I actually have a pretty high opinion of Google Translate, and so do our translators, I might add. Sure, it's not cut out for capturing the nuances of Hemingway dialogues and stumbles upon new technical terms (you train it yourself for your needs without too much trouble though), but it usually does a nice job at getting the key points across.

BTW, even when the recent internet crackdown was in full force, I could usually access most google apps on my phone (Unicom) sans VPN... that having been said, I couldn't imagine spending time in China without a VPN these days unless your internet life revolves around taobao, qq, and Chinese news sites (to be fair, MS and Yahoo sites always seem to be in good favor too).