How to Get on Facebook in China

If you are planning to study, teach or volunteer abroad in China, you should be aware that accessing social networks is a bit of a struggle. The Chinese government has had an interesting past with online companies, specifically Google, and has implemented stiff internet censorship countrywide.

You will need to find alternative ways to keep in contact with the folk at home.

A Little History Lesson

The People’s Republic of China began applying regulations against the internet back in 1996 and today, their internet repression is considered the most vigorous in the world. The government began this internet censorship to counteract criticism on the web that was the cause behind a series of protests. It is rumored they have an ‘internet police force’ of over 30,000 strong and any influential comments that show up on the web are erased within minutes. It is not just websites that are at risk, with 1.3 million being shut down in 2010, but people too, as many journalists (and artists) have found themselves imprisoned for being too opinionated online.

Getting around the Censorship

Obviously, where there is a will, there is a way, and luckily those who have traveled to China have already begun to find ways to get around the censorship, though not all of them are reliable. The following seem to be the best options to date, the first being VPNs, but make sure to keep on top of your internetuality by visiting China Hush, The Hao Hao Report and Shanghai-ist.

What is a VPN?

A VPN, Virtual Private Network, provides internet connectivity over very long distances, enabling people to shareenabling people to share files, video conference and use other popular network services through another computer located in the US or UK.

Megan Lee had great things to say about the service provided by her VPN.

A VPN will allow you to surf using an IP address from (typically) a US location or Facebook friendly location. In this way, your internet is sort of "tricked" into thinking its accessing internet from a different place,” said Lee. “Furthermore, any use of this VPN is anonymous, thus allowing to surf scare-free. I have used Express VPN in the past and was quite satisfied, though for a cost - about $13 a month.

Downloading a VPN from the internet is a straight-forward process and not unlike downloading any other program. The program is compatible with Mac and PC and takes five minutes to install. A great website to visit to download your VPN is 12vpn where they have a great step by step guide video for you to watch and get started. VyprVPN is also popular.

There is one important thing to remember according to Sarah Palmer, recent traveler to China.

Read up on VPN services before you go, and make sure it's installed before you get there! There were some unlucky forum posters who either went with the first one they could find and ended up with unreliable connections, or ones who didn't try installing at all before getting to China, and the service was blocked completely.

Web Based Proxies

Web based proxies act as an intermediary between your server and another where you can request a file, connection, web page, or other resource from a different server. They are a good alternative to VPNs but many have had problems accessing information and the service can be very slow.

Lee used a web based proxy called Freegate, a free service in the form of a file, and it led her to buy her VPN eventually. Lee had this to add:

I think it is programmed to access various VPN's but does it automatically versus manually. The program does not operate in Mac and is oftentimes very slow. I think I wasted a lot of time waiting for it to work which eventually led me to just bite the bullet and pay for my VPN access.

Web based proxies will probably work for those intending only to spend a short amount of time in China. For those on extended stays the VPNs seem to be more popular, reliable and less frustrating.

Other Alternatives

There are many other alternatives but the less reliable options are always changing so make sure to keep up to date on your reading at the websites above. Hotspot is a downloadable app that has mixed reviews on its compatibility with certain computers and it’s reliability. Securitales is also a low-cost service accessible from China that helps you scale firewalls.

If all else fails you may have to convert all your Facebook friends to the Chinese equivalent Renren, and your Twitter followers to Weibo.

Photo Credit: Spencer E Holtaway on Flickr