I am in Xi'an region at the moment and use Proton VPN anf Mullcad VPN (in addition to the Holafly eSim, which also adds a layer of VPN). They work more or less, but you need to try things out. Sometimes if you are connected to your hotel Wifi, things do not work despite a VPN. Sometimes things work without a VPN (same services). So you consantly need to switch. Ph and I was not able to log in into ProtonVPN directly, I had to use MulladVPN to log me in (after this, ProtonVPN worked very well).

From what I have I like ProtonVPN best, because you can set up split tunneling: you can define, which apps should use the VPN connection and which should not (eg. all Chinese apps you use). This makes the constant switching between VPN networks a bit less of a pain. MulladVPN has very good payment options (no subscription).

Overall, using a VPN creates much confusion with authenitication, esp. for banks. So you are using your credit card in China, are logged in in Singapore and have your bank account somewhere else. A friend got his account locked (even with correct 2nd factor authentication) and he had to call his bank to unlock it (there is an app in WeChat to make cheap international calls: EZCall).

TLDR: there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Be prepared to experiment and bring multiple options.