An Accumulation of VPN Frustrations in Shenzhen

Fives days ago I wrote:

I had planned on sharing so much more this week, both in terms of photos and thoughts. And I have more than enough to share. That's not the problem.

I didn't identify the problem though. It had to do with something I mentioned eleven days ago:

Yesterday I spent a lot of time troubleshooting why sometimes websites loaded at decent speeds yet I couldn't upload anything. As I am in mainland China, I wondered if the Great Firewall had something to do with it, since I was using a VPN to access blocked sites.

The problem significantly worsened. Browsing online with my VPN had become painful. And even one inconvenient trick I had found to upload photos no longer worked. However, visiting sites not blocked in China while not using a VPN was rather painless. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever seen video from a U.S. site load so quickly in China before.

I am still not sure what is causing the problem. But I suspect my best hope is in something that has worked in similar cases before: change locations. Fortunately, at least in regards to this issue, I will be doing that soon.

Along with what I wrote five days ago, I also shared a photo of a shirt on sale at Dongmen in Shenzhen. Two days ago at Dongmen I saw somebody wearing the same shirt. Tonight I finally managed to upload it.

And the world turns.