Emails i get from my vpn provider is censors are countering all their actions to restore service very quickly and do not offer much encouragement for future change. They made changes last weekend and service was good for 2 days and then monday hit and service was gone again.

I love youtube. I cannot live without it for extended periods of time.

This is unacceptable.

@Magnifico
As a long-term non-VPN user in KM I can assure you the cravings do eventually diminish, after a few months. Cold-turkey is rough - use YouKu if the pain gets too much and gradually reduce the dosage. You can do it. You know it makes sense....

Ocean, I agree. But not having any access at all is annoying. Youku doesn't have the stuff I like to watch on youtube.

Apparently there is new learn and block technology on the GFW
www.guardian.co.uk/[...]

news.yahoo.com/[...]

In July, the American Chamber of Commerce in China said 74 percent of companies that responded to a survey said unstable Internet access "impedes their ability to do business."

Chinese leaders "realize there are detrimental impacts on business, especially foreign business, but they have counted the cost and think it is still worthwhile," said Lam. "There is no compromise about the political imperative of controlling the Internet."

I've been spending months in preparation for my KM move and I've pretty much conceded on all changes I will have to expect. But this internet thing is the one last item that lingers... Perhaps if I did not already know that my stay would be no longer than 2 years I might reconsider, but I figure I can survive 2 years with restricted internet access.

I do hope I will have occasional unrestricted access through some back doors. For instance, I have a bunch of music production apps on my tablet that would benefit from occasional updates even if it is just WiFi and not 3G/4G. Any information on the possibility of updating through Google Play or from the Apple Store?

The internet restrictions mostly affect news, video upload, and social networking sites. This is to ring fence political views.
I have no problems with my regular updates from any apps.
But others may have experienced a problem with some.

I went several weeks with my VPN being fairly stable, but now it's back to resetting every few hours - sometimes less.

Yes they do seem to be cracking down on VPNs.