Set your VPN to Taiwan to avoid problems with Chinese sites

[vellocet]

I, like the rest of you, use a VPN to connect to sites outside of China.  However, every time I wanted to connect to Chinese sites like Weibo or Taobao, I'd get intercepted with a "suspicious login" screen and either have to jump through hoops or get denied altogether.  I could just disconnect the VPN, but sometimes it doesn't like to reconnect and takes time to find another server that is connectable, and once I get a good session going I'm disinclined to stop a good thing.  Well, ever since I started connecting through Taiwan, all those problems disappeared.  Because Taiwan is part of China, right?  ? No more interception screens.  Just smooth sailing and an occasional "Taiwan compatriot, would you like traditional characters instead?" option.  

[DavyJonesLocker]

What one do you use?

 

Express VPN has Split tunnelling , fancy name for selecting what apps you want to route through ExpressVPN

It's a bit gimmicky though as often background services stop the APP  connecting, even if the APP itself is selected to be routed through the VPN. For example if I want gmail only to connect through the VPN it still doesn't work unless the whole phone traffic is routed through the VPN. The same issues occurs with Google play. 

 

I found a work around though. I have all apps connected through VPN by default and then select  the exceptions, basically any mainland app. 

[vellocet]

Ah, you mostly connect through smartphone.  I use desktop most of the time, for the keyboard and larger screen. Even if I did it by "app" then it would send everything from my browser past the VPN. I tried all the majors, Express, Astrill, etc. and none of them had a reliable connection rate, so I went with this obscure one based in a nowhere country.  It has decent client software, and has the same feature on mobile.  

[DavyJonesLocker]

ExpressVpn has really list it's edge in My view, nowhere near as good as it used to be. Seems to drop connection a lot.

[歐博思]

Even better solution is to set your work visa to Taiwan?