Two main reasons why Yale VPN is amazing...

So I have been in China for almost three months now, and I must say that one of the necessities of life in China is a VPN (also known as a Virtual Private Network). A VPN will make your computer seem as if it was surfing the internet from the US--allowing your computer to bypass China's Great Firewall. While paid subscriptions to VPN services can cost upwards of several hundred US dollars for six months, Yale is generous enough to provide active students and staff with a free VPN. It works as a program that runs in the background of your computer as you surf the web, and there are some really great reasons why you MUST get this VPN if you choose to go to China.

1) Facebook. (Or Wikipedia. Or Blogger. Or any other blocked site in China.) The Chinese government blocks many US websites for a multitude of politically charged reasons. If you don't have a VPN in China, you won't be able to access any of these sites. And what college student would be able to live without Facebook?

2) Faster loading. Because the VPN makes your computer pretend that it's in America, all American/US-based sites will load MUCH quicker when you have your VPN activated. From NYtimes to Wikipedia to Sephora, you'll notice a huge difference in load time when you turn your VPN on. American websites without the VPN can take almost 30 seconds to load a page. The flipside is that if you attempt to access Chinese websites (Xinhua News, RenRen, etc), it will take you forever to load when your VPN is on. So I have gotten into the habit of turning my VPN on and off depending on what I am doing online.

The VPN is so worth it, and for Yale students, it's free. So ABSOLUTELY get it for your laptop before you leave. While I hear some complaints from people about their VPN malfunctioning or whatever, I have never had any huge problems with it.

Lastly, here is a picture of me Eating With Chopsticks... Egg pancake burrito stuffed with green bean paste and fried tofu (Tianjin). Enjoy.