Set up your VPN before you land — you can’t download it in China

📵 Set up your VPN before you land — you can’t download it in China If you use Google, WhatsApp, Instagram or Gmail, don’t leave your VPN until arrival day. THE TRAP VPN websites and the app-store pages for VPN apps mostly won’t load once you’re in China — so landing and trying to download one leaves you stuck with no Google Maps, no WhatsApp and no Instagram. Google Play needs a VPN to work there too, so any missing Android app has the same problem. THE FIX Subscribe, install and sign in at home, on every device you’re taking — then connect once before you board and load a page, to prove it works. If your app offers an obfuscation or stealth mode, switch it on before you travel: plain VPN traffic is spotted and dropped more easily. Before you fly, also download your offline maps, your hotel address in Chinese, and the Google Translate offline Chinese pack — all the things you’ll want on arrival day when the connection is at its worst. ONE MORE TRAP No single VPN works all the time — hotel Wi-Fi, mobile data and sensitive dates all behave differently, and even the best-known ones drop. Keep a second VPN from a different company installed as backup, and save its setup steps and support contact offline: password-reset emails usually go to the Gmail you can’t open without the VPN working. — Kat

Set up your VPN before you land — you can’t download it in China

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