We may earn affiliate commissions for the recommended products. Learn more

Astrill in China in 2024

astrill china

Most of the time, when we’re talking about a VPN that’s best for a specific task, you can take one from the elite VPNs list and be almost sure it will work. But when it comes to overcoming the Great Firewall, the odds worsen. According to a Freedom House report, for the third consecutive year, China has been the world’s worst abuser of internet freedom.

So it should come as no surprise that a recently-functional VPN may suddenly be powerless against the red barricade. And the situation shows no sign of changing in the foreseeable future, with online access becoming increasingly constricted. In August 2018, the BBC moved from HTTP to the secure HTTPS protocol, which resulted in another ban in China. As HTTPS becomes the standard protocol, we can expect to see these restrictive policies continue. The BBC itself recommends its readers to use a VPN – you believe the BBC, don’t you? Better get one if you want to stay online in China. But is using Astrill in China advised or ill-advised?

Sadly, there’s no easy way to test Astrill in China as it has neither a free trial nor a money-back guarantee. This means you will have to buy Astrill VPN without first checking if it works. We recommend getting it on your computer or smartphone before going to China because the access to its website is likely blocked.

4 points to consider when choosing a VPN in China

checklist for vpn in china

Every VPN needs to have top-level security, good speed, and an easy to use client. Ideally, all of this should come for a reasonable price. Yet there are also four specific points to consider more carefully if you’re planning to use a VPN in China:

  1. The number of servers in Asia
  2. The number of servers on the US West Coast
  3. The protocols available for each platform
  4. The quality of customer support

Does Astrill meet all four criteria of a China-worthy VPN?

Astrill has 3000+ servers in 57 countries. While the servers are spread pretty wide, server count might give some doubts for the wannabe VPN user. Therefore we must point out that the total number of servers is by no means a good way to determine which services provide better connectivity.

Quite often, it comes down to server load. And the more popular VPN, the more users will be squeezing in. But most importantly, Astrill owns all of its servers and doesn’t use virtual ones, beating quantity with quality.

To illustrate this, we tested Astrill VPN vs NordVPN from another continent, connecting to three countries in Asia – Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea – to see which fares better. We used two speed test servers for each country, but one of them had to be “Taiwan Mobile.”

The VPN-less test showed 87 Mbps download and 92 Mbps upload (rounded up).

vpn speed results

As predicted, NordVPN demonstrated very good results as well: 25-26 Mbps download in all three countries and 11-14 Mbps upload, save for Taiwan where the speed imploded and went down to less than 1 Mbps.

vpn speed test

But when the time for Astrill VPN came, we wouldn’t have thought we would see something like this: 3 out of 6 tests showed download speeds of 70 Mbps or more, and 2 test results fell between 37 and 43 Mbps! Now imagine what would happen if you used Astrill’s VIP servers (read about them below) to enhance connectivity in Asia! Unfortunately, all upload numbers were disappointing, not reaching even 2 Mbps.

vpn speed testing

While such results are far from final, they seem logical – Astrill VPN, being a household name in China, shows stellar speeds.

Astrill VPN servers in Asia

In Asia, Astrill VPN has servers in 20 locations across 11 countries. While it’s unclear how many servers exactly does Astrill has in this continent, the point is that they work really well, providing fast speeds. Here’s the full country and location list of Astrill VPN servers in Asia:

  • Japan – 2
  • Taiwan – 4
  • Hong Kong – 1
  • Indonesia – 1
  • India – 5
  • South Korea – 2
  • Malaysia – 1
  • Pakistan – 1
  • Singapore – 1
  • Thailand – 1
  • Vietnam – 1
Astrill VPN server location map

On the map above you can see two dots marking the territory of Astrill in China, yet these local servers are not on the list – those are the VIP dedicated servers you can order from Astrill (more on that later).

Astrill VPN servers on the US West Coast

There are chances you will get the best speed using US West coast servers, and the best ones to choose are those conveniently named “China optimized.” The free Android version gives us 1, while the paid one gives 3.

As always, you should test which server works best for you, as it can also depend on the date and time, and most importantly – on the takedown target chosen by the Great Firewall guardsmen on that day.

Astrill VPN protocols that work in China

Astrill VPN protocols in China

While the servers and your ISP are the two main factors determining connection speed and stability, protocols are also important, especially when it comes to China. Astrill VPN offers a wide protocol selection for desktop users – OpenVPN, WireGuard, StealthVPN, OpenWeb, L2TP/IPSec, IKEv2/IPsec, SSTP, and PPTP.

There have been multiple reports about China using Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) to block OpenVPN traffic. Astrill VPN has the aforementioned StealthVPN protocol, which allows bypassing DPI.

Android users have OpenWeb as the default protocol, but it’s suited only for browsing. That’s probably the reason why Astrill doesn’t offer browser extensions. So while OpenWeb works reasonably well in China (though its security has not been tested that well compared to OpenVPN), it’s not suitable for torrents and any other non-browser activities. Luckily, StealthVPN is also available on Android. Speaking of this OS, you should be aware that a DNS leak has been reported in the Android version awhile ago, but our test hasn’t found anything.

