I remember talking to someone in Cuba in 2014 and learning that it's common for folks to buy black-market DVDs containing scraped copies of major news outlets and parts of Wikipedia.
I wonder what the spectrum of weird hacks of that nature are going on in China beyond just a VPN solution.
I have software engineer co-workers who have to battle the nightmare caused by the Great Chinese Firewall everyday and they are sick of living in China ... personally I could not stand working there either ... one day this will change
Chinese Wikipedia has a comprehensive guide (in Chinese) on circumventing the Great Firewall to access Wikipedia:
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%E8%AE%...
In case you are affected by the block, you can read the guide on any of these Wikipedia mirrors:
https://zh.wikiredia.com/index.php?wiki=%E5%B8%AE%E5%8A%A9%3...
https://zh.wiki.sxisa.org/wiki/Help:%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%E8%AE...
https://zh.jinzhao.wiki/wiki/Help:%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%E8%AE%B...
https://zh.iwiki.ml/wiki/Help:%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%E8%AE%BF%E9...
https://zh.wikipedia.ryancray.com/wiki/Help:%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%...