Last month would have been close to impossible. The leadup to the Tiananmen anniversary would see stronger crackdowns on VPN use.

Express VPN work.

Most of Tech Organizations have deal with Govt to allow them to access google & gmail.

Best bet is to get International data roaming then use your phone to check email etc. If you are transiting via Singapore would recommend you to get a Singapore sim which supports international data roaming and using it in China.

A bunch work, you have to rotate thru them and have some self-hosted too I hear from friends. DWeb can't come quickly enough.

I've been to China a couple of times and ExpressVPN works most of the time for me. However the most reliable way to have a decent connection was Algo VPN deployed to AWS. It was far superior both in terms of reliability and in terms of speed.

I tried this recently (Algo with wireguard) and it was probably the most reliable way, but still blocked very quickly on some ISPs, for example it never worked through my China Telecom phone.

Thanks! I will try out Algo VPN. I had no idea AWS works in China.