[kbart]

"Google, Facebook, and YouTube are obviously not essential, cause those millions get by just fine without them."

Most of foreigners traveling in China would certainly disagree with you. No Facebook, no Gmail, no Youtube == "no Internet" for most casual western users.

[antoinealb]

I was in Shenzhen two weeks ago. You just buy a cheap VPN access like everybody in the tech scene there and you go on with your life. It's not hard to do, even from inside the country.