Though China pretty much takes the cake for internet censorship, Vietnam is following closely. We can see similarities in the way Facebook was blocked last year in Vietnam. Much like in China, it was suddenly unavailable, then available again, then officially blocked. Loopholes were around for a while (proxies for China, DNS settings changes for Vietnam), and they were slowly closed up. Now for both countries, if you want to unblock sites, send private emails, and maintain some kind of privacy on the internet you've got to have a VPN. So what are the best VPN sites for Vietnam and China?

There are a number of good VPN services around the world - 12VPN, StrongVPN, SwitchVPN, PureVPN, Witopia, MocaVPN, BananaVPN, ibVPN, VyprVPN, and Black Logic are just some of the VPN services that I'm familiar with. They have an extremely wide range of prices, features, subscription lengths, VPN protocols, and levels of customer service.

Which one is the best?

Well, I don't want this to be an advert - so I won't take sides. But I can give you some criteria on how to make our decision.

1. Are other people using it?

This is probably the best way to get started. When I moved to China, I started searching forums and blogs to find out what other people were using. The newer, the better. Though some people have suggested not to discuss these things in forums, I don't think this is a problem. If the communist government of these countries is smart enough to block sites like Facebook and YouTube, then they're smart enough to find out which VPN services work in their country.

2. What VPN protocols to the offer?

PPTP and L2TP are having trouble in China. Though there are some areas that are able to connect to these two VPNs without a problem, and for other areas its kind of hit an miss, you should know that these two VPN protocols are a risk. They are the VPNs most frequently used on mobile phones, and after the political stuff that happened in Egypt earlier this year, it's been in and out with PPTP and L2TP connectivity. You should be looking for OpenVPN. It'll give you more privacy and better data encryption. If you're using an Android phone, you can get an app to get OpenVPN on your phone, and if you're on an iOS system, you can either get a custom PPTP, L2TP, or IPSec VPN, or maybe even use an SSL VPN from the Apple Store.

3. What's been the service's track record in the country?

VPN services providers are usually pretty honest about what kind of service they can provide to specific countries. As I mentioned earlier, there are some services that have custom PPTP and L2TP VPN, and most services will have OpenVPN as an option. Some services, though their main domain has been blocked, have an alternate domain that still works fine - you just have to find it. Check the Google advertisements - the main domain, even if its blocked will show up in the search results, but these services are smart and will have their alternate domain show up in the paid advertisement area of your search results (that beige area on the top/right of Google search results).

You can talk to their support team or send them an email and see what they suggest. The best VPN sites are about privacy and security, so most services will have some option. After all, how is your Chinese or Vietnamese ISP going to find you if you're behind a wall of encryption?