15 Chinese Versions Of Blocked Apps To Use While Your VPN's Down
Unfortunately, the annual parliamentary sessions in Beijing mean that your VPN will probably be flatlining for the next few days. Lucky for you, we live in the land of copycats. Here are 15 Chinese versions of the most popular blocked sites and apps that you can use to pass the time while you're under digital house arrest. You're welcome.
Movies/TV/Videos
Even fresh-off-the-plane foreigners know about Youku. It's China's answer to Youtube, and has over half the followers with 570 million. Though censorship is pretty stringent, the copyright laws aren't so you'll get a lot more access to entire, uncut movies, TV shows and other programs. It also has unique features like a “buy-what-you-watch” service that allows Youkuers to buy the clothes that the actors on a show are wearing. If you're craving some 'ol fashioned YouTube-style jump cuts, the 拍客 section of Youku (citizen's journalist) has a lot of vloggy content.
For Vine, hit up Meipai, or Miaopai (basically Meipai with longer vids), both of which you can download to your phone using the iTunes app store.
Unfortunately, it looks like you can no longer use Netflix sans-VPN. But you can view a decent movie selection and all your favorite TV shows, from Gotham to Conan, using Sohu. It's also completely legitimate so you can put that guilty conscience to rest. In fact, Sohu is actually spearheading industry efforts to fight piracy and slowly wean Chinese audiences off bootlegs by providing a portal to legal US content. It also beats the hell out of watching some street DVD that looks like it was filmed on a flip-phone and switches between more languages than C-3PO.
For movies, however, we prefer to stream with Xunlei Kan Kan or www.acfun.tv.
Music
No Spotify, no problem. Hit up Chinese Spotify, aka QQ Music, which allows you stream almost any song for free (not including certain songs by big name artists which require you to pay a little extra).
There's also Netease music which might be our favorite service because it offers the most variety. It also features a lot of obscure bands, making it the perfect app for indie music lovers. Both QQ and Netease are great for sharing music on WeChat (but we'll get to that).
Photos
Lofter, the Chinese Instagram.
Search Engines
We're not going to sugar coat it; there's no replacing Google. Baidu is to Google what the Rickshaw is to a Lamborghini. But it will get you from point A to Point B (aka the end of the week when our VPNs will hopefully return good as new).
Just go to www.baidu.com, and get searching. You'll need to translate the page to English, so hit up http://fanyi.baidu.com/, their equivalent of Google Translate. They offer versions of almost all the Google subcategories, including Google Docs (http://wenku.baidu.com/) and Google Scholar (http://cnki.net/).
Social Media/Microblogging
Sina Weibo English.
Dating
Tantan, Tinder with a side of rice.
Shopping/Restaurant Reservations
Yeah, we know Amazon isn't blocked here, but we're recommending Taobao anyway. China's largest online bazaar offers everything you could ever want from electric blankets to gorilla masks to a new wife.
Yelp isn't blocked here either, but it doesn't cover Shanghai. And while Bon App's great for restaurant recommendations, for Chinese, you're gonna want to go with Dianping. Its recommendations are far more reliable than the latter (we're talking Rotten Tomatoes-level) because it has more user reviews with close to 100 million. And it offers comprehensive listings of practically every Chinese restaurant in town. You know that potsticker stall outside your apartment complex? Yeah, it's listed on Dianping (below).
Everything else
WeChat is going to make every other app on this list obsolete in the next couple years (probably people too). It's like a digital T-1000, offering everything from free messages (can't remember the last time I texted someone), a Facebook/Twitter-esque personal feed, free international voice and video calls that connect faster than Facetime or Skype (use them in Wi-Fi areas to avoid charges), and myriads more. Need to stalk singles in your area? Use the 'People Nearby' function. WeChat wallet even gives Alipay a run for its money. And its international base is growing exponentially. We'd tell you to download it, but you already have.