I frequently need access to SSH, FTP, our version control stuff (Vault... yuck), and then basic chat, email and web access. Working from China means dealing with pretty bad lag at times though that isn't a major issue as I am not dealing with video or gaming or remote desktops or anything heavy like that. I will sometimes run into the Great Firewall but have no trouble doing what the Chinese do (using anonymous proxy servers or setting up Tor) to get around such things. Tor and proxies slow things down pretty bad but they are better than nothing and are only needed occasionally as the sites I am accessing are rarely blocked. In addition to Tor and random anonymous proxies I have also tried using Hamachi. It worked to a certain extent but was eventually blocked (I suspect) by the Great Firewall and frankly, it just gives me visual access to my home desktop... something I would really rather access via SSH anyway as SSH is fast and my Unix-foo is adequate. So, that is what I have done in the past, now...

What sorts of advice do you folks have for how to work as effectively as possible from within China? I will not have access to a private company's network so that is out of the question. My access comes from the wireless I have set up in my apartment in China (Hangzhou... sweet city) or from access at Starbucks (yeah, I know... perhaps I will carry a small bottle of Massengill in my bag). So, have any of you worked from inside China? If so, where? Any practical tips you have are most appreciated as I will have a reasonably heavy workload (mostly PHP, MySQL) this summer and will want to be as efficient as possible. Thanks!