Speed of Astrill-China tunnel

When using Astrill in China, expect good to very good speeds, which is in part due to the number of servers around and their longtime experience working in this region.

For even more speed, you can buy a VIP plan from Astrill for $12.50/month. This will allow you to access “exclusive VIP VPN dedicated servers,” which sounds cooler than passing the face-control at The Oscars after-party. It costs a pretty penny, but the speed you will get will probably be the best you can get in China. Why? Because these VIP servers were created specifically for users in Asia. Therefore, the majority of them are located in… Asia! Hong Kong, Taiwan, USA, Japan, Singapore, Korea, China – this all looks great, and we already know that US servers can also give good speeds.

What’s more, VIP servers offer advanced security with the multi-hop VPN feature. Find more about it in our Astrill VPN review.

Talking about the connection reliability, we would say it’s OK but cannot be compared to Surfshark or NordVPN, at least while you’re not in that VIP mode.

Support for those who use Astrill in China

So we know already about the servers and the protocols, now what about the support, which can quickly become invaluable in China?

Astrill VPN offers 24/7 live chat. The agents can be a bit slow to answer, but they always do their best to solve your issue. You can also check the FAQ first – this often proves to be the quickest path to a solution.

There’s also an option to submit a ticket via the contact form, and the answer shouldn’t take longer than a few hours. If that fails, there’s a comprehensive list of support manuals and tutorials on Astrill’s website for you to try solving things on your own.

Is Astrill-China a match, or a match between them?

astrill vpn for china

While Astrill is certainly good enough to be mentioned in anyone’s TOP 10 VPNs list despite its price and lack of money-back guarantee, it still has the reputation of a popular and efficient VPN to be used only in China. We believe this is about to change.

The fact that Astrill is a known Chinese VPN league player is a blessing and a curse. A curse, because the Chinese government targets them and tries to block them (they draw too much attention compared to a new service). There have been multiple attempts to block Astrill, which means the Chinese government is working to make sure this popular option is no longer popular.

On the other hand, Astrill VPN has years of experience working in this tough market segment. That’s why we are sure it will continue to be an option not only for the hardcore fans but also for the newcomers who are willing to spend some money to access their VIP servers. Those who always remember to look at the price tag before buying might feel the urge to look elsewhere.

Do we recommend Astrill for China?

In conclusion, we do recommend Astrill for China, unless you already are a long-time subscriber of another VPN and have no issues with it. If not, you shouldn’t be against paying a bit extra to get the maximum possible speed and great security, which are two essential things to have when using the internet in this country. Astrills’ VIP dedicated servers can further increase connectivity and allow quality local connection to the Chinese servers. Using any free VPN in China is ill-advised, except for TunnelBear that unfortunately has a strict 500 MB bandwidth limit.

Whatever you choose, make sure your decision is based on the latest information about the top VPNs for China. It’s one thing when you cannot check your Facebook feed while on a beach in Thailand, and quite another when you cannot get to vital business information when in a Chinese metropolis. This is also about the connection speed – there’s not much use paying for some “Bang for the buck VPN 2024” winner if your torrent will finish downloading in the Year of Porcupine, which is never.

6 comments
default-avatar.

Your email address will not be published.   Required fields are marked *


  1. nicholasthemad
    nicholasthemad April 29, 2019 at 3AM

    China is a list of a handful of places I absolutely refuse to travel. I do a lot of travelling abroad just because my work allows me to, but their barbaric internet laws mean that I will never ever spend a dime in their country until those laws are changed. I don’t even trust it with a VPN.



  2. Ray Taylor
    Ray Taylor March 22, 2019 at 5PM

    When it comes to servers in Asia, Astrill is probably in the top 3 out there. I think that it’s actually the best service for Asia. Although it may lack in other areas, for China, Astrill is one of the best choices.



  3. Zi Tien
    Zi Tien February 17, 2019 at 9AM

    The smoothest, most reliable, cohesive VPN I’ve ever tried. I’ve been using it for close to 3 years now and I’ve never had a problem.



  4. Charles Marco
    Charles Marco February 7, 2019 at 10AM

    I think China is not being fare.

    What country stops its citizens from interacting with the rest of the world through the internet? I heard one can’t even use common google not to talk of Facebook or intagram. This is absolute bullshit. Please I need other recommendations just in case Astril fails because I am visiting china by month end and I can’t afford not to interact via social media



  5. Diana Lovelace
    Diana Lovelace December 16, 2018 at 4AM

    I’m a political science student and I’m doing some research on Internet freedom in China. I was planning on writing a section on how people can bypass the restrictions, and this article was really helpful! Thanks a lot 🙂


      1. Karol Wojcik
        Karol Wojcik December 19, 2018 at 10AM

        You’re welcome. We’re actually working on a 3-part series on modern China’s approach to surveillance and censorship, and how to get around those. You can read them here:



Thanks for your opinion!
Jump to section