When I went to China I expected problems so I setup my laptop with an SSL tunnel on port 443 to a virtual server and then routed openvpn over that. It worked like a charm. My favorite feature of openvpn is it can maintain state, so even if the tunnel resets and openvpn has to reconnect all the tcp connections just pick up where they left off.

This will work for a short while, but consistent long term openvpn-matching packets are now seen the the GFW's automated dpi systems, eventually the IP of your non-china VPN endpoint will get blocked.

That sounds much more prepared than I was, I arrived and then wanted a quick solution on the fly, Tor fit the bill nicely.

I would probably use my StrongSwan IPSEC VPN setup to home now that I have one.

What is the difference between this and just having a normal SSH tunnel; for example, how does this differ from using sshuttle?

Openvpn allows you to connect to and have a routable IP on the network. SSH tunnels are great for some things but being logically on a network is another thing.

For one, openvpn can use udp unlike ssh, which means the annoying overhead of double tcp is gone