[matthewrudy]

Weibo and Weixin are incredibly popular. But middle class intellectuals who want to prove their western credentials will generally have a facebook account. VPNs and proxies are fairly common, so access isn't really a problem, its just a hassle.

[seanmcdirmid]

That was before they started their vicious attacks on VPNs. We've been through 3 paid ones this year, and still can't find one that works.

[slacka]

I have a free Amazon EC2 VPN that's also acting as a Tor Bridge. Over the past 4 years, between Tor and my personal VPN, I've never once been blocked in China.

Setting up the bridge takes about 5 min: https://cloud.torproject.org/#get_started

Setting up the PPTP server another 5 min: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PPTPServer

If you want facebook on your phone, you'll need to setup a L2TP VPN, since China Unicom blocks PPTP. Instructions can be found here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/L2TPServer

NOTE: A bridge is not the same as an exit node. Exit notes attract attention from authorities, not bridges. If you are just running a bridge, you are only helping people circumvent government firewalls to join the Tor network. The default EC2 Tor Cloud images only run as a bridge.

[seanmcdirmid]

Amazon ec2 is blocked on my home ISP.

[slacka]

You can always use Tor to set it up from home. I was in China when I setup mine. Since I returned, I never had an issue accessing it from any ISP in the states.

[matthewrudy]

I was using VPN ninja without problems earlier in the year. Haven't been to the mainland since march though.