Run squid on a VPS outside of China and use ssh port forwarding to access it. In my experience this works better than VPNs while in China, since the latter somewhat recently began to be targeted by the GFW.
Really, we've all been spoiled by credit cards. Checks, money orders, wire transfers, and even cash, all still work.
And while I'm not aware of a properly turn-key solution for a VPN server, it should hardly be an epic undertaking to create one. Setting up a Linode account and running a StackScript is simple enough even for mostly-clueless people.
You could always connect to a Lahana[1] node for emergency situations. It's not as quick as a normal VPN and you shouldn't run a torrent client through it, but it works.