What's the problem with tom.skype? Same thing, works fine, has cheaper rate plans. I don't see any advantage of using "international skype". You can download int'l skype from thrid party sites.

Except gmail -which i am not using- I know exactly two sites that can't be accessed in China, facebook and youtube. I can live without both of them. Why would you not be able to live without VPN then? Sometimes some sites are slow in responding; I doubt this is pure censorship: On weekends, internet is very slow in my compound, and the reason is most likely the heavy user load the infrastructure cannot cope with. In my experience, however, this has not happen on 3G connections, maybe this can be a backup for those that apparently experience unbearable slow-downs.

In regards to gmail, maybe it is a good idea to switch to something less controversial?