I also discovered that the big brand VPNs are rubbish. The best thing is to have a dedicated VPN server that only you or a few people know about but it's more costly and difficult to set up. I eventually found a solution that gave me 95% reliability and very fast speeds. The day I started using it my life in China improved by a magnitude of 3. Suddenly I felt like I was at home!
The difficult setup is done for you and works in a way that allows Chinese apps to go direct and foreign apps to use the VPN so no need to disconnect and reconnect each time. If you are deadly serious about your Internet, send me a PM and I'll put you in touch with the right person. They offer trials too.