Peking Over: Ways Around the Great Firewall

If you've lived in China a while, you start to think of the Great Firewall as simply a fact of life: a cultural quirk sometimes and a major pain the ass others. But if this latest YouTube/blog/Wikipedia ban's got you flummoxed (and you're too cheap/poor to get a VPN), check out some of our favourite free ways to get up and over the Great Firewall.

1. Find a good proxy page. Coobai and G-Proxy are good for most sites, but if you're itching to hit up YouTube, give Coolkidsonly or YouTube Proxy a try. Just plug in the address and continue surfing.
2. GLadder. ONLY FOR FIREFOX USERS. Install it in your browser and click the little ladder button to turn it on. Works off a customizable site list, so you won't be redirected through a proxy when you try to reach non-banned sites.
3. Anchorfree. It has some pop-ups, adds an ad banner to every page and it'll sometimes redirect you without warning, but for the most part, it's easy and painfree. Download, install and you're up and running.
4. TOR (The Onion Router). At times a little clumsy and slow, but completely ad-free. Again, all you have to do is download and install.
5. GAppProxy. Google comes to the rescue once again. This isn't the most straightforward fix, but it's reliable and hassle-free once you figure it out. Download the GAppProxy here, then follow these instructions to build yourself a proxy server on the Google App Engine.

Now, if you'll excuse us, we're going to get back to finishing this awesome list.