I'm on my 3rd China visit in 18 months and have found that the internet isn't exactly speedy. Browsing to various web sites (typically but not always US sites) is noticeably slower than in other places I visit and connecting to my office in the US through our VPN is an exercise in frustration with things being very slow at best and connections dropping frequently at the worst. Using the VPN in Japan is almost as good as being in my office in the US, but the same thing here results in my being able to get very little done remotely.

This comes as no surprise on the local office DSL/wifi connection I'm using today but it wasn't all that much better at a Qingdao hotel where a speed test showed 65MB download and 35MB upload speeds.

Am I just having bad luck or is it like this for most/all people here? Is any of this due to the monitoring that goes on here and simply can't be avoided? Are there reliable and cost-effective workarounds such as a mifi device? I may be coming back here for a 2-4 week stint and would like to have better internet service if possible.