ExpressVPN still works fine for me.

In other words, it may be better for you to come here early, look around at apartments and city areas, and/or plan to live in a cheap hotel when you first arrive, so that you can see what you can get.

How much do you want to spend? And I think you need to be more specific about what furniture and appliances, etc., you want.

@tiger: Good comment - yeah, there's a problem with any global system that produces the kind of global 1% we've got, and China is part of that system.

Lousy behaviour of a top-down command structure - my sympathies.
How far do you think you'd get with a class-action suit, if there are such things here? Have a strong feeling that you're not the only one who has received this kind of treatment.