While the Great Wall of China is a bucket list attraction for many, fewer have familiarity with the Great Firewall of China.
I'm truly oversimplifying the topic here, but for ease of travel planning let's say that some years ago, the Chinese government decided that a number of sites and services offered by primarily American tech companies were unacceptable for use by their citizens. The result of which led to, among other things, Google's business being banned in its entirety.
The total ban was achieved through internalization of the entire server network delivering internet access to the whole of China.
That means visitors expecting to access their Android phone services, navigate using Google Maps, check their Gmail inboxes, use live version of Google Translate, watch a travel vlog on YouTube, and even search for things to do using Google search while they're on that very vacation will be made all the more difficult.
An involuntary digital detox?
Some visitors take this opportunity to shut themselves off from the outside world.
China's a busy enough place with 1.4 billion other people there to keep you occupied and learning about something all day, every day; in nearly 3 years of living full-time in China I can count on my one hand how many times outside my home I was actually alone!
Having an easy excuse to put the phone away and just enjoy yourself is an excellent way to enjoy your trip. A sort of mini wellness break or sort of digital detox, if you will.
Like a digital Genghis Khan
Some visitors, however, don't wish to put down the tech and breach the Firewall by subscribing to a trusted VPN service, a Virtual Private Network. Like a modern day Genghis Khan they use commercially available tools to virtually place themselves over, under, around, or through that server wall.
About the time I left China there were crackdowns on various VPN services, much like Netflix sequestering identified users trying to access content from another country.
I would welcome suggestions from more recent visitors or those among China's expatriate community to get around this in a more reasonable way!
I've actually found that Yahoo works best for a search engine there. If your mobile phone is using a US (I would assume EU as well) SIM card you will still have access to your favorite social media platforms as long as you are using cellular data. As soon as you go on WiFi though, it's all blocked. I've used AT&T's $10/day international day pass with great success. It's not LTE speed, but, it's definitely 3G.
I actually like the idea of the digital detox - at least for short term. In my experience as an expat though, it's hard to get by without one! If people need access to Gmail, Google, Facebook, etc, then a VPN is a must. They've cracked down in recent years, but there are a few more reliable options. I currently have about 7-9 services that I pay for specifically because of thise, and out of those I have some recommendations, in case anyone is looking.
#1 - It's an android app, but I think you can use it on PC or other devices if you want, called "WangVPN". It's not only one of the most reliable VPNs but it's also free!
#2 - Wannaflix (wannaflix.com). It uses shadowsocks, which is apparently harder to block. Works great on pc, mac, android, ios. Not too expensive either. It does work best with openvpn, which takes a little bit of figuring out, but if you follow their instructions it's not too hard. As a bonus it also works to unblock Netflix well.
Everything else is pretty hit or miss after that. Nord VPN and Express VPN were my main ones for a while, but they now only connect sometimes, on some devices. You can set them up in openvpn, but even there is hit or miss.
Lantern.org used to be very reliable, but less so now.
Surfshark and VyprVPN are 2 that I've used less, but have as backups. Also hit or miss, but there are different setup options that sometimes work better than others.