For many years, I have always known that Facebook and YouTube were barred from China. It has been several years since my last trip to this great country and I could still recall how I have always tried to see if I could access these sites with a 99% fail rate unless I connect to a VPN.
Gone were those days, surprisingly! I was in Shenzhen/Dongguan just earlier this year and I was quite surprised at just how connected I was to my beloved social media app on my iPhone! Whilst in the past I had a 99% fail rate, I probably had a 70% success rate this trip! According to a 2013 article, China allowed some metropolitan area to have access to Facebook. Has the permitted area grown in 2017?
I could connect on…
*Using my 4G connection whilst on roaming on my Australian mobile number
*Wifi connection in one of my hotel (a local 5-star hotel) except for one afternoon
*Wifi at a Pacific Coffee outlet
I failed at…
*Wifi at restaurants and another local 5-star hotel
My brother who was with me had an Android phone and he had no luck whatsoever!
I am not quite sure what this means. Could it be because I was closer to Hong Kong than the rest of the country? Or could it be that I had an iPhone? If you had similar experiences, do leave some comments below.
