ExpressVPN not working in China?
You're not doing anything wrong; you're on a list. ExpressVPN runs thousands of servers shared by millions of users, and China's censors subscribe to the same service you do, so every one of those IP addresses eventually lands on the Great Firewall's blocklist. When ExpressVPN stops connecting in China, that's almost always what happened: the servers you can reach are known, and the ones that still work are being found. Below: what to try right now, what's a waste of time, and the structural fix, which is not another shared VPN.
Why it stopped working
The Great Firewall doesn't break encryption; it keeps lists. Commercial VPNs advertise their server locations, run them on identifiable data-center ranges, and share each IP among thousands of subscribers. Censors sign up, connect, note the address, and block it, at scale, continuously. ExpressVPN also gets fingerprinted at the protocol level, which is why its obfuscation modes exist and why they degrade as the fingerprinting catches up. The app that connected in March fails in June not because it broke but because the list grew. ExpressVPN holds up better than most, thanks to its Lightway protocol and mirror sites, which is exactly why its failures feel sudden: it was working, then a block wave landed.
What to try tonight
- Switch protocols in settings, then switch server locations: Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and US-West are usually the best bets from China, and the newest or least-advertised servers last longest.
- Turn on the obfuscation or stealth option if your plan has one; it disguises VPN traffic and sometimes buys days.
- Switch networks: hotel wifi and cellular are filtered differently. Try both, and try roaming data on your home SIM, which exits through your home carrier and bypasses the firewall on cellular entirely.
- Don't reinstall or update. The App Store and ExpressVPN's own site are unreachable from inside China; an uninstall is permanent until you leave.
What won't help
Reinstalling (you can't), waiting for a fix (the provider is playing whack-a-mole too), and switching to another big-brand VPN from inside China (you can't download it, and it has the same shared-IP problem anyway). If ExpressVPN has fallen over for you, a roaming eSIM purchased over hotel wifi is the one genuinely new option available from inside, since the QR arrives by email; see eSIM or VPN for China.
The structural fix, for next time
The setups that keep working in China share one property: you're not on an IP address that thousands of strangers also use. Self-hosting gives you that (our guide, ~$5/month, some tinkering). Traveler's VPN gives you that without the tinkering: a private server provisioned for you alone, an IP no one else has, so there's nothing for the blocklist to have learned. Its routing also sends only blocked apps through the tunnel, while WeChat, Alipay, and Didi stay direct, which ExpressVPN's single-switch iOS app can't do. Our full comparison with ExpressVPN is here, and it's honest about where ExpressVPN is the better choice.
Legality note: troubleshooting a VPN inside China is what millions of expats do daily; the enforcement record concerns sellers, not users. Our honest legality page has the details.
Frequently asked
Why does ExpressVPN work in some cities and not others?
Blocking is applied unevenly across networks and regions, and updates roll out over days. A server dead on Shanghai hotel wifi may still work on a Chengdu cellular network. It's noise, not a pattern you can rely on.
Can I get a refund from ExpressVPN for China?
Check ExpressVPN's money-back window and its China support wording; most big providers say China isn't guaranteed. Ask, but don't count on it.
Does ExpressVPN's Lightway protocol help in China?
It's one of the reasons ExpressVPN connects more often than most; switching between Lightway UDP and TCP is the first thing to try. It doesn't change the shared-IP problem underneath.
Should I just switch to a private server?
For China specifically, a server with an IP nobody else uses is the reliability difference. Traveler's VPN provisions one per user; self-hosting does the same for the technically inclined.
