Regarding social media in China
 

If you look back through the threads you'll find several discussing VPNs. The number of companies consistently able to cope with the efforts of the Chinese authorities to block them, and who feel the financial investment is worthwhile to continue to do so, is quite small, and you should worry about being able to connect at all with a VPN before worrying about speed.

My experience over several years, but not in very recent times, was that WiTopia successfully kept up, and was open to being questioned on China access before a subscription was paid. While there are annual arrangements, service can also be by the month, which suits the short-term traveller. If an account is opened for use on a computer, then that account can be used once in China for a live chat that will help you make the VPN also work on your phone.

I notice some loss of speed when using the VPN, but have always been able to use social media without difficulty. I haven't attempted, however, to stream video or to upload anything larger than text and image files.

Suggest you inquire at Hong Kong forum site: GeoExpats dot com. Folks there are much more in tune with China and the various current difficulties with technical/online connections.

Although using a VPN is not illegal in China, authorities do what they can to limit access to them. One way they do this is by removing VPN apps from app stores. As with all Google services, Google Play is blocked in China. ... The Apple App Store is still accessible in China, but the VPN apps have been removed.

You might even find that asking the locals to help might be beneficial. I say this because when i was in China in 2017, i saw many teenagers on Instagram openly in cafes and such. They would know the best vpns to use in their own country. I downloaded a bunch of different ones before i entered the country and then tested which one worked the best with the internet i had. I wouldn't be able to tell you what app i used now, but i think it had a rabbit on it.

Peter N-H, is that you? Been a while. Or maybe you are some guy from New Hampshire with an interest in China.

The key is customer support. you want to be able to reach them while there. More often than not, their sites are blocked so reaching them is a hard thing to do. I used ExpressVPN and they have an alternative site. When I had difficulty connecting or with speed, I would contact them and they always had a solution (often directing me to a specific server). Make sure to note how to reach them BEFORE going to China.