preventing access to sites such as Facebook, Google, Wikipedia and many more.
With work taking me to Shanghai for the past few weeks came a forced and probably well needed social media detox. No more buzzing of notifications, no more up-too-close-and-personal snapchats of my sisters face or countless photos of her dog, no quick googling to solve my everyday problems. NO. It became evident very quickly just how heavily I rely on these apptastic services. How ever did one get by before the internet? A time when people actually had to open a book to learn something, make human contact in order to see someone, or show up to lectures to get an education.  I guess that’s just an easy statement and the kinds of questions that roll with ease off thge Gen-Y tongue. More than 2600 sites are currently blocked by this great firewall due to China's tough internet censorship policies. Some of the big names on this list include Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Blogger, Wordpress, Pirate Bay, Dropbox, Soundcloud, IMBD, and anything Google related –docs, drive, plus, picasa & the like. Oddly enough though you can periodically access google search & I had no troubles reading emails.

So a few weeks net-free is NBD. Though one must ask themselves, does no one in China have Facebook? What about the countless expats living and working within this wall? Thinking of myself as somewhat computer savvy I just assumed I’d punch in a proxy address & trick the servers into letting me through.
Oh, bless that thought.
This is China we are talking about; the hub from which the techo-elite are rising. & there ain't no cheating China.
After chit-chatting about this issue with some expat friends living in Shanghai I learned of ONE and only ONE work around. That is to purchase a VPN (Virtual Private Network) from the US and install it on each and every one of your devices you plan to use.

These sites are some of your one-stop-shops to purchasing a VPN                                                                     
WITOPIA : $39.99 half yearly EXPRESS VPN : $8.30 p/m  VYPR VPN: $8.30 p/m IP VANISH: $10 p/m BOLEH VPN : $10.50 p/m

I believe there are free VPN sites you’re able to use or test out for a short period of time, though keep in mind you’ll be jumping into an open fishbowl & in full view of anyone else doing the same. There are also apps for your phone, ipad or tablet such as VPN EXPRESS starting at 99c/30days.

So, if you can’t bear the thought of shutting down or you're worried stepping off your virtual social scene will be the death of you.. Hereth lay your options when heading to Mainland China.