Vimeo is a relatively new video sharing site that you're probably not surprised to find out is blocked in China. Maybe China thinks our videos are lame, and just want to block all forms of western video in China. Regardless of the reasons, the fact that we can't access YouTube and Vimeo in China is a real drag, because it seems like most websites to day embed video in their posts and pages. Any time you download new software, the instructions are accompanied by a video. Any time there's a news even, you can read the article and see whatever it is they're talking about.

Even just general bloggers are catching on to how easy it is to get a video up, so just catching up on your friends blogs means you're going to have to be able to access YouTube or Vimeo from time to time. As a blogger, I know, if you're writing only text blogs, you're going to lose readers. You need entertainment, interactivity, color, and all that good web 2.0 stuff to keep readers. Unfortunately, that means that in China, if you're using Vimeo or YouTube, a lot of your stuff is going to time out. Every time I open up a website, there's always one or two small squares of advertising video or video from the blog that shows up with the classic "The Page Your Requested is Not Available" or "The Server Has Been Redirected" messages.

This is why having a VPN to access YouTube and Vimeo in China is important. Unlike proxies, which are a kind of "on the fly" type tool, that you might want to use every once in a while when you come across a page that's blocked, a VPN will keep you continually connected, and you'll be able to surf the net without having to constantly go back and retype your URL into a secure browser. While proxies are able to stream YouTube videos, it's best to use them for when you go to the YouTube site for the purpose of watching videos. If you're going to do some general browsing, I would suggest connecting to a VPN first. That way, as you surf, all videos you come across will be automatically loaded. Being able to view YouTube and Vimeo in China will make browsing the internet a much smoother and enjoyable experience.

To view Vimeo and YouTube in China on Windows operating systems, you can use OpenVPN or SSTP VPN. OpenVPN requires that you install third party software to get it running, but it's possible to do this on all Windows operating systems, as well as on Mac and Linux. If you're opting for SSTP VPN, you'll only be able to get this working on Vista and Win 7 operating systems.