The Internet in China, or A is for ASTRILL

It's a new year, and it's time to take stock, set goals, and do a quick look over the previous year.  We've adjusted to living in another new culture pretty well, but our hopes of getting much better internet in China have been dashed by the government.  Well, I suppose the government would ostensibly say it was the protesters in Hong Kong's fault, but let's get real:  The Chinese government gets in my technology business a lot more than I'd like.  I was given sage advice from the Chengdu Panda to arm myself with a private VPN before I got to the country, which I did with Astrill, the most widely used way around the government sanctions on such common sites as Google, iTunes, the New York Times, etc. I adjusted to remembering to have the VPN on whenever I wanted to access certain American sites, and to turn it off when using local sites. Then the Hong Kong protests happened in the fall, and the government retaliated by flexing their techie muscles by breaking up my connections with DropBox and Instagram.
It seems the protestors were using Instagram in particular as a way to send communication.  I was ready to take an oath that I didn't care what happened in Hong Kong if they would just let me use Instagram, or at least see others's posting, but no deals were to be had.  Also, I actually DID care, but I wouldn't share that with the Chinese, either.
I went to see our in-house IT staff at school, where there is an authorized Apple store in the foyer, btw.  They all shook their heads sadly and plainly told me what I didn't want to hear:  They have the same problems, it's the government, and there's not a good way around this one.  My Instagram and Wanderlust and Dropbox had been jammed, and they had attacked both my computer and my smart phone.  The problem was, the usual solution of trashing the app and reinstalling it was that those apps no longer appear in the Apps Store in iTunes, which, by the way, the Chinese government seems to have really big issues with.
I foolishly decided to leave my computer behind on this vacation (never again) but at soon as I got to Hong Kong, I was able to rectify all problems on my smart phone because the Internet space there is open, not tinkered with by the Chinese government.  So even though most people believe the current new Internet "issues" are the direct result of Hong Kong protesters, Hong Kong is not affected at all.  Go figure. Which leads me to believe that perhaps what the government really wants is for the Chinese people on the mainland to not be able to access the stuff from and/or about the Hong Kong protesters.  I'm only guessing, but it's what makes sense to me.
I have high hopes that perhaps I will once again be able to use Instagram, but let's see how long that lasts.  You would think all this trouble would make me want to use the Internet less, but not at all.  It's just a fact of life in China that you may or may not be able to access certain things, and it's best to get wily and stay on high alert about upcoming "issues".  It's the best I have in the way of a goal for the new year